So far, no luck reproducing this. Something must be different. I tried a default config and set the compile command to "echo %f". Start SlickEdit (vs project.vpw file.cpp) and press Shift+F10 to compile. Works fine. I tried the "(other)" project and a couple others. Works fine. I also tried Brief emulation which uses Alt+F10 for project-compile. Still works find right after startup.
I don't know what's different. If you create a new toy project, do you still get the problem? If you try a default config ("vs -sc <tempconfigdir> ..."), do you still get the problem?