SYMPTOMS
If your AUTOEXEC.BAT file contains PATH statement(s) which evaluate to a
very long PATH variable (greater than approximately 1024 characters), after
you log on, the resulting PATH variable will not reflect those PATH
statement(s). For example, if your AUTOEXEC.BAT file contains the
following lines:
.
.
.
PATH c:\directory1;c:\directory2;c:\directory3;c:\directory4;c:\directory5
PATH %path%;%path%;%path%;%path%;c:\directory6
PATH %path%;%path%;%path%;%path%;c:\directory7
.
.
.
after logging on, the PATH variable will contain only the values specified
in the registry. When this happens, a new environment variable named
"AutoexecPath" is created with the value specified by the PATH statement(s)
in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
If your PATH statement(s) evaluate to an even longer PATH variable, logging
on will cause WINLOGON.EXE to terminate, resulting in this STOP message:
STOP: 0xC000021A {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly
with a status of 0xC0000005. The system has been shutdown.