How to Increase MS-DOS Environment Space (33449)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.1
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.2
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.21
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3a
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.0
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.01
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q33449

SYMPTOMS

You receive an "out of environment space" error.

CAUSE

The "out of environment space" error can occur when there are many set commands or a long path statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

RESOLUTION

You can change the available environment space by putting the following line in the CONFIG.SYS file: 
   shell=c:\command.com /e:<size> /p
To set the environment to 256 bytes, use one of the following lines: 
   MS-DOS Version          Configuration Command
   ---------------------------------------------
   3.00 or 3.10            shell=command.com /e:16 /p
   3.20 or later           shell=command.com /e:256 /p

MORE INFORMATION

The /e:<size> parameter specifies the environment size, where <size> is the size in bytes or in multiples of 16 bytes.

The term "paragraph" is used to refer to these 16 bytes.

For MS-DOS versions 3.0 and 3.1, size is in multiples of 16 bytes that you want to reserve for the MS-DOS environmental variables, ranging from 10 to 62 paragraphs (160 to 992 bytes).

For MS-DOS versions 3.2 and later, the size is the actual number of bytes, ranging from 160 to 32,768 bytes. MS-DOS rounds the specified size up to the next logical paragraph boundary.

For MS-DOS versions 3.2x, 3.3x, 4.0, 4.01, and 4.01a, the default size is 160 bytes.

For MS-DOS version 5.0 and later, the default size is 256 bytes.

NOTE: Attempting to use the /e:<size> parameter without the forward slash (/) results in the following error message at bootup:
Too many parameters
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:5/12/2003
Keywords:KB33449
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