Invalid SET TEMP Prevents Operation of Task Swapper (74174)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
  • Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
This article was previously published under Q74174

SUMMARY

If the SET TEMP statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file is invalid, MS-DOS 5.0 Shell Task Swapper may not function properly. If this is the case, you will observe the following symptoms:
  • When you press CTRL+ESC to return to Shell from an application, the following error message may be displayed:
    Your program cannot be swapped out to disk
  • An application may not start from Shell. In this event, a blank screen may appear for a few moments, followed by a return to Shell.

MORE INFORMATION

There are two reasons that a SET TEMP statement might be invalid:
  • SET TEMP is pointing to a directory that doesn't exist. Common examples of this situation include the following:

    • SET TEMP is pointing to a directory on a RAM drive without RAMDRIVE.SYS being loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file.
    • The directory referenced by SET TEMP was included in a Stacker incremental installation. (Stacker does not re-create empty directories.)
    • The hard drive was repartitioned, and SET TEMP now points to a logical drive that no longer exists.
  • SET TEMP will be invalid if the SET TEMP command line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file contains a trailing space. For example, the final "P" in the following SET TEMP statement should be the last character in the line. If there are any blank spaces after the last character, the SET TEMP line is invalid. For example:

    set temp=c:\windows\temp

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:10/14/2003
Keywords:KB74174
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.