Minimal Install Does Not Set COMSPEC to Upgraded COMMAND.COM (75379)


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
  • 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 Q75379

SUMMARY

Upon completing a minimal installation of MS-DOS using "a:setup /m", renaming the .NEW files, and rebooting your computer, you may receive the following message, at which time the computer hangs:
Bad or missing command interpreter

MORE INFORMATION

Setup renames the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and a CONFIG.SYS file during minimal installation, giving them a new file extension of .NEW. Setup then modifies the AUTOEXEC.NEW and CONFIG.NEW files. Setup includes the following line in CONFIG.SYS:

shell=c:\dos\command.com c:\dos\ /p

and remarks out any COMSPEC variable in AUTOEXEC.BAT as follows: 
   rem set comspec=[drive:][path]filename
However, "setup /m" only copies the upgraded COMMAND.COM file to the root directory. It leaves the old COMMAND.COM file from the previous version of DOS in the DOS subdirectory, even though it sets the new COMSPEC variable there.

To correct this problem, boot with the Uninstall disk or an MS-DOS system disk, and then copy the upgraded COMMAND.COM file from the root directory or the Uninstall/system disk to the DOS directory.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:5/12/2003
Keywords:KB75379
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