Microsoft KB Archive/76803

= Novell Causes &quot;Cannot Load COMMAND.COM&quot; After Upgrading MS-DOS =

Article ID: 76803

Article Last Modified on 11/16/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q76803



SYMPTOMS
After you upgrade a Novell workstation to a later version of MS-DOS, the following error message may be displayed after you start or exit an application:

Cannot Load COMMAND.COM



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, do one of the following:  Verify that the SHELL statement is present in the CONFIG.SYS file and remove the Novell COMSPEC definition (the COMMAND.COM location) from the personal login script.

NOTE: You need supervisor privileges to modify the COMSPEC setting in the system login script. -or-

 If COMSPEC is set in the system login script, you can change your personal login script to set COMSPEC to the new COMMAND.COM. For example:

comspec=c:\dos\

-or-

 Copy the COMMAND.COM file from the root directory to the Windows directory. (This is a temporary workaround only and should not be used as a final solution.)



MORE INFORMATION
The Novell COMSPEC variable is contained in the network login script and can be defined by a two-line entry similar the following:

MAP S2:=SYS:PUBLIC\%MACHINE_TYPE\%OS\%OS_VERSION

COMSPEC=S2:COMMAND.COM

In this example, the %MACHINE_TYPE variable is set by the SHELL.CFG file and the %OS_VERSION and %OS variables are set by the Novell Shell (based on the version of MS-DOS used to boot the workstation). A search drive (which is the same as having it in the path) then maps to this directory. If a workstation is booted from an MS-DOS 5.0 workstation, the mapping may look like this:

SEARCH DRIVE S2=Y:\PUBLIC\IBM_PC\MSDOS\V5.00

In this case, using the SET command at the MS-DOS command prompt would result in the following:

COMSPEC=Y:\COMMAND.COM

The &quot;Cannot Load COMMAND.COM&quot; error message occurs when you exit an application as control is returned to MS-DOS and the COMMAND.COM file cannot be located.

To correct the problem, make sure that the CONFIG.SYS file contains the following line

shell= \ \command.com \ \ /p

where is the drive that contains the MS-DOS directory and files or the drive that contains COMMAND.COM and is the appropriate MS-DOS directory that contains COMMAND.COM.

Remove the three COMSPEC-related entries from the login script, reboot the computer, and log back on to the network. For the procedure to modify the Novell login script, consult your Novell documentation, the network administrator, or Novell Technical Support.

The products included here are manufactured by Novell, Inc., a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

Additional query words: 6.22 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20 3rdparty login

Keywords: KB76803

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