Microsoft KB Archive/75379

= Minimal Install Does Not Set COMSPEC to Upgraded COMMAND.COM =

Article ID: 75379

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 Q75379



SUMMARY
Upon completing a minimal installation of MS-DOS using &quot;a:setup /m&quot;, 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, &quot;setup /m&quot; 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.

Additional query words: 6.22 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20

Keywords: KB75379

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