Microsoft KB Archive/282064

= Error Message: &quot;Invalid COMMAND.COM Cannot Load COMMAND System Halted&quot; =

Article ID: 282064

Article Last Modified on 3/1/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 2
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 1
 * Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 2

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This article was previously published under Q282064



SYMPTOMS
When you exit an MS-DOS-based program, such as Edit, you may receive the following error message:

Invalid COMMAND.COM

Cannot load COMMAND, system halted

After you receive the error message, the MS-DOS window appears to stop responding (hang).



CAUSE
This behavior occurs because the ComSpec environment variable is not set to a valid Cmd.exe file.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, close the MS-DOS window by following either of these methods.

Method 1

 * 1) If you are not already in the MS-DOS window, press ALT+ENTER.
 * 2) Click the Close button at the top-right corner of the MS-DOS window.
 * 3) On the End Program window, click End Now.

Method 2

 * 1) Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
 * 2) Click Task Manager.
 * 3) Select the hung program, click End Task, and then click End Now.

To prevent this problem from occurring, refer to the &quot;More Information&quot; section in this article.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.



MORE INFORMATION
To prevent this problem from occurring, follow these steps:  Click Start, click Run, type NOTEPAD %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT, and then click OK. Remove the entire ComSpec line in the Autoexec.nt file. The line will look similar to the following sample:

ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\COMMAND.COM

 Correct the ComSpec environment variables in the System properties. To do so, follow these steps:  Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Double-click the System icon, click the Advanced tab, and then click Environment Variables.</li> Highlight the ComSpec line, and then click Edit at the bottom of the window.</li> Make sure the Variable Value id set to:

%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe

</li></ol> </li></ol>

Keywords: kberrmsg kbbug kbpending KB282064

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