Microsoft KB Archive/33449

= How to Increase MS-DOS Environment Space =

Article ID: 33449

Article Last Modified on 11/16/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.1
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.3 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.3a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 4.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 4.01 Standard Edition
 * 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 Q33449



SYMPTOMS
You receive an &quot;out of environment space&quot; error.



CAUSE
The &quot;out of environment space&quot; error can occur when there are many set commands or a long path statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.



RESOLUTION
You can change the available environment space by putting the following line in the CONFIG.SYS file:   shell=c:\command.com /e: /p To set the environment to 256 bytes, use one of the following lines:   MS-DOS Version          Configuration Command -  3.00 or 3.10            shell=command.com /e:16 /p 3.20 or later          shell=command.com /e:256 /p



MORE INFORMATION
The /e: parameter specifies the environment size, where is the size in bytes or in multiples of 16 bytes.

The term &quot;paragraph&quot; is used to refer to these 16 bytes.

For MS-DOS versions 3.0 and 3.1, size is in multiples of 16 bytes that you want to reserve for the MS-DOS environmental variables, ranging from 10 to 62 paragraphs (160 to 992 bytes).

For MS-DOS versions 3.2 and later, the size is the actual number of bytes, ranging from 160 to 32,768 bytes. MS-DOS rounds the specified size up to the next logical paragraph boundary.

For MS-DOS versions 3.2x, 3.3x, 4.0, 4.01, and 4.01a, the default size is 160 bytes.

For MS-DOS version 5.0 and later, the default size is 256 bytes.

NOTE: Attempting to use the /e: parameter without the forward slash (/) results in the following error message at bootup:

Too many parameters

Additional query words: 6.22 3.00 3.10 3.20 3.30 3.30a 4.00 4.01 4.01a 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20

Keywords: KB33449

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