command.com

i have a problem booting up my computer. it say type in the name of your command line interpreter eg.C\Windows\command.com. when i do that it says windows 95 and takes me to the c prompt. how do i get windows to open.

Well if you're getting to a command prompt, try typing this:

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C:\>win

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and see if Windows starts. It might do, but it might not if your path info isn't set up.

Sounds like either command.com has got lost, or the path in your autoexec.bat has got changed.

From the sounds of it, you're typing in C:\Windows\command.com as suggested, yes? Check in the file c:\autoexec.bat and see what it's setting your path to. It will be something along the lines of:

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SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\UTILS

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I doubt it will actually look the same as that but something similar.

When you get to the C:\> prompt, enter this to find command.com:

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C:\>dir command.com /s

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check what directory name(s) come up. It will probably be found in C:\WINDOWS in which case you need to make sure C:\WINDOWS is in your path, set in autoexec.bat.

You make sure of that by adding

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SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\WINDOWS

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to autoexec.bat.

how do i check the autoexec.bat file. i typed in autoexec.bat and nothing happened. and do i set the path exactly how you wrote it.

Well its probably easiest if you post the contents of your autoexec.bat file. Since you're posting this, I'm guessing you have a second computer?

autoexec.bat is located in the root directory, c:\

If you put a floppy disk in the disk drive and type at the prompt:

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C:\>copy c:\autoexec.bat a:\

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that will copy the file to the floppy disk. Then if you put the disk in whichever copmuter you're using for internet access, you can open the autoexec.bat file using Notepad (it's a plain text format file) and copy & paste the contents of the file into a post here on this forum. Then we can take a look and see what could be wrong :)

It sounds like your main problem is that you're unfamiliar with DOS, so if you feel confident in editing it yourself in Notepad feel free. Once you have changed the contents, save the file to disk and put it back in your old computer.

It's a good idea to make a backup of the file first, so in your problem computer type:

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C:\>copy c:\autoexec.bat c:\autoexec.bak

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that will make a backup copy called autoexec.bak.

then copy your modified autoexec.bat file from the disk like this:

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C:\>copy a:\autoexec.bat c:\

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and when it prompts you to overwrite the file press 'y'.

You can edit the file on the old computer if you don't want to paste the contents of the file up here. just type this:

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C:\>edit c:\autoexec.bat

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The only problem with that is that Edit is a program that might not be included in your path settings, so you may have to find the file first and qualify the file name with its full path.

Since you don't seem too comfortable with DOS it might be a bit complicated to edit it on that machine. If you want to edit it on the oroginal machine, just say and I can try to explain it a little better.

here it is, help.

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@ECHO OFF
REM                         
REM             
REM                         
PATH C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\OFFICE;c:\windows;c:\windows\command;c:\dos
if exist toscd001 LH c:\windows\command\mscdex /L:D /D:TOSCD001 /M:10

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okay, see if you can find command.com on the computer, and make sure that the directory it's in is included in that list of paths.