Config.sys and missing Shell Statement

[John Reinking]

This is the first time I've encountered this problem. In my DOS app,
I have this SHELL statement:

Shell "COPY .\Template\Measured.Set .\Template\Measured.Bak >Silent.tmp"

The .\Template\Measured.Set file exists and .\Template\Measured.bak
does not. On most Win 9x machines the program runs without any
apparent problem. However, I encountered a computer a couple of days ago
with Win 98 that would generate an Error 76 at this statement.

After changing the obvious code many times without any success, I
decided to create a batch file with the above "copy" statement in it.
On executing it the OS reports that C:\DOS\Command.com cannot be found.

I assumed that WIN 9x already knew where it had installed Command.com.
Well, I obliged and put a copy of Command.com in a C:\DOS folder and now
the Shell statement works (on that computer.)

A better fix would be to put a SHELL statement inside CONFIG.SYS
with the path to the command.com file.

Was I just lucky and on every other computer the program runs on there just
happens to be a Command.com file in the root directory of the boot drive?

How could WINDOWS not be concerned about the whereabouts of Command.com?



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[Mel Bishop]

It sounds to me like you originally formatted the drive under
DOS 6.x or something similar then installed Windows. Under DOS,
COMMAND.COM is usually located in the "C:\DOS" sub-directory.

When Windows 9.x is installed the new COMMAND.COM is usually
located in "C:\WINDOWS" or "C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND" sub-directory,
leaving the orginal "C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM" unchanged or at least
unreachable.

During the install process, Windows updates the line it needs to
convert in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. If it does not
need to convert a line for its own use, it leaves it alone. That
leaves you to convert lines manually. Converting these lines
manually is usually a big fat pain but it's a necessary evil.


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