Config.sys and missing Shell Statement

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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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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