DOS prompt in XP no longer appears to work

[ukdave]

Hi all, this is urgent please if you can help.
Just went out to use typical NETSTAT or TRACERT or PING commands in DOS as per all manual instructions. (Having used 2 of them successfully before).

DOS reports none of these are recognized as internal or external commands or programs etc. etc. Basically it appears that my DOS situation is collapsed.

I use Windows XP Professional (SP1) and 1 GHz RAM and Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Processor.

Thanks for your assistance.
----David

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

Do any commands work? For example type AT and see if that works (at is used for scheduled tasks).

If not the environment variable that stores the path for these commands may have got changed or deleted by accident, so it does not know where to look for the exe's that relate to the commands. Try the command above first, and if that doesn't work then you can look at the enviroment variables.

[Statica]

Originally Posted by ukdave Hi all, this is urgent please if you can help. Just went out to use typical NETSTAT or TRACERT or PING commands in DOS as per all manual instructions. (Having used 2 of them successfully before). DOS reports none of these are recognized as internal or external commands or programs etc. etc. Basically it appears that my DOS situation is collapsed. I use Windows XP Professional (SP1) and 1 GHz RAM and Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Processor. Thanks for your assistance. ----David

Ok first things first, let's see if you have those utilities on your computer or if they "disappeared". Log in as administrator or a user with admin priveleges. Start up Windows Explorer and go to C:\Windows\system32\
You should see netstat.exe and ping.exe etc. If you do see it, good, if not, it's mysterious how they disappeared. You might have to try doing a system restore to see if it comes back. Or do a search for netstat.exe and see if it resides somewhere else.

If you do see netstat.exe in \Windows\system32 then it could be an issue with your paths. Open a command line interface .. just to be sure you are not starting up the DOS processor but the command line interface for XP, go to START > RUN > cmd and press OK.
Once in the CLI.
Try running the command:
c:\windows\system32\netstat.exe
remember, I am assuming that you have XP installed in C:\Windows\ if yours is different then change that part

If it works post back here and we can see what couldve changed the paths.

[ukdave]

Originally Posted by Statica Ok If you do see netstat.exe in \Windows\system32 then it could be an issue with your paths. Open a command line interface .. just to be sure you are not starting up the DOS processor but the command line interface for XP, go to START > RUN > cmd and press OK. Once in the CLI. Try running the command: c:\windows\system32\netstat.exe remember, I am assuming that you have XP installed in C:\Windows\ if yours is different then change that part If it works post back here and we can see what couldve changed the paths.

Spot on correct to both of you that replied. That was the problem, I was not in the correct directory. I got fooled too, because with Windows 2000 Professional I used to just go to the C:\ drive prompt and it somehow managed to trace the command.com file which was elsewhere.

I am very grateful to you both for coming back so quickly. Many thanks. All works OK again... that is a relief. I have printed off all material so that I do not foget in future!!

---David

[Statica]

Well that's the crux of it - your windows should have the the path to system32 and you shouldnt have to put pointers to the directory. Something or someone has altered the path, and I suggest that you include it back to your path statement. Start a command line interface and type the following:

path
You should see a number of directories like:
PATH=C:\Windows;C:\Windows\system32; blah blah blah...
.. verify that Windows and windows\system32 are both there in the path statement.
If it is not there issue this command:

echo %systemroot%
does it respond back with your windows drive and directory (say C:\Windows)

If not you will have to change one or both of the settings on your computer.

[ukdave]

Originally Posted by Statica Well that's the crux of it - your windows should have the the path to system32 and you shouldnt have to put pointers to the directory. Something or someone has altered the path, and I suggest that you include it back to your path statement. Start a command line interface and type the following: path You should see a number of directories like: PATH=C:\Windows;C:\Windows\system32; blah blah blah... .. verify that Windows and windows\system32 are both there in the path statement. If it is not there issue this command: echo %systemroot% does it respond back with your windows drive and directory (say C:\Windows) If not you will have to change one or both of the settings on your computer.

The echo command you asked me to try worked fine and came back as you indicated it should.

Did my best on this Statica, please excuse me if I miss out a semicolon or whatever along the line. I issued the path statement and this is what came back:

path=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\system32\Wbem;C:\Progra~1\execut~1\diskee~2\c:\ adabas\bin;c:\adabas\pgm

That reference to Adabas is not for my computer really and the program has been uninstalled. It was included and I installed by mistake when installing Star Office 7.

What do you think has happened then? Regards.
---David

[Statica]

Well the path statement seems to be set right. It could be just an anomaly .. I really cannot explain why it didnt pick it. Have you tried rebooting and seeing if it works?

You could try specifically pointing to your windows and windows\system32 directory.
Go to Control Panel > System Properties > Advanced tab
Click the button for Environment variables. In the User variables section, do you see the variable PATH? If not follow this step:
Click New and add a new Variable: Path and variable value as C:\windows;C:\Windows\system32
Try rebooting.
If you do see a Path variable in the window, select it and click EDIT; now add a ; behind the existing value and add C:\Windows;C:\Windows\system32
Reboot and see if it works.

[ukdave]

Originally Posted by Statica Well the path statement seems to be set right. It could be just an anomaly .. I really cannot explain why it didnt pick it. Have you tried rebooting and seeing if it works? You could try specifically pointing to your windows and windows\system32 directory. Go to Control Panel > System Properties > Advanced tab Click the button for Environment variables. In the User variables section, do you see the variable PATH? If not follow this step: Click New and add a new Variable: Path and variable value as C:\windows;C:\Windows\system32 Try rebooting. If you do see a Path variable in the window, select it and click EDIT; now add a ; behind the existing value and add C:\Windows;C:\Windows\system32 Reboot and see if it works.

Well I did all you requested and found indeed that the Adabas previously mentioned in my postings had taken over path. I did not want it - so I removed that entry. Then I included the Windows path you gave me and rebooted. Yes this did the trick, it did not matter where in the directories of the DOS Windows I was - all the PING, TRACERT and other commands worked correctly.

Many thanks. And, oh by the way I will be posting in the next day or two in the correct section the difficulties I have been experiencing with my first go at using the Microsoft Internet Information Server in my studies to create a small database to go with my eventual website design. That will be a question for someone, so far following instructions to the letter is just no good I believe, there is something far more to all this and I have to learn it. So I will leave that for another day (possibly two!!) http://localhost - works just like that.. they say---- I don't think so!!!

Again - many thanks Statica for all your help today.
---David