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My batch mystery solved, thanks to some tech-heads over at GRC (Gibson
Research) newsgroups.

Turns out that while I -thought- that the desktop shortcut was running
CMD.EXE, it was actually running COMMAND.COM - big difference, especially in
the way it handles long file names, especially when those long filenames
contain embedded spaces.

Back in the early winders/dos days, we had to modify config.sys to expand
the default environment size, since our batch files used extensive
environment variables. The way to do that was to specify a
shell=command.com with an /e switch to increas the environment size. This
held over in the move to Win 2k/XP and we never really gave it much thought,
but that meant that all command prompts were NOT running CMD.EXE, hence the
problem.

Solution: REMmed out the shell= line, and BINGO, DOS apps still work, and
now the batch file works from command prompt, from shortcut, and when called
from within a 16-bit Windows app.

I'm sure this tid-bit will be very useful for each and every one of you.

Frisbee® <> rambled:
>
> I'm sure this tid-bit will be very useful for each and every one of
> you.

So what you're saying is that COMMAND.COM is useless and can and should be
deleted from all my workstations? Thanks, Fris!

--
KB

MCNGP #26
Sometimes, I feel that www.mcngp.com isn't treating me with the respect
I deserve.

Frisbee® <> said something like

> Turns out that while I -thought- that the desktop shortcut was running
> CMD.EXE, it was actually running COMMAND.COM - big difference,

FOUL. No Fair. You cheated. I quit.