Thanks! It was CMD vs COMMAND in the DOS window. CMD translates %windir%.
COMMAND does not.
"VanguardLH" <
V@nguard.LH> wrote in message
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> Laurel wrote:
>
>> see below
>>
>> "VanguardLH" <
V@nguard.LH> wrote in message
>> news:hboh1q$8bs$
1@news.albasani.net...
>>> Laurel wrote:
>>>
>>>> Interesting. I think the other folks probably gave me what I needed
>>>> for
>>>> my
>>>> original question, but I'd like to know more about set|more. I tried
>>>> it,
>>>> but found no environment variable associated with WINDIR. The last
>>>> entries
>>>> in the alphabetized list were for
>>>> SYSTEMROOT,TEMP,TMP,USERDNSDOMAIN,USERDOMAIN,USERNAME,USERPROFILE,
>>>> USDEFLOGDIR and then
>>>> Protection
>>>> BLASTER.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps there really is no WINDIR variable, and it's just a convention
>>>> to
>>>> use environmental variable syntax?
>>>
>>> The convention is to use %var% to return (use) the value saved in an
>>> environment variable by that name. If the environment variable is not
>>> define, NUL is returned.
>>>
>>> The windir environment variable is created by Windows. It is not one
>>> that is defined by the user or added by a program's install or
>>> configuration. This env var has been defined going back to Windows 3.0;
>>> see
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/65662. If the env var is not
>>> defined, some applications will fail that expect to use it to find the
>>> path to OS files (or where they polluted the OS folder in saving files
>>> used by that program). The windir var may not be listed when you look
>>> at them (right-click on My Computer or open the System applet in Control
>>> Panel, Advanced tab, Environment Variables button). If it isn't
>>> defined, Windows creates it when you login.
>>>
>>> Some DOS programs are known to set this variable to NUL (which
>>> effectively deletes them). Do you run old DOS programs?
>>>
>>> In a command shell, when you run the following command:
>>>
>>> echo ---%windir%...
>>
>> I typed exactly what you show above, with dashes and dots. I just get
>> another directory prompt. In other words, as if I had typed nothing
>>
>>>
>>> do you see something like "---C:\Windows..." or "---..."? What do you
>>> get for output from running the following command?
>>>
>>> set | find "windir"
>>
>> Same things as for echo. As if I had just pressed the enter key.
>>
>>>
>>> That runs 'set' to output a list of environment variables which gets
>>> piped into the find command that will list only the output lines that
>>> have "windir" in them. If windir is defined, it will be outputted by
>>> 'set' and 'find' should find it and output the matching line which
>>> should look like:
>>>
>>> windir=C:\WINDOWS
>>>
>
> Are you still in the command console after the command ends? Did you
> even open a command console? Running commands in Start -> Run is *not*
> opening a command console.
>
> How did you open the command console? Did you run cmd.exe to load one?
> Or use the "Command Prompt" shortcut in your Start menu? I prefaced my
> instructions with "In a command shell". So how did you do that part?
>
> The commands mentioned above issue their output to stdout (which is the
> window for the command console). If you run those commands outside a
> command console, they run and exit but there is no command console left
> behind to see their output.