Error Message: "Invalid COMMAND.COM Cannot Load COMMAND System Halted"

When you exit an MS-DOS-based program, such as Edit, you may receive the following error message: After you receive the error message, the MS-DOS window appears to stop responding (hang).

This behavior occurs because the ComSpec environment variable is not set to a valid Cmd.exe file.

To resolve this issue, close the MS-DOS window by following either of these methods.

Method 1

1. If you are not already in the MS-DOS window, press ALT+ENTER.
2. Click the Close button at the top-right corner of the MS-DOS window.
3. On the End Program window, click End Now.

Method 2

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
2. Click Task Manager.
3. Select the hung program, click End Task, and then click End Now.

To prevent this problem from occurring, refer to the "More Information" section in this article.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

To prevent this problem from occurring, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type NOTEPAD %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT, and then click OK.
2. Remove the entire ComSpec line in the Autoexec.nt file. The line will look similar to the following sample:
   ComSpec=C:\WINDOWS\system32\COMMAND.COM
3. Correct the ComSpec environment variables in the System properties. To do so, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
   2. Double-click the System icon, click the Advanced tab, and then click Environment Variables.
   3. Highlight the ComSpec line, and then click Edit at the bottom of the window.
   4. Make sure the Variable Value id set to:
      %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe