JSI Tip 8705. When you attempt to run a program in Windows 2000, you receive 'config.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications'?

When you attempt to run a program in Windows 2000, you receive:

config.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

This behavior will occurs if all of the following are true:

This behavior occurs because the MS04-032 Security Update causes the NTVDM (Windows NT Virtual DOS Machine) to use the the User TMP environment variable instead of the System TMP environment variable. Because 8.3 file name creation is disabled, the user TMP variable uses long file names.

NOTE: The System TMP environment variable, normally %SystemRoot%Temp, uses the 8.3 file naming format when new files are created.

To workaround this behavior:

01. Start / Run / Control %SystemRoot%system32SYSDM.CPL,System / OK.

02. Select the Advanced tab.

03. Press the Environment Variables button.

04. In the System Variables box, select TMP and press the Edit button.

05. Press CTRL+C to copy the highlighted Variable Value to the clipboard.

06. Press the Cancel button.

07. In the User Variables for list, select TMP and press the Edit button.

08. Press CTRL+V to paste the clipboard into the Variable Value box.

09. Press OK, OK, and OK.

10. Close Control Panel.

NOTE: You can use SETENV.EXE to set the User TMP environment variable in a log on script.

NOTE: You can set the User TMP environment variable to any 8.3 path, like C:TEMP, assuming that you first create the C:TEMP folder.