XP error message

When trying to run certain programs or installers I get the following message:
C:\WINDOWS\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS_DOS and Microsoft Windows applications.

It started happening after I messed with the envirnment variables trying to get java to run from the command prompt. Any ideas?

[Jason425]

un-mess them.. hopefully you have system restore on.. or reinstall.. unless you or someone know alot about environment variables..

I've already tried sys restore it always fails saying it cannot restore to the selected point.

[Jason425]

did you try a different point? or is there only one

Yes I get the same error message with every point.

[vee_ess]

AUTOEXEC.NT isn't all that important, and shouldn't be in the Windows directory, as far as I know, I've always seen it in the System32 folder in all my installations. It's just a batch file though, so you can edit it in Notepad. Here's what it should look like:

@echo off

REM AUTOEXEC.BAT is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.
REM AUTOEXEC.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a
REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.

REM Install CD ROM extensions
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe

REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe)
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir

REM Install DPMI support
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

REM The following line enables Sound Blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM.
REM The command for setting the BLASTER environment is as follows:
REM    SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330
REM    where:
REM        A    specifies the sound blaster's base I/O port
REM        I    specifies the interrupt request line
REM        D    specifies the 8-bit DMA channel
REM        P    specifies the MPU-401 base I/O port
REM        T    specifies the type of sound blaster card
REM                 1 - Sound Blaster 1.5
REM                 2 - Sound Blaster Pro I
REM                 3 - Sound Blaster 2.0
REM                 4 - Sound Blaster Pro II
REM                 6 - SOund Blaster 16/AWE 32/32/64
REM
REM    The default value is A220 I5 D1 T3 and P330.  If any of the switches is
REM    left unspecified, the default value will be used. (NOTE, since all the
REM    ports are virtualized, the information provided here does not have to
REM    match the real hardware setting.)  NTVDM supports Sound Blaster 2.0 only.
REM    The T switch must be set to 3, if specified.
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3

REM To disable the sound blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM, specify an invalid
REM SB base I/O port address.  For example:
REM    SET BLASTER=A0

[Jason425]

the autoexec is diff for diff people... he may not have a sound blaster card for example...

[vee_ess]

The only lines that really matter are these:
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

All the rest are remarks... They don't make a difference and I don't have a soundblaster myself. That is just a standard AUTOEXEC.NT...

I fixed it, the autoexec.nt file was in windows/repair so I moved it to system32 and now everything works fine

Thanks for the great info! Dell couldn't figure that out for me.
One question though. What causes that particular error message and how do I prevent it?

Preacher