Can't get Dos prompt to come up
 

Seeing Phil's Earthlink thread reminded me of something. On my PC at home, I'm running XP with SP2. I click the start menu and then click run. The small command window opens up for a split second and then it disappears. How can I fix this?

Type CMD in the run line

How do I do that when the window pops up for a split second and then disappears>?

Try opening it through Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt.

Ahh, I see... I thought you were typing the commands in the Run line. When you do that, a DOS window opens for the duration of the command, then auto-closes at the end.

Odd that the run dialog would flash off the screen like that.

Okay, lame question I know but it has to be asked, have you rebooted?

Yes, I have rebooted.

I will try that route when I get home this evening. Although, I doubt it will make a difference.

Are you an administrator of the PC?
Have you recently modified the local group policy?


You need access to C:\Windows\System32\
(the actual executeable = cmd.exe)

Yes, I'm the admin. It's just my home PC.

Try Donger's suggestion... also try running the executeable manually by navigating to it (C:\Windows\System32\CMD.EXE) in explorer/My Computer.

Ok, thanks guys. I'll try those suggestions tonight.

D'oh, almost forgot - if you have a Windows keyboard (in other words, your keyboard has a key with the Windows logo on it), click Windows Key + R... that opens the run command. This will tell you whether or not it's a problem with the start menu or the command itself.

It sounds like it is unable to run the command from the location that your run prompt is dumping you out to.

Try typing in:

c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe

From the start>run

If the command window opens type:

Path and see if c:\windows\system32 appears as an entry in your path statement.

I think you have conflicting versions of cmd.exe.

find all occurances of cmd.exe on your drive and rename the oldest to cmd1. See if cmd will work then.

How can I tell you to type Format C: if you can't get a DOS prompt?

Get with it!