Autoexec.nt - The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications

Date: December 15, 2004

Problem: Trying to uninstall Grisoft's AVG causes a message to appear saying "C:\WINNT\System32\Autoexec.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application."

Hardware: Compucon Thunderbird Workstation.

Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional with service pack 4.

Background: Wanting to upgrade to the latest version of AVG, I decided to first uninstall the old version. When running the AVG uninstall procedure I received the error message:

C:\WINNT\System32\Autoexec.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

Resolution Steps: Apparently this error message, or a similar one mentioning config.nt, can occur when one of the following files is missing or corrupt:

• Autoexec.nt
• Config.nt
• Command.com

The error can occur when installing or uninstalling a program.

In my case Autoexec.nt was missing from the C:\WINNT\System32 directory. Looking in the C:\WINNT\Repair directory I found that Windows had automatically made a backup copy of Autoexec.nt, so I just copied this into C:\WINNT\System32 and the problem was fixed.

Note: The C:\WINNT directory on my computer may be C:\WINDOWS on other systems. Substitute as necessary when following the above instructions.

Note: If you can't find a copy of the missing file in your Repair directory, use your original Windows OS disk to get the missing files. At the command prompt type the following commands:

expand e:\i386\config.nt_ c:\windows\system32\config.nt
expand e:\i386\autoexec.nt_ c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt
expand e:\i386\command.co_ c:\windows\system32\command.com
exit

Substitute "e:\" for your CD-ROM driver letter, and "c:\windows" for where your OS is located.

Recommended Reading For Solving Windows XP Problems: Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out, Second Edition