Dell Latitude D620 OEM Build Command Line Error

[m2d2]

Somebody in the department thought it would be a good idea to use Dell's factory Windows install on a new Latitude D620 rather than clean re-install. Bung on the standard school apps. Job done.

This seemed to work until I had to sort out a problem and need to use the command prompt for diagnostics. Every I type a command and pressed Windows kept tell me it couldn't find the command. But here's the funny thing. The error would something like

Can't find C:\Windows\System32\CACLS.EXE

You could run programs with shortcuts from explorer or the Start menu. Just not by typing the command using the NT commnad prompt UI.

Another strange thing was if that if I used the Windows 9x COMMAND.EXE UI then I could run the program. It's no real workaround as you loose a lot of the enhancements in CMD.EXE such as long file names and file completion.

Now I suspect some people might say "Use Windows! DOS is dead". Well technically the command prompt it is still Windows but that's beside the point. The main problem is that this bug stops certain 16 bit apps from working e.g. Nova-T, even when launched from the GUI.

The only answer has been to reinstall Windows. This what Dell did when I raised the issue. They sent someone round to do a vanilla install of XP

Is there a less drastic way to solve this issue.

I just don't seem to have much luck with OEM images. There always seems to be some hidden issue I have to sort out

[CESIL]

Is this not a path problem?

[m2d2]

probably not as in most path issues you would get an error shich as:

'some_command' is not recognized as an internal or external command,operable program or batch file.