Hi

I was wondering if you could help me. Am trying to install a kid's
education cd-rom on a windows 2000 machine. The cd-rom can install on
windows 98, 2000, NT and XP however on installation I keep receiving a
message like this one:

Autoexec.nt - this system file cannot run a DOS or Windows application

Does anybody know what is causing this error message and how I can fix it?

Many thanks,
Fiona Lim

matnaj wrote:
> Hi
>
> I was wondering if you could help me. Am trying to install a kid's
> education cd-rom on a windows 2000 machine. The cd-rom can install on
> windows 98, 2000, NT and XP however on installation I keep receiving a
> message like this one:
>
> Autoexec.nt - this system file cannot run a DOS or Windows application
>
> Does anybody know what is causing this error message and how I can
> fix it?
>
> Many thanks,
> Fiona Lim

From several sources

Autoexec.NT Problems Growing?
Fred, For the past few weeks on our forum we've been getting complaints
about XP throwing off the following message when a user tries to run a 16
bit program:

16 bit Windows Subsystem: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file
is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications.
Choose "Close" to terminate the application.

It turns out that there is some malware going around that's deleting the
autoexec.nt file from the \windows\system32 folder. The fix, for now, is to
copy the backup autoexec.nt from \windows\repair to \windows\system32 and
then to run av and spyware checks with Spybot, AdAware and whatever AV
program the user has (all with the latest definitions, of course). I'm not
sure if the specific malware has been identified yet, but the above process
does seem to solve the problem. Hope your readers can benefit from this.

Allan, tweakxp forum administrator, http://www.tweakxp.com/

Thanks, Allan. we covered this problem---and fix--- back in January in the
Plus! Edition (#11 in
http://www.langalist.com/plus/newsle...-01-24plus.asp ), but as
Allan suggests, the problem seems to be getting more widespread; hence this
additional coverage.

For an indication of how widespread this is getting, see:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%2216...ubsystem%22+xp



http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_m.htm#16bit

--
Mike Pawlak

Error message when you install or start a MS-DOS or
16-bit Windows-based program
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;324767

How to Troubleshoot 16-Bit Windows Programs in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314495

How to use the Program Compatibility Wizard in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;301911

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"matnaj" wrote:

| Hi
|
| I was wondering if you could help me. Am trying to install a kid's
| education cd-rom on a windows 2000 machine. The cd-rom can install on
| windows 98, 2000, NT and XP however on installation I keep receiving a
| message like this one:
|
| Autoexec.nt - this system file cannot run a DOS or Windows application
|
| Does anybody know what is causing this error message and how I can fix it?
|
| Many thanks,
| Fiona Lim