I have a question about Run a Shortcut from the Command Prompt:

This does not work for me. I always get a "This program cannot be run in DOS mode" message. I have assumed by command prompt you mean an MS-DOS command prompt, and not the run window or address bar in explorer. Am I doing something wrong or have I misunderstood? Or do I need to enable something in Win98? This also happens on a second Win98 machine.

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Sorry about the double-post, but I have been able to use start successfully from the MS-DOS command prompt in Windows 95 and Windows Me. Under Windows 98, I typed "start /?" from the C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND directory, and it still says "This program cannot be run in DOS mode". The START.EXE file is 28,672 bytes, dated 04/23/99 10:22p, so it's the original. Maybe some other program install changed a vital DLL? Or can some TweakIU setting cause this problem?

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Hi Andy.

Start.exe may look like a DOS exe because it has no icon but its actually a Windows 
exe thats why you can't run it in DOS.

Start.exe = Windows Program Starter

|"This program cannot be run in DOS mode". 

Any message you get showing this means just that.

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The original article was on how to launch Windows programs from a command prompt using the start command. It works for me in Windows 95 and Windows Me, but not Windows 98. I am aware of the meaning of the error message, but am puzzled why I can, for instance, start Freecell.exe from a command prompt in Windows 95 and Windows Me, but not on either of my Windows 98 machines. The error message should not occur here.

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Creating a fresh MS-DOS prompt (typing "command" in the run window) fixes my problem. Apparently, some setting in the MS-DOS prompt shorcuts I always use interfered with the start.exe. Looking at the properties, I see no differences, though! Thanks for your help.

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|[...]I always get a "This program cannot be run in DOS mode" message.
|I have assumed by command prompt you mean an MS-DOS command prompt,
| Andy
|
You do understand that Windows 9x is a GUI 
that runs on top of DOS.  Right?

|and not the run window or address bar in explorer. 
|
It sounds like you are talking about Real Mode DOS, so NO;
START (or any other Windoze executable)
will not run without having the Windoze APIs 
available.

In Real Mode DOS (not a DOS Box--or what UNIX would call a "terminal"),
you are **below** that level.
Micro$oft (in its usual brain-dead manner of naming things)
calling this "Command Prompt" in Windoze just muddied the waters.

The article is talking about running a Windoze *process*
--that is a *window* running another invocation of COMMAND.COM
(similar to what would be called "Shelling Out" in Real DOS).

To run Windoze apps, you have to have Windoze running.
Windoze shortcuts (as the article says) are not constructs that DOS understands.

|[...]have I misunderstood?
|
Yup.

|This also happens on a second Win98 machine.
|
...and will on ANY machine.

Why you are insisting on trying to execute the *shortcut*
instead of just going straight to the *.EXE file is beyond me.

If you are trying to pass parameters to a DOS app under Real DOS
without having to type them in every time, a batch file seems apt.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Batch.File+tutorial
That is the nearest DOS equivalent of a Windoze Shortcut.

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