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"16 bit Windows Subsystem Problem"

The message below is appearing each time I try to play a Tetrus game that has been installed for the last 2 years and had been playing OK up to a few days ago. I also tried to install an encyclopedia recently that was on a CD but got the same message.


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.

I am using windows XP ervice pack 1

Can anyone advise as to how this can be corrected

Thanks

My brother had this problem a few months ago.

He used this entry in the microsoft knowledgebase [URL]http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767[/URL] He says entries 1-4 and 6 are pretty useless so you might want to skip them if you want to save a bit of time.

I bought the PC new 2 years ago and Service Pack 1 was installed I think. If it wasn't I would have downloaded it although I dont recall this. But if I did it would have been a long time ago.

The problem only started a couple of weeks ago.

I had 3 "at risk" files that were detected by Norton AV and I manually deleted these.Maybe that had something to with it. I also downloaded "Counter Spy" on the reccommendation of a Dell Tech. support engineer. In a follow up call he told me to delete items that were quarantined by this programme and also something that was in the list of start up items. Perhaps this could be the problem.

I have a VX2 spyware thing that Ad-aware has detected but cant get rid of it. I have a seperate post about this and someone has posted details as to how to delete this although I will have to get somebody with a little more knowledge to do this for me.

I am getting pop up windows and the ironic part of this is that it always happens when I log onto the Microsoft or Dell web sites.

The main reason I am concerned about this 16 bit Widows subsystem problem is that I am in the process of buying another Dell PC and I intend to pass this one on to the kids. They have a very old one with old games and I would think that they will possibly want to play some of their old games on this PC

Thanks for the replies folks and any other advice will be much appreciated.

PS Skyfox. I will give your solution a try tomorrow.

muffler wrote:
> Quite possibly the answer but I cant understand how a game that has
> been installed for a couple of years and has been playng fine is
> suddenly redundant.

It might be due to Service Pack 1 being installed.

Do you remember playing the games before SP1?

@echo off

REM AUTOEXEC.BAT is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.
REM AUTOEXEC.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a
REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.

REM Install CD ROM extensions
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe

REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe)
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir

REM Install DPMI support
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

REM The following line enables Sound Blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM.
REM The command for setting the BLASTER environment is as follows:
REM SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330
REM where:
REM A specifies the sound blaster's base I/O port
REM I specifies the interrupt request line
REM D specifies the 8-bit DMA channel
REM P specifies the MPU-401 base I/O port
REM T specifies the type of sound blaster card
REM 1 - Sound Blaster 1.5
REM 2 - Sound Blaster Pro I
REM 3 - Sound Blaster 2.0
REM 4 - Sound Blaster Pro II
REM 6 - SOund Blaster 16/AWE 32/32/64
REM
REM The default value is A220 I5 D1 T3 and P330. If any of the switches is
REM left unspecified, the default value will be used. (NOTE, since all the
REM ports are virtualized, the information provided here does not have to
REM match the real hardware setting.) NTVDM supports Sound Blaster 2.0 only.
REM The T switch must be set to 3, if specified.
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3

REM To disable the sound blaster 2.0 support on NTVDM, specify an invalid
REM SB base I/O port address. For example:
REM SET BLASTER=A0


Copy and Paste all the above into Notepad.

Go to File and Save As.

At the top Save In, Put in “C:\windows\ system32”

Coming down to File Name, Put in “autoexec.nt”

Save as File Type Change to “All Files”

Then save.

I've seen this problem on several machines recently and it looks like one of the Windows updates is deleting this file.

With XP you can emulate an older OS - right click on the icon, and go to the Compatibility tab.

Quite possibly the answer but I cant understand how a game that has been installed for a couple of years and has been playng fine is suddenly redundant.
I did have a lot of adware and spyware on the PC and almost all of this has now been removed with the help of Spybot and Ad-Aware. Maybe there was something deleted that won't allow the game to fuction now.

Just today I was trying to install "Galaxy of Games" which does state that it was for windows 95 & 98 but I encountered the same problem. I never had this problem before as any of the older software and games appeared to install and run ok

It'll be down to the fact that the software you have is basically too old for Windows XP.

I don't use Windows so I don't know, but '16 bit' software is pretty old hat now.

The message below is appearing each time I try to play a Tetrus game that has been installed for the last 2 years and had been playing OK up to a few days ago. I also tried to install an encyclopedia recently that was on a CD but got the same message.


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.

I am using windows XP ervice pack 1

Can anyone advise as to how this can be corrected

Thanks