STOP Message: 0xC000021A or Other Problems with Long PATH

SYMPTOMS

If your AUTOEXEC.BAT file contains PATH statement(s) which evaluate to a very long PATH variable (greater than approximately 1024 characters), after you log on, the resulting PATH variable will not reflect those PATH statement(s). For example, if your AUTOEXEC.BAT file contains the following lines:

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PATH c:\directory1;c:\directory2;c:\directory3;c:\directory4;c:\directory5
PATH %path%;%path%;%path%;%path%;c:\directory6
PATH %path%;%path%;%path%;%path%;c:\directory7
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after logging on, the PATH variable will contain only the values specified in the registry. When this happens, a new environment variable named "AutoexecPath" is created with the value specified by the PATH statement(s) in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.



If your PATH statement(s) evaluate to an even longer PATH variable, logging on will cause WINLOGON.EXE to terminate, resulting in this STOP message: