Windows CMD.exe "The system cannot find the path specified."

php windows cmd system exec

31,644

The problem is that some program has been set to autorun when you run cmd.exe. In my case it was ANSICON that was installed... and then I moved the file without properly uninstalling.

I found a solution in this blog post:

http://carol-nichols.com/2011/03/17/the-system-cannot-find-the-path-specified/

The short version is to find

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

and clear the value.

31,644

Author by

ViliamKopecky

Updated on December 31, 2020

Comments

ViliamKopecky over 3 years
Solved by restoring Windows to previous state

The message (The system cannot find the path specified.) shows...

1) When i open new CMD (Win+R => cmd). It starts with introduction. (on line 3)
```
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
The system cannot find the path specified.

C:\Users\ViliamKopecky>
```
2) When i execute some command like cmd /C dir (or cmd /C php -v or whatever) (on line 2)
```
C:\Users\ViliamKopecky>cmd /C dir
The system cannot find the path specified.
 Volume in drive C is Windows7_OS
 Volume Serial Number is 8230-1246
...

C:\Windows\System32>cmd /C php -v
The system cannot find the path specified.
PHP 5.4.8 (cli) (built: Oct 16 2012 22:30:23)
Copyright (c) 1997-2012 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.4.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2012 Zend Technologies
```
3) (the most annoying) when i run exec function from PHP or Node.js or probably any scripting lang. (which are probably runned from inside as cmd /C <command>)

The message does not show...

1) when i execute the command right from the cmd (or mingw, ...)
```
C:\Users\ViliamKopecky>dir
 Volume in drive C is Windows7_OS
 Volume Serial Number is 8230-1246

 Directory of C:\Users\ViliamKopecky
```
Let's start with simple command from cmd.

php -r "exec('dir', $stdout, $stderr); print(implode(\"\n\", $stdout), $stderr);"

and the result is like this (the directory test is empty - that is correct):
```
E:\test>php -r "exec('dir', $stdout, $stderr); print(implode(\"\n\", $stdout), $stderr);"
The system cannot find the path specified.
 Volume in drive E is www
 Volume Serial Number is 0C99-95EC

 Directory of E:\test

09.11.2012  22:42    <DIR>          .
09.11.2012  22:42    <DIR>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  13 495 296 000 bytes free
int(1)
```
Which shows that the command dir has is executed from php correctly. Only thing thats wrong is the second line - The system cannot find the path specified. - that should not be there.

This message is output by exec from PHP (and also from Node.js as require('child_process').exec("dir", function(err, stdout, stderr) {console.log(stderr)});)

When I execute command right from cmd (or mingw, etc.) it executes correctly without the message. Environment variable PATH seem ok. Problem is just executing from script environment through exec functions.

How to get rid of that annoying message? Thanks
ViliamKopecky over 11 years

This runs correctly C:\Users\ViliamKopecky>php -r "echo 1;" 1
ViliamKopecky over 11 years

ANSICON - yes, the problem stared after I installed it. Marking your answer as accepted. Thanks ;)
Admin about 10 years

3 hours of research on where does my drush install error comes from and I ended up here after found that it failed at php exec, and yes it was ANSICON +1
Gui Ambros about 10 years

Make sure you check HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun as well. Particularly if you have Clink.
sonntam over 6 years

Excellent find! I got a problem using node.js and npm because there was some script launching from Autorun that returned error code 1 and some stderr output. After redirecting stderr > nul 2>&1 and adding exit /b 0 at the end of the script it works now!
killjoy about 6 years

Actually, do a search throughout the registry for 'command processor' and check value of AutoRun. Clink for me put it in some bizarre places and still wouldn't work. But this did fix the OP issue. Woohoo !
Julien Marrec about 5 years

Thank you! I I had a leftover conda intializing hook that was producing this error and producing side effects somewhere really far away. Took me a while to track it down until I finally got here!
OfusJK almost 5 years

Thank you. you save my time. I already spent 4 hours to solve it.
Mubashar Javed over 3 years

In my case, it was HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun instead of HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun
GWD over 3 years

Also had a removed Conda installation popping this issue in CMD - I was so free to add a comment here superuser.com/questions/727316/… as well