MSCONFIG warning suddenly appeared

I've often done start/run/msconfig to check there is nothing odd which
has been added to my system. I've never had to change anything,
luckily, so have ALWAYS left the info intact. Last night I did it, and
straight away it came up with this warning;-

"Environment variables were found in the legacy files AUTOEXEC.BAT
and/or CONFIG.SYS and the variables were moved to the Windows
Registry".

Help! What on earth does this mean?! Have I done something critical
somewhere (inadvertently)? I swear I've not loaded any new software
for over a year. I run SpyBot/AdAware etc. every few days. I never
mess with things I'm not sure about. It wasn't a one-off either. Every
time I start/run/msconfig now, same message (and I exit pronto!)

Any suggestions gratefully noted!
Thank you
Chris

Chris,

Is it possible that you have installed a new application or driver since
you last used MSConfig? If so then that application is possibly either
using or accessing either autoexec.bat or config.sys when run and the
system notices this and checks when opening MSConfig for any changes that
program might have made to those files.

I have a similar problem on a Win Me box here that has an old
Ensoniq/Creative PCI128 sound card the drivers for which poll and open
autoexec.bat each time the system is booted but makes no change. The
result
is that each time one uses MSConfig one sees the environment variable
message.
Other than the message it isn't a problem and it isn't as if one is using
MSConfig all the time.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Chris Lynne wrote:

I've often done start/run/msconfig to check there is nothing odd which
has been added to my system. I've never had to change anything,
luckily, so have ALWAYS left the info intact. Last night I did it, and
straight away it came up with this warning;-

"Environment variables were found in the legacy files AUTOEXEC.BAT
and/or CONFIG.SYS and the variables were moved to the Windows
Registry".

Help! What on earth does this mean?! Have I done something critical
somewhere (inadvertently)? I swear I've not loaded any new software
for over a year. I run SpyBot/AdAware etc. every few days. I never
mess with things I'm not sure about. It wasn't a one-off either. Every
time I start/run/msconfig now, same message (and I exit pronto!)

Any suggestions gratefully noted!
Thank you
Chris

Thanks for your reply Mike. I honestly haven't installed (or even
re-installed!) any new hardware or software for - I can't remember how
long! - which is why I suspected virus/spyware/whatever. However, as
you say the message isn't a problem, that's good enough for me, and
I'll live with it!

Thanks again
Chris

Chris,

I think you are right to be suspicious about this since you say you have
made no changes to your system. I'm not sure how best to proceed but
running some online AV tests such as Trend Micro's House Call at
http://housecall.antivirus.com/pc_housecall might be a good place to
start.

Please let us know if you find anything.
--
Mike Maltby



Chris Lynne wrote:

Thanks for your reply Mike. I honestly haven't installed (or even
re-installed!) any new hardware or software for - I can't remember how
long! - which is why I suspected virus/spyware/whatever. However, as
you say the message isn't a problem, that's good enough for me, and
I'll live with it!