Corrupted environment / system variables

[UK-Tim]

Hi People,

I seem to have accidentally corrupted my environment / system variables. (XP + SP3)

I was adding "SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS=1" via the "System Properties" +"Advanced" + "Environment Variables" + "System Variables" dialog,
but I think there was a "hidden character" preceding the "SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS" in the clipboard string.

Now any changes I make will be lost (to the dos environment) after a reboot, although they still show up in the dialog, and the "SEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS"
can't be seen in the dialog, but is always in the dos environment with a preceding white space character.


I tried using the "Rapid Environment Editor" tool, as well as searching and striping the registry of all occurrences "NOZONECHECKS" but nothingseems to work.

On reboot the dos prompt "SET" command always shows"zSEE_MASK_NOZONECHECKS=1" with a preceding white space character where the 'z' is shown.

My gut feeling is that I need to edit "a file" with a hex editor and remove the offending non-printable character, but I don't know where "the file" is to be found.

Can anyone offer me any suggestions?

 

[BellicoseBloke]

System Restore Point... Maybe... Or are other things fubar? Perhaps a reformat to ensure freshness is sealed in...

 

[UK-Tim]

System Restore Point... Maybe... Or are other things fubar? Perhaps a reformat to ensure freshness is sealed in...

Hi,
I do have a recent backup, and restoring is my usual fix, but this time I thought I might try to get to the bottom of things and learn something new.
Or not of course

 

[ImWolf]

It can't possibly be this easy, but have you checked your Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files?

 

[UK-Tim]

It can't possibly be this easy, but have you checked your Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files?

Worth a shot, but in my case both are missing from the root files.