Please, stop looking for faults in the script. It is not the script. The script works fine on hundereds of other computers. This one PC does not run SHELL commands. It doesn't matter what is spawned by the SHELL command - this one computer will not do it. It doesn't matter if using RUN instead of SHELL works or not, I need to use SHELL. Every other computer will run the SHELL command, why not this one? SHELL "and_then_anything_you_like" results in nothing on this one PC. What does it mean when @ERROR is set to -1 after the SHELL command is called? Obviously it means somthing went wrong, but what? Perhaps I am asking the wrong people here. This forum seems to be more full of problems like "this script doesn't work - why?" Where as my problem is a little more complex, my scripts work - an internal KIX command is what is not working here. I have already discussed with this particular user about the possibility of re-imaging his unit, and while not ideal, at the moment seems the only viable option. More than enough time and energy has been spent trying to solve this to no avail. A full system re-build seems the only cost effective option right now. Thanks for trying anyway everyone.