Problems with Command Prompt

[misterPhyrePhox]

When I try to use a command that is located in WINNT\system32 in command prompt, the command prompt does not recognize the command unless I am in WINNT\System32. For example, if I am in C:\, and I try to use "ipconfig," command prompt says "'ipconfig' is not recognized as an internal or external command." If I try to do the same thing in system32, it works perfectly.
I think that I may have screwed up a regkey or something that told command prompt where to look for commands.
I have had this problem for a while, and just lived with it, so I don't remember anything specific that could have caused it, and I have not manually edited the registry. I am using Windows 2000, cmd.exe.
So does anyone know what the problem could be, and how I might be able to fix it?

 

[mammikoura]

well reinstalling windows should fix it. But then u would need to reinstall all of ur programs so I don't know if it's worth it.
Someone might come up with a better answer...

 

[misterPhyrePhox]

well reinstalling windows should fix it. But then u would need to reinstall all of ur programs so I don't know if it's worth it.
Someone might come up with a better answer...

I don't think that I want to reinstall windows. Thanks anyway, though!

 

[AnonymousI]

You are having this problem because Win cannot find "ipconfig" in any one of its environment variables and in the current directory. When you specify the location (C:\winnt\system32), it is able to find it. Almost all win commands are in the system32 dir. To solve this, you need to reset the environment variables... Something may have changed them

to do this:
right click my computer
select properties
go to advanced~>Environment variables
under "system variables", look for the variable "path"

in that row, look for "C:\winnt\system32"
if there is none, add it