Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!bg11+
From: bg11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Brian E. Gallew)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Increasing command.com's environment space
Message-ID: <caPIYhu00Uh7M1r4R7@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 6 Jun 90 18:19:25 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 13

The simplest way is to change the .PIF so that it calls command in the
following manner:

c:\dos\command.com /E:1024

Command.com never looks at the shell statement.  That is only used by
IBMDOS.COM to load up the cammand processor of your choice.  That is why
you are supposed to put a /P in the parameters in your shell statement. 
Without that switch, it is possible to exit from your primary copy of
command.com and hang the system because there is *NO* command processor
running.

Hope this helps.