Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!ames!rex!ukma!rutgers!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!mhuxo!mhuxu!att!mcdchg!ddsw1!ddsw1.MCS.COM!_wek
From: akcs.wek@ddsw1.MCS.COM ([Bill Kuykendall])
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Run out Environment in DesqView Windows
Message-ID: <[2950.1]_wek@ddsw1.comp.ibmpc;1>
Date: 22 Apr 89 06:00:05 GMT
References: <8904211719.AA24430@decwrl.dec.com>
Lines: 16

The problem is that DESQview is simply running a secondary command 
processor to create (most of) its windows, and 'DOS has a few 
quirks in dealing with expanded environments in a secondary shell.

Using a SHELL= command in your config.sys allows you to specify the
size of your primary command processor (you know that, or you wouldn't
have this problem) but the same mechanism does not work when loading
a non-permanent (/P) command.com.  The size of the environment table
in secondary shells is determined by A) the size of the _contents_ of
the parent shell's environment, or B) the default size of 160 bytes, 
whichever is larger.

There is no fix, but there is a simple workaround.  Assign a couple of
dummy variables of 100+ characters (max length is 127 for the string=value
combination) and then have your batch files delete those before attempting
to set new strings.  Hope this helps.