I understand that the external DOS commands can either com from your command.com or if you put the c:\dos path in your autoexec.
For winnt, there is no dos directory, so how do I get DOS to recognize .exe files? I tried putting c:\winnt\system32, c:\winnt, c:\ in the autoexec.bat. It worked when trying to start the cdm.exe in c:\winnt\system32 and opened notepad like I wanted it to but the external commands still aren't working 100% yet.

what am I missing?

I already solved it with the autoexec.bat
no need for comments

Internal commands like copy are contained IN the Command.Com file. External commands are in the DOS directory when you are running DOS or are in the Windows or \Windows\Command directories in Windows 98.
Your problem was that in Windows NT some of the external files were not in the path.
I know you said you had it worked out already. The thing is all the other people who read this want to learn too.

Ok, got the same problem. You say in NT, it isn't in the path. What Path? Everyone seems to talk about Win 98. So what path should NT look at to find those external files, c:\winnt\system32? I tried putting that path in the autoexec.bat and System Environment variables and it still doesn't recognize external commands. I got it to recognize ping commange but then got a error saying it can't find the 1486_nt\nms\nmsd.exe, I have no idea what that is.

So what external files, the names is it looking for and to what path for NT? What places to I need to check (autoexec, Winnt\system32, etc. and what files do I need to check? I need specifics from someone who knows