'ipconfig' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

I had the same problem on my Sony VAIO running Windows XP Professional SP3.

My problem is that the "PATH" environment variable did NOT include "C:\WINDOWS\system32"

Any executable in that folder could only be run from a cmd prompt if the command included the entire path.

Solution for me: add "C:\WINDOWS\system32;" to the start of my PATH environment variable, like this:

Log in with Administrator priviledges.

Right-click "My Computer" & select "Properties."

Click "Advanced" tab.

Click "Environment Variables" button.

In the "System variables" box, scroll down to "PATH" and highlight it.

Click the "Edit" button.

In the "Variable value:" box, add to the very beginning of the text "C:\WINDOWS\system32;" without my quotation marks.

Make sure you include the semicolon.

Click OK three times.

No reboot required. If this was your problem, then ipconfig should work right away.

In an effort to narrow down the issue try the following:

• open command prompt
• make sure you are on the C:> directory
• type this: windows\system32\ipconfig /all

that will point to the default location for the command...you can also follow the path out to see if the ipconfig.exe is there in the first place. If that doesn't work or the file is not there, it could be corrupt or you could possibly have a virus designed to disable these commands. Let me know what happens for further troubleshooting. I also suggest updating your virus definitions and running a full scan.