How do you set the dircmd environmental variable in XP?

I've carefully followed the directions on this page:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/a6aaf662-4153-4f8c-873e-58d91aedc1ea1033.mspx?mfr=true

and have added the following to my c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt file:

SET dircmd=/a/o:gn/p

NOTE: there is NO "REM" before this line, so it should execute.

Yet when I reboot the computer, go to a command line screen and run "DIR" in any large folder, the subfolders and files are still displayed out of order and zoom by without pausing.

What am I doing wrong?

I have to ask, why isn't this the way files are displayed at the command prompt anyway?

Who in their right mind would want the contents of a folder to scroll by so fast that they can't even see them?

Who would want a list of files to be out of alphabetical order by default?

After all, in Windows Explorer, folders and files are displayed in alphabetical order and you are allowed to scroll up and down the list. The least one could expect would be for files to be displayed as close to this as possible in a command prompt window.

If some security update has made using the dircmd environmental variable unavailable, then things are getting out of hand.

Please note that my main question here is: what am I doing wrong in my attempts to set the dirmd variable in autoexec.nt?

TIA

--
John Corliss
.

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