"npm faq" fails on Windows 7 ("spawn ENOENT" errors)

Question

I installed node.js on Windows 7 with my latest installer. It seemed to work, I can call npm and node from the console (either cmd or PowerShell), but I keep getting errors.

There are many questions about node.js on windows, but they all mention a specific piece of code. I get "spawn ENOENT" with many simple commands, for example yo , if I then select "update generators":

 events.js:72 throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event ^ Error: spawn ENOENT at errnoException (child_process.js:988:11) at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:779:34) 

even npm faq does not work:

 PS E:\www\something> npm faq npm ERR! Error: spawn ENOENT npm ERR! at errnoException (child_process.js:988:11) npm ERR! at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:779:34) npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this *entire* log, npm ERR! including the npm and node versions, at: npm ERR! <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues> 

It seems like the problem is that node is using unix command names, such as dir , that do not exist on Windows. Some blog posts mention the use of Cygwin, but mainly for creating node.js and not for calling it. The official nodejs website does not mention that cygwin is also a prerequisite.

Here is npm-debug.log:

 0 info it worked if it ends with ok 1 verbose cli [ 'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\\\node.exe', 1 verbose cli 'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js', 1 verbose cli 'faq' ] 2 info using npm@1.3.24 3 info using node@v0.10.25 4 verbose node symlink C:\Program Files\nodejs\\node.exe 5 error Error: spawn ENOENT 5 error at errnoException (child_process.js:988:11) 5 error at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:779:34) 6 error If you need help, you may report this *entire* log, 6 error including the npm and node versions, at: 6 error <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues> 7 error System Windows_NT 6.1.7601 8 error command "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\\\node.exe" "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "faq" 9 error cwd E:\ 10 error node -v v0.10.25 11 error npm -v 1.3.24 12 error syscall spawn 13 error code ENOENT 14 error errno ENOENT 15 verbose exit [ 1, true ] 

Answer 1

Make sure you have c: \ Windows \ System32 on your system path variable. I had this exact problem and it was the fix that I needed. I must have been mistaken sometime in the past.