Not all executables will start from spawned batch (Is this a WinNT bug?).

Question

I'm building a tool wherewith I can spawn a make process from my Visual Age for Java IDE.
This I have working now. However not all executables seem to get started from the batch.
Here are some of the from within the batch file started examples that work and won't work:
echo MakeBridge V1.00
echo Ensure that
echo %1%2
echo is a (sub) directory of
echo %JAVA_DEV_ROOT%
REM Usage: makeBridge <drive_letter> <working_directory> <make_command>
REM Change drive
%1 WORKS
REM Change directory
chdir %2 WORKS
REM Execute make command
echo ####%3#### WORKS
clearmake -C gnu %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 WON'T WORK
echo path=%PATH% WORKS
pwd WORKS
dir WORKS
java -version WON'T WORK
rem C:\APPL\_off97uk.32\Office\EXCEL.EXE WORKS
echo Marcel Zeeuw WORKS
The actual coding for the spawning is below:
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(batch);
// Pick up output stream from spawned process
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
String line;
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null)
System.out.println(line);
br.close();
System.out.println(p.exitValue());
Help would be appreciated
Kind regards,
Marcel Zeeuw.

Answer 1

Explicit naming of a path in front of a non-starting application doesn't help - as expected.
My conclusion is, that a process that is spawned by an application inherit some sort of limiting environment space. THis is because when I start my not working batch file from a command prompt, the batch file works as expected.
I have no solution for this problem for now...