node.js npm error message - system cannot find the path specified

Question

I have a strange error message I don't understand or can't get rid of. Secondly when I try to create express app on webstorm it can't find express. I'm using windows 7 64 bit.

PS C:\dv> npm -v

The system cannot find the path specified.

1.2.14

PS C:\dv>

many thanks in advance

Jeremy

Answer 1

Issue was with OneDrive on Windows 10 for me. Moving the file outside of OneDrive and onto desktop solved the issue. Kibana was throwing the error for me.

Answer 2

In my case, nvm-windows "destroy" my windows setting. https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows

I uninstall nvm-windows than go to AppData (hidden folder sometimes) - change to visible: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028316/windows-view-hidden-files-and-folders-in-windows-10 and remove npm cache manually (Under username\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache)

Also, run windows command %temp% Ctrl + A (select all) and delete - to clean up your system (maybe related).

Some of my global -g- packages (Like vue-cli should re-install) - after this weird bug (Nightmare).

Answer 3

For me , Deleting these two folder worked:

JUST Delete

C:\Users\yourUserName\AppData\Roaming\npm

AND

C:\Users\yourUserName\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache

Answer 4

I spent days figuring out how to fix this. Finally, using Process Monitor program, I found out:

1. npm was trying to access a file in %APPDATA%/Temp which no longer existed since I had uninstalled that program.
2. I searched the registry keys for this path and found that this path was included in the *Computer\HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1659004503-1897051121-1177238915-282167\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun* value.
3. Note that this was not under HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry directory as mentioned in the comments above.
4. After removing this registry key, everything works now.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

It's a really old post, but I thought I'd share just in case it helps someone. In my case, the issue wasn't with npm, but instead with ansicon.

Removing the value of the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun resolved the issue, as described in these links...

https://github.com/cmderdev/cmder/issues/121

The system cannot find the path specified when starting Ruby and Rails command prompt

Answer 6

Do you use Cygwin or any other Linux emulating shell as your Command Line? If that's the case a possible cause could be a known bug with the npm script. Please try the solution suggested here,

https://stackoverflow.com/a/22436199/2390020

Answer 7

Had the same problem. Running npm gave me this error:

C:\Users\user>npm
The system cannot find the path specified.

I ended up uninstalling nodejs from the Control Panel and re-installing with a fresh download.

The error doesn't say it couldn't find the command, so I figured it was something wrong with the npm script. The script is located at C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.cmd, found via the path var. echo %path%.

The script contained:

@IF EXIST "%~dp0\/bin/sh.exe" (
  "%~dp0\/bin/sh.exe"  "%~dp0\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js" %*
) ELSE (
  /bin/sh  "%~dp0\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js" %*
)

This looked wrong, as there are forward slashes for Windows and no sh.exe file where the script wants it to be. There is also no /bin/sh file, because its Windows :( Which is why it can't find the specified path.

I tried to get node working in cygwin because its resembles linux and makes Windows at least somewhat bearable. Maybe this was the problem?

Anyway after re-installing the npm.cmd file looks like:

:: Created by npm, please don't edit manually.
@IF EXIST "%~dp0\node.exe" (
  "%~dp0\node.exe" "%~dp0\.\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js" %*
) ELSE (
  node "%~dp0\.\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js" %*
)

The slashes look right and it works.