Autoexec.nt processing

I understand that XP uses Autoexec.nt and Config.nt in place of the
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files beloved of MS-DOS users. (I'm an
old-time MS-DOS user who customized those heavily back when.) I've been
playing with those a bit, specifically to tweak console windows on my
PC. I've run into confusing behavior in Autoexec.nt

In Config.nt, I'm loading an ANSI driver. (Kristofer Sweger's ANSIPLUS
in this case, thogh several others exist.) Adding

devicehigh=H:\Console\ANSIPlus\ANSIPLUS.EXE /h

to Config.nt does it. (The ANSI driver is only functional in
COMMAND.COM sessions. For CMD.EXE, I use Ansicon, a 32 bit TSR ANSI
driver loaded in a CMD file run whenever CMD.EXE is started.)

I'm doing a bit more in Autoexec.nt:

----

path
z:\;h:\windows\system32;h:\windows;h:\windows\syst em32\wbem;h:\console\dos;h:\console\bin;h:\console \usr\local\wbin

lh H:\Console\DOS\cmdedit.com -qcikp" " /h1024 /s1024 /m512 /ah256
H:\Console\DOS\cmdedit.cfg
H:\Console\DOS\mousclip.exe /w /b2050

setaplus keyfile h:\Console\DOS\keydef.cfg nodefkey tone 1397,110,1047,165
setaplus enable ctrlc ndlast capsun capsre smooth speedup winsmooth
scroll32bit clsback
kscolors
prompt $e[s$e[0;0H$e[7;44m$e[K Arda $B $D $B$p $e[m$e[u$e[1m$g
set TZ=EST8EDT
set TEMP=H:\Temp
set TMP=h:\Tmp
REM copy h:\console\ramdisk\*.* z:\

----

setaplus and kscolors are ANSIPLUS utilities that customize what it does.

Cmdedit.com is a DOSKEY replacement with more features. It is active in
COMMAND.COM windows.

Mousclip is an extension that adds mouse based copy and paste to console
windows. This too is active in COMMAND.COM sessions. (There are 32 bit
versions of Cmdedit and Mousclip used in CMD.EXE windows, but they are
invoked from a .CMD file run by the Autorun entry in the HKLM Command
Processor reg key. The CMD file is executed every time CMD.EXE is
invoked.)

The prompt statement uses ANSI to put an inverse video status bar with
machine name, date and current directory at the top of the console
window, which stays there while the prompts moves down the screen.
(Save cursor position, home cursor, clear line, write status line with
desired attributes, restore cursor position, reset attributes, write
prompt) This is very sweet with 4DOS or 4NT, which provide an
assortment of status variables you can embed in the prompt, like free
RAM, disk, and XMS memory.

I'm also loading a ramdisk as a driver, and allocating 10MB to it. (I
have a GB of RAM, so I think I can spare 10MB...) The ramdisk is seen
as drive Z: in My Computer. I set my PATH to list it first, and copy an
assortment of console mode utilities to it for instant access. (There
are several such ramdisk drivers. Microsoft offers one as sample code
on MSDN, with a couple of third-party offerings based on it. There is
at least one commercial product. I'm using AR Systems' old freeware
driver. It's no longer developed or supported, but works fine.)

That's where the confusion comes in. I'm trying to populate the ramdisk
on boot with the last line in Autoexec.nt (REMmed out above). After
boot, I look at the ramdisk and don't see anything there. It I open a
console window and execute some command, *then* the line seems to be
executed and I see the messages about files being copied.

The other stuff in Autoexec.nt all runs fine. I don't understand why
this bit doesn't, and why execution gets delayed.

Any words of wisdom? I may well be missing something simple and stupid.

Thanks in advance.
______
Dennis