Further to the above, I’m getting a very similar/same error when using avrdude from Atmel studio.
avrdude.exe: can’t open config file “C:\Program”: No such file or directory
avrdude.exe: error reading system wide configuration file “C:\Program”
Here is the output of set on the afflicted system.
C:>set
ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
AMDAPPSDKROOT=C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD APP
ANS_OLD_ATTACH=1
APPDATA=C:\Users\bob\AppData\Roaming
asl.log=Destination=file
CLASSPATH=.;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\lib\ext\QTJava.zip
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME=BRUCE
ComSpec=C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK=NO
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\bob
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\ron\AppData\Local
LOGONSERVER=\BRUCE
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=4
OS=Windows_NT
Path=C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;
C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_05\bin;
C:\Program Files (x86)\Pololu\GNU Build Utilities;\bin;
C:\Program Files (x86)\SDCC\bin
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE=AMD64
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER=Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL=6
PROCESSOR_REVISION=2a07
ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files
PROMPT=$P$G
PSModulePath=C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules
PUBLIC=C:\Users\Public
QTJAVA=C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\lib\ext\QTJava.zip
SESSIONNAME=Console
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\Windows
TEMP=C:\Users\bob\AppData\Local\Temp
TMP=C:\Users\bob\AppData\Local\Temp
USERDOMAIN=BRUCE
USERNAME=bob
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\bob
windir=C:\Windows
windows_tracing_flags=3
windows_tracing_logfile=C:\BVTBin\Tests\installpackage\csilogfile.log