- Set PATH and other environment variables in Windows 10
- Set environment variables from command prompt
- Set environment variable by Registry edit
- Windows CMD: PATH Variable – Add To PATH – Echo PATH
- Echo Windows PATH Variable
- Add To Windows PATH
- Set Windows PATH For The Current Session
- Set Windows PATH Permanently
- path path
- Синтаксис Syntax
- Параметры Parameters
- Комментарии Remarks
- Примеры Examples
- How to Add to Windows PATH Environment Variable
- Add Directories to PATH Variable
- How to modify the PATH variable definitely through the command line in Windows
- 2 Answers 2
Set PATH and other environment variables in Windows 10
In older windows systems you had to navigate to Advanced System Settings in Control Panel to view, edit or add environmental variables.
- Windows XP — Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties → Advanced → Environment variables → Choose New, Edit or Delete.
- Windows 7 — Click on Start → Computer → Properties → Advanced System Settings → Environment variables → Choose New, Edit or Delete.
In Windows 8 and 10, you can navigate to Advanced System Settings in a similar way.
- Windows 8 — Right click on bottom left corner to get Power User Task Menu → Select System → Advanced System Settings → Environment variables → Choose New, Edit or Delete.
- Windows 10 — Right click on Start Menu to get Power User Task Menu → Select System → Advanced System Settings → Environment variables → Choose New, Edit or Delete.
However, in Windows 10 you can directly get to the Environment Variables window using Search the web and Windows box next to the Start menu. Type environment variables in Windows Search box which gives you two options in search results:
- Edit the system environment variables
- Edit environment variables for your account.
Choose either option and you can add, edit or delete environment variables like PATH.
Set environment variables from command prompt
You can set environment variables from Windows Command Prompt using the set or setx command. The set command only sets the environment variable for the current session. The setx command sets it permanently, but not for the current session. If you want to set it for current as well as future sessions, use both setx and set.
For example, you can set the PATH environment variable permanently (current and future sessions) as below:
To view the current path, run:
- By default setx sets the variable in the local environment (Under HKEY_Current_User Registry key). If you want to set the system variable (Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry key), use the flag /m. Start the command prompt as administrator on Windows 10, right click on Start menu and select Command Prompt(Admin).
- The maximum value allowed for a enviroment variable is 1024 characters. So if your variable is long and you try to append to it with setx, you may get a truncated result.
Set environment variable by Registry edit
If your PATH variable is too long, then the best method would be to edit the registry.
For user environment variables, change the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment . For System Environment variables change
Add, Edit or Delete the environment variable you want to change, then reboot to activate the changes.
Windows CMD: PATH Variable – Add To PATH – Echo PATH
PATH is an environment variable that specifies a set of directories, separated with semicolons ( ; ), where executable programs are located.
In this note i am showing how to print the contents of Windows PATH environment variable from the Windows command prompt.
I am also showing how to add a directory to Windows PATH permanently or for the current session only.
Cool Tip: List environment variables in Windows! Read More →
Echo Windows PATH Variable
Print the contents of the Windows PATH variable from cmd :
The above commands return all directories in Windows PATH environment variable on a single line separated with semicolons ( ; ) that is not very readable.
To print each entry of Windows PATH variable on a new line, execute:
Cool Tip: Set environment variables in Windows! Read More →
Add To Windows PATH
Warning! This solution may be destructive as Windows truncates PATH to 1024 characters. Make a backup of PATH before any modifications.
Save the contents of the Windows PATH environment variable to C:\path-backup.txt file:
Set Windows PATH For The Current Session
Set Windows PATH variable for the current session:
Set Windows PATH Permanently
Run as Administrator: The setx command is only available starting from Windows 7 and requires elevated command prompt.
Permanently add a directory to the user PATH variable:
Permanently add a directory to the system PATH variable (for all users):
Info: To see the changes after running setx – open a new command prompt.
path path
Задает путь к команде в переменной среды PATH, указывающий набор каталогов, используемых для поиска исполняемых файлов (exe). Sets the command path in the PATH environment variable, specifying the set of directories used to search for executable (.exe) files. При использовании без параметров эта команда отображает текущий путь к команде. If used without parameters, this command displays the current command path.
Синтаксис Syntax
Параметры Parameters
| Параметр Parameter | Описание Description |
|---|---|
| [ :] |
Комментарии Remarks
Операционная система Windows выполняет поиск по расширениям имен файлов по умолчанию в следующем порядке приоритета: exe, com, bat и cmd. The Windows operating system searches using default file name extensions in the following order of precedence: .exe, .com, .bat, and .cmd. Это означает, что если вы ищете пакетный файл с именем, acct.bat, но у вас есть приложение с именем acct.exe в том же каталоге, необходимо включить расширение bat в командную строку. Which means if you’re looking for a batch file named, acct.bat, but have an app named acct.exe in the same directory, you must include the .bat extension at the command prompt.
Если два или более файлов в пути команды имеют одинаковое имя файла и расширение, эта команда сначала выполняет поиск указанного имени файла в текущем каталоге. If two or more files in the command path have the same file name and extension, this command first searches for the specified file name in the current directory. Затем он ищет каталоги в пути команды в том порядке, в котором они указаны в переменной среды PATH. Then, it searches the directories in the command path in the order that they’re listed in the PATH environment variable.
При помещении команды path в файл AUTOEXEC. NT операционная система Windows автоматически добавляет указанный путь поиска подсистемы MS-DOS при каждом входе в систему. If you place the path command in your Autoexec.nt file, the Windows operating system automatically appends the specified MS-DOS subsystem search path every time you log on to your computer. Cmd.exe не использует файл AUTOEXEC. NT. Cmd.exe does not use the Autoexec.nt file. При запуске из ярлыка Cmd.exe наследует переменные среды, заданные в Мой компьютер/свойствах/дополнительном/окружении. When started from a shortcut, Cmd.exe inherits the environment variables set in My Computer/Properties/Advanced/Environment.
Примеры Examples
Для поиска по путям к:\усер\таксес, б:\усер\инвест и б:\бин для внешних команд введите: To search the paths c:\user\taxes, b:\user\invest, and b:\bin for external commands, type:
How to Add to Windows PATH Environment Variable
Works for Windows 10 or 7
If you’re a coder or programmer, you probably spend a decent amount of time using the command prompt to execute programs or compile code. In order to complete those tasks, you most likely have to use a command from a library or software package installed (like Python) on your system.
By default, most of these programs will add their own custom shortcuts to the Windows environment variables. The most used environment variable in Windows is probably the PATH variable. It basically allows you to run any executables that are located inside the paths specified in the variable at the command prompt without having to give the full path to the executable.
In this article, I’ll show you how you can add more paths to the Windows PATH variable in case you want to run executables from your own custom directories. It’s worth noting that the procedure below is for Windows 10, but it’s almost exactly the same for Windows 7 also.
Add Directories to PATH Variable
To get started, right-click on the Computer or This PC icon on the desktop and select Properties. If you don’t have that icon on your desktop already, you can add any missing desktop icons easily.
On the System dialog page, you’ll see an Advanced system settings link on the left-hand side.
This will bring up the System Properties dialog, which should already be open to the Advanced tab. Go ahead and click on the Environment Variables button at the very bottom.
On the Environment Variables dialog, you’ll see two sets of variables: one for user variables and the other for system variables. Both lists have the PATH variable, so you have to decide which one to edit.
If you only need the commands for your own user account, then edit the user variable. If you need it to work across the computer system regardless of which user is logged in, then edit the system variable. Click on Path and then click on Edit.
On the Edit environment variable dialog, you’ll see a list of all the paths that are currently in the PATH variable. As you can see, Node.js and Git already added their paths so that I can run Git commands and Node.js commands from anywhere while in the command prompt.
To add a new path, simply click on New and it’ll add a new line to the bottom of the list. If you know the path, simply type it in or copy and paste it. If you prefer, you can also click Browse and then navigate to the desired path.
To edit any path, simply select it and then click on the Edit button. You can also delete paths using the Delete button. Note that you can also move items up and down on the list. When you type a command at the command prompt, Windows has to search through each directory stored in the PATH variable to see if that executable exists or not. If you want your executable to be found faster, just move that path up to the top of the list.
This can also come in handy if you have multiple versions of the same command in different paths and need to have one run instead of the other. The one that shows up higher in the list will be run when you type in the command.
Lastly, if you click on Edit text, it will load a dialog where you can edit the Path variable using the old interface where all the paths are listed in one text box.
That’s all there is to it! If you want to learn more about environment variables, make sure to check out my post on how to create your own custom environment variables. Enjoy!
Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications. Read Aseem’s Full Bio
How to modify the PATH variable definitely through the command line in Windows
I would like to make a .bat file that would add some string at the end of the value of the Windows PATH variable. Warning, I want this change to be definitive, not working only for the current session.
Does somebody know of a way to do this ? As much as possible it should not be dependent on the version of Windows
2 Answers 2
Sorry for the long answer, but a short answer on your question is impossible.
First of all you should understand how environment variables works. There are some places in the registry like HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment where the environment variables will be hold. On start-up the operation system reads this registry keys. Then one windows process creates another windows process. The parent process can give to the client process any set of environment variables. If the parent process doesn’t do this, the child process inherits environment variables of the parent processes.
To be able update environment variables of a running process with respect of WM_WININICHANGE or WM_SETTINGCHANGE messages. A windows application can interpret this messages and reread the current environment variables from the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment . So you can in general change registry values under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment and send
It would be much better to use SendMessageTimeout instead of SendMessage, but the idea will stay the same. The problem is that other processes must not wait for the message and do something. Most console application have no message loop and don’t do anything if you send such messages.
So it is important to understand that there is no simple way to update environment variables of all processes without restarting of the computer. You should have a clear understanding of this and reduce your question a little.
