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so that I can execute apps (in cmd prompt) without specifying the fully qualified folder structure.

jj33
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Jon Erickson
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2 Answers2

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As an admin,

  • Go to Control Panel | System and click on Advanced System Settings in the left pane OR

  • Right-click on Computer and choose Properties

  • Click the Environment Variables button

  • Under System Variables, edit the PATH variable and add your folder to the value (seperate with a semi-colon)
squillman
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  • do I need to restart for it to take affect? – Jon Erickson May 21 '09 at 16:46
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    No, you shouldn't. It is possible, however, that you'll need to restart certain services for them to pick up the change. This isn't typically a big deal in a workstation OS, though, unless you're using it as a server. You'll also need to close and reopen and cmd prompts that you have open at the time of the change. – squillman May 21 '09 at 17:01
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You can also modify them via the registry. I find this useful when scripting some legacy programs that require certain environmental variables to function.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/104011