Windows XP environment variable editor replacement that handles lines

Question

I'm looking for an environment variable editor that handles linebreaks well. I have a monster %PATH% to edit (edited to save side-scrolling):

C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\;C:\Program Files\PC Connectivity
Solution\;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;
C:\cygwin\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin;C:\WINDOWS
\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Utils;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL 
Server\100\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn\;
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\;
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\;
C:\Program Files\MKVtoolnix;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roxio Shared\
DLLShared;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE

I want the editor to put each path in a line and when I click save & close, for the editor put the lines back in the right format.

Is there an editor that can do that?

Answer 1

Try out Rapid Environment Editor

Or based on Dominic's idea:
open up vim

:r !path
:%s/;/\r/g

Fix up your path lines, adding or deleting or modifying them
(delete first blank line)

:%s/\n/;/g

Answer 2

If this is inside a batch file, you can split the path up into multiple lines like so:

set PATH=C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\PC Connectivity Solution\
set PATH=%PATH%;%SystemRoot%\system32
set PATH=%PATH%;%SystemRoot%
set PATH=%PATH%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\cygwin\bin
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Utils
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn\
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell Common7\IDE\
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\MKVtoolnix
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Roxio Shared\DLLShared
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE

Also, as a side note, I've had problems running JBoss when the PATH contains items that end in backslash. Suggest you avoid the ending backslash on each path item to avoid issues.

Answer 3

I found Environment Variable Editor on codeplex that does the job.

Answer 4

Right click on My Computer > Advanced System Settings (or similar) > Advanced Tab > Environment Variables.

You'll have to do one at a time though.

Alternatively, using CMD you can use the set command to change/add environment variables. You could probably create a script to do this for you, calling the set.exe from a program or batch file.

C:\Users\Callum>set /?
Displays, sets, or removes cmd.exe environment variables.

SET [variable=[string]]

variable  Specifies the environment-variable name.
string    Specifies a series of characters to assign to the variable.

Type SET without parameters to display the current environment variables.

You may also wish to read this and kb Q 104011:

Windows stores the environment variables in the registry under 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment (for user environment variables) and 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Environment 
(system environment variables). See also kb Q 104011.

Answer 5

You could always write out a new file, splitting on ; and writing out each component to a new line. Edit in your favourite editor, then join the lines back together with a ;.

You'd just need to write two tiny little utilities.