a question regarding messing with Windows Path variable.
My situation is quite specific:
I was trying to install ffmpeg according to this tutorial https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-install-ffmpeg-on-windows/
The last step was setting the path variable setx /m PATH "C:\ffmpeg\bin;%PATH%"
It worked, however afterwards I noticed that if I try to call python from the command prompt or the powershell if run as administrator, I started getting 'chcp' is not recognized as an internal or external command, (although works fine if run as user), indicating that something is wrong with PATH variables.
I looked into my variables and saw this edit.
Path
It seems to me that the command added the ffmpeg line to the system path and possibly overwritten the original, which is why there are issues when using command prompt as administrator. It probably should have added it to the user Path (not system Path variable)
If that is the case, is there a way to restore the previous system Path variable. Maybe I can paste it from the user Path variable?
I have been trying to get windows to recognize shortcuts for developer tools. Things like adb for C:\Users\myusername\Andriod\platform-tools\adb.exe. I have tried using CMD and Powershell but they both don't add the PATH I tried the GUI and it doesn't show up.
I've tried setx path "%PATH%;C:\path\to\C:\Users\myusername\Andriod\platform-tools\adb.exe" in powershell and cmd then restarted powershell or cmd
input the variable adb but it pulls a command not recognized error.
Did you try the following?
Adding the path "C:\Users\myusername\Andriod\platform-tools" to your system/user PATH variable? You can do this by start-> environment variable -> environment variable and under system or user, edit the PATH variable and add the above link. Once you do this, restart CMD for it to work.
Add the executable in one of the already existing locations that are in the PATH variable. (Although this is one method, I would not suggest this). Again, if the executable has any dependencies, it must be in a place where the exe itself can access.
Putting %appdata% into the run window will open up the Appdata folder, but what is the command to open the User's Documents folder, even when someone else logs in? I thought it was something like %userdir%, but I can not find out what it is. Not sure what to search for in Google either so I am at a loss.
There is no environment variable for this. You'll need to set one. Here's a list of all Windows default environment variables:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds_shelloverview.mspx?mfr=true
*This is for XP, but should be the same for newer versions of Windows
For a single terminal session, you can just use
set USERDOCS=%USERPROFILE%\Documents
For all terminal sessions, you'll need to set a system environment variable. You can do this using the GUI or using setx -m USERDOCS %USERPROFILE\Documents, as described here.
The command to make this happen would be
explorer %USERDOCS%
But if you wanted to make an alias to that (i.e. a openuserdocs command), I can update and explain.
I've been trying to install the 64bit version of PostgreSQL 9.2 for Windows on my machine (Windows 7 64bit) and get this error:
The environment variable COMPSPEC does not seem to point to the cmd.exe or there is a trailing semi colon present.
I've installed it as Administrator.
I disabled the antivirus (Microsoft Security Essentials) and the firewall.
Running:
"%COMSPEC%" /C "echo test ok"
returned test ok
I've checked my System Environment Variables for trailing semi colon and I couldn't find any.
I then installed the 32bit version and managed to get to the end of the install with a different error message stating: Problem running post-install step. Installation may not complete correctly Error reading the C:\Program Files (x86)\PostgreSQL\9.2\data\postgresql.conf but there is no postgresql.conf file in that directory. It did install the application and when I try to connect the server with the red X on it it says fail at the bottom and it won't connect after I type in my password.
How can I connect to this server connection?
ComSpec is a generic error message for any installation failure.
Identifying the problem
Navigate to below path
c:\Users\XXXXXX\AppData\Local\Temp
Open 'bitrock_installer_XXXX.log'
Check, if you are getting below error:
Script stderr:
'"C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Local\Temp\POSTGR~1\TEMP_C~1.BAT"' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
Error running
C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Local\Temp/postgresql_installer_47b21c4ea1/temp_check_comspec.bat :
'"C:\Users\XXXXX\AppData\Local\Temp\POSTGR~1\TEMP_C~1.BAT"' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
This is a problem with '8.3 file names and directories' (e.g. '\Postgres Install' -> '\POSTGR~1')
Microsoft article on disabling 8.3 file names and directories: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/121007
Solution:
Open command prompt in admin mode
Execute following command to change the format based on your drive or all drives
Sample commands:
fsutil 8dot3name set 1" - disable 8dot3 name creation on all volumes
fsutil 8dot3name set C: 1" - disable 8dot3 name creation on c:
Execute the installation as a user having admin privileges
After install, consider resetting the 8dot3name setting to default (2) to avoid unintended consequences
Hope it solves the problem!
Very easy fix:
Just open Advanced System Settings in Control Panel and create a new System Variable( in the System Variable instead of User Variable section).
In the variable name, enter ComSpec and then in the variable value , enter C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe.
Alternative fix:
If you have already the ComSpec variable in the System Variable section, remove the ;at the end of it this should fix it.
It's not COMPSPEC it's just COMSPEC. Please show the output of:
echo %COMSPEC%
Note that COMSPEC could be set to something different in the Administrator account you're running the installer as. I'm not sure how to find that out, but it might appear in the PostgreSQL installer log, so please upload that and link to it in your post. See Reporting an installation error for info on where to get the installer log.
See the PostgreSQL for Windows FAQ entry Check the COMSPEC environment variable.
Here's a report I made suggesting that the installer should test for this explicitly and here's my blog post on the topic.
I got the same problem, and i found in the log:
Script stderr:
'C:\Users\S300' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Error running C:\Users\S300 (i5)\AppData\Local\Temp/postgresql_installer_56caeadbd6/temp_check_comspec.bat : 'C:\Users\S300' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
I change in User Variables TEMP to D:\TEMP and TMP to D:\TEMP.
And Solved My Problem.
In my case , the Installer was in %USERPROFILE%\DownloadsP{ Windows download folder}, I moved the installer to desktop and ran again. weird it worked lol.
I had a similar problem. After installation, the data folder contained no postgres.conf file. It only contained a single folder named "pg_log".
I described the solution that I used here: Postgres Installation Error reading file postgresql.conf
Basically, it would be helpful to check if the user has full permissions for the postgres folder, and run "init_db" and "pg_ctl start" commands again. If the path contains a space character, try using a relative path for the pg_ctl data folder argument.
I'm running Windows Server 2003 R2, and I have been unable to resolve this problem with the installer, so I resorted to using the binary PostgreSQL package. Hopefully this will be an alternative for others who do not want to perform an OS reinstall.
First, some background (hopefully useful to the developers)
It started out with the postgres service failing to start (the server had been running reliably for over a year). I assumed it was a corrupted PostgreSQL installation, so I uninstalled and attempted to reinstall. I encountered the following error:
There has been an error.
The environment variable COMSPEC does not seem to point to the cmd.exe or there is a trailing semicolon present.
Please fix this variable and restart installation.
However, the COMSPEC variable is set properly, verified with:
echo %COMSPEC%
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
and:
"%COMSPEC%" /C "echo test ok"
test ok
Since this is Windows Server 2003, there is no UCA wrapper around the Administrator account, so that is not causing the problem.
Manual Installation
NET USER postgres /ADD
C:\pgsql\bin\initdb.exe -U postgres -A password -E utf8 -W -D C:\pgsql\data
runas /user:postgres "C:\pgsql\bin\pg_ctl -D C:/pgsql/data -l C:/pgsql/logfile.txt start"
just do it run as administrator and change the environment system variable
like create a new variable 'ComSpec' and value type 'C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe'.
If the installer exe is on a network share that mapped drive might actually not be accessible to the installer as it runs as administrator. This can often happen in some virtual machine arrangements such as running windows in a parallels VM. Copy the installer to a local drive first and you won't have a problem.
What worked for me after trying to enter the commandline given her in cmd.exe
I found it was named cmd1.exe in system32.. so i copied the file and renamed it as cmd.exe and installation finished
Open Environment Variables, you can do this on Windows 7 by typing environment variables in the Search program and files bar when pressing the start button at the bottom left of the desktop. And create a new System Variable(in the 'System Variable' instead of 'User Variable' section).
In the variable name, enter ComSpec and then in the variable value , enter C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe.
That's all. Hope it works!
Alternative fix:
If you already got the ComSpec variable in the System Variable section, remove the ; at the end of it this should fix it.
First find the path to cmd.exe(mostly it is C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe).
Go to the enviornment variable and add this path to system variable path.And also create new variable in user variable called ComSpec and add this path as value. And you are ready to go.
I want to set an alias to my installation of firefox so I can easily start a web page, the problem is that I dont want the script to be system dependent.
Namely I want it to be able to run on a linux distribution where the command to start firefox is already mapped to 'firefox' and can easily be run that way through bash, but on my windows machine I cant seem to get it to assign to the same variable.
I saw that I could set it to '%firefox%' via the set command but that's not quite what I want.
I believe creating aliases is possible on a windows environment because the version of svn that I use auto-installed and was able to assign itself to 'svn'. Anyone know what was involved in them being able to get their alias working, or a similar way to alias a command?
If you include your Firefox path in the %PATH% environment variable, you can start FF with "firefox". Under Windows, you should edit the system-wide settings (see this link).
AFAIK, there is nothing similar to aliases under DOS/Windows (except the %firefox% way you mentioned, too). The 'svn' command you talked about most likely is the same thing, a 'svn.exe' and its path included to %PATH%.
This is a bit restrictive, as you can only use the original filename to launch a program, but you can work around this by creating a batch file in the program's path that launches the program, f.e. a FF.BAT that contains "firefox %1".
Alternatively, you can place a batch file in a path that already is in %PATH%, f.e. the Windows directory. That way, you don't have to modify %PATH%.