I'm writing a dos-batch in which I need to change the PATH.
I'm using the SET command.
The batch is run from the command line (cmd.exe).
The problem : the changes are only available for the cmd window, and I soon as this window is closed, the changes are dismissed.
How can I change the PATH from a batch and make sure the change will affect the whole system ?
There is a tool setx.exe provided in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools that can be used to permanently change an environment variable from the command line:
setx path "%PATH%;C:\New Folder"
Source: http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/environment.htm
The above link also gives the location of the registry keys that store the system / user environment variables - if you are feeling adventurous you could also try setting those.
User environment variables:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment
System environment variables:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
Related
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.
In my .bat file, I used the code:
setx /m path "%PATH%;%~dp0" %~dp0
to add the current directory of the .bat file to the system path.
But I can't use the cmd to run phantomjs.exe (in the same directory) until I go into my system settings and edit the path variable. I do not actually make any changes, just click edit then ok to apply the change.
What do I need to add to the script to allow me to run phantomjs.exe without the need of going into system settings?
EDIT: The laptop I'm using is a 32bit operating system and the change is not applied. I tested it on a 64bit operating system using the code setx /m path %PATH%%~dp0 and the change is applied straight away without having to open the path variable.
How can i make this work for a 32bit operating system?
Use set and setx. Setx is for future windows and set for current window. Mix and match how you want.
On my Pc, running Windows XP 5.1.2600, following
"My Computer" > "Properties" > "Advanced" > "Environment Variables" > "Path"
I get a string, but in a batch file, or directly typing from prompt, by means of
echo %path%
I get a different one.
Can someone, please, explain what makes them differ and how to fix the issue, setting the "DOS-path" to the same value of "Windows-PATH" ?
Two things:
As others have mentioned, the full value of PATH is the combination of the user's PATH variable and the system's PATH variable.
If you change environment variables (including PATH), any processes already running (including the Command Prompt) will continue using the old environment variable values. You will need to restart those processes to pick up any changes that you've made.
The value of the PATH environment variable you see on the command line (which has nothing to do with "DOS" btw) is the sum of the system wide PATH variable and the user specific PATH variable.
If you open the dialog with the system variables from within the control panel, the upper part contains the user specific environment variables. The lower part contains the system variables.
If you set a PATH variable for your user to e.g. c:\foo, and the system path is be c:\Windows\System32 then you'd see c:\Windows\System32;c:\foo when you do an ECHO %PATH% on the commandline.
Probably the difference you are seeing is that when a new process is made, its default environment contains a PATH variable that is made by merging the system variable with the user variable.
As for how to "fix the issue", there is nothing to fix. The system behaves as designed.
I was getting the same issue where the System Variable that I get through the
"My Computer" > "Properties" > "Advanced" > "Environment Variables" >
"Path"
was different that the one being displayed through the command line interface via
ECHO %PATH%
The fix for this is basically to wait for the change to take place and this can be made faster by restarting the cmd and explorer. To do that you can simply end task for Explorer and CMD and then start a new task or restart it directly.
The same shall be done for the CMD as well.
The Windows registry can hold path entries that do not show up in the Environment Variables version of PATH you see via the control panel. (Why, I do not know).
The difference means that something (likely an install script) made changes to the registry.
To view or change the local user's path variable, look in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment key.
To view the system path, look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
I tried to add to the PATH environment variable ";C:\my_EXE" so I can run the programs I put there via cmd (windows 8).
I tried this command:
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\my_EXE
but it changed the PATH environment variable only until the CMD window was closed.
I searched on Google and I found this command:
setx PATH "%PATH%;C:\my_EXE"
that is supposed to set it forever, but it also works only until the CMD window has closed
and it made something like this:
[new PATH]=[old PATH]X2
It appears only in a new cmd and not in system properties(!=cmd, there is the PATH with my new path and not X2)
Why does this happen?
How can I set the PATH environment variable without problems?
There are two persistent PATH variables, the per-machine variable and the per-user one. They get appended together to produce the actual environment variable. (Environment variables in the PATH are also expanded at this point.)
That's why you're getting the path doubled up, because you've set the per-user persistent variable to include everything from the environment variable (which already includes everything from the per-machine persistent one).
You can use setx with the /m parameter to set the per-machine persistent variable, but this isn't ideal:
If the per-user persistent variable is set, its contents will be copied into the per-machine persistent variable, which is likely to be inappropriate;
If the persistent variable references other environment variables, the references will be replaced with the current value of those variables. If the referenced variables change, the PATH will no longer follow those changes. (To be honest, though, most of the time this won't matter: the feature isn't commonly used.)
Instead, consider using pathman which is specifically designed to manipulate paths. You can get pathman.exe from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools download.
Note that both setx and pathman may hang if there are any unresponsive GUI applications running, even if the application window is hidden. The best way to minimize this risk is to reboot the machine immediately before running any script that uses setx or pathman.
You should use setx command with "/m" parameter.
I found a way to change the default home directory of a user but I am having trouble with it.
Doing this will change the home drive to C:
But then when I check the environment variable:
It is still H:, with a system restart the Enviroment variables in windows settings will also return to H:/
I have also tried changing it like this:
Which appears to work but if i open a new cmd it will have reverted back to H:/
Now I am trying to do this so that OpenSSH will recognise C as my home directory instead of H: which is a network drive, forcing OpenSSH not to work unless I cam connected to my university network via VPN.
What can I do to set this permanently and in the eyes of OpenSSH?
Nowhere does it mention a dependency between the HOMEDRIVE value and the HOMEDIRECTORY value, what was happening (I think) is that it was failing to map the home directory to the HOMEDRIVE and therefore defaulting back to a safe value (C:)
I wrote a script to update the local AD, replace the values in [] with your values. Copy and paste into a .vbs file and double click on it to run it.
Set objUser = GetObject("WinNT://[COMPUTERNAME]/[USERNAME],user")
objUser.homeDirDrive = "H:"
objUser.HomeDirectory = "[URNPATH]"
objUser.SetInfo
e.g.
Set objUser = GetObject("WinNT://UQBDART-2328/BEN,user")
objUser.homeDirDrive = "H:"
objUser.HomeDirectory = "\\SERVER\SHARE"
objUser.SetInfo
run this, reboot and test. It worked for me.
Sounds like the AD profile on the domain is overwriting the user defined variables. I see your screenshot says you are connected to the eait.org.edu.au domain. That will be the root of your issue. Just to include some details here that I spotted elsewhere, that may be of help to you:
HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH & HOMESHARE are set and updated via Active Directory. HOMEDRIVE & HOMEPATH are set even without a home drive set on the account; however they will be overridden by any user account properties set in AD.
Also see these KB articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841343
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/237566
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/101507
On a side-note for another way around the issue:
-I have in the past created a new instance of the windows command-line shell executable that automatically runs a custom script, so everytime you launch the shell, the environment variable could be overriden.
-To do that you could just put the code you posted to change the environment variable into a batch script, stored wherever you like, then edit the shortcut(s) used to launch the shell by going to properties > then alter the Target box: %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /K "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\customshellscript.cmd" (Obviously the part of the path after /K is the location of your custom script)
This way, if you are using openSSH over the console anyway, it will always have the homedrive set correctly.
Changing those environment variable's values is not "supported", at least it will not work as you expect because Windows changes them back.
According to this Microsoft knowledge base article (KB841343), you should use policies, if you need to change these settings. The article also contains links for how to do that (but personally, I never tried). Note that the article was originally written for Windows 2000, but I would strongly suspect, that it is still valid for current Windows versions.
Back in the days of DOS the environment variables were part of the Program Segement which meant that you basically got a local snapshop of the variables limited to the scope of that program.
I'm guessing Windows hasn't changed this and the environment variables available to the CMD window only have the scope of that window and any further windows it spawns. This is supported by this little experiment:
in a CMD window type
set homedrive=h:\
and then test it's updated by typing
set h
from this same window type
start cmd
and in this new window type
set h
when I've done this I get HOMEDRIVE=H:\
if I then just open a new CMD window from the start menu and do the same SET H I get HOMEDRIVE=C:\
I don't know anything about OpenSSH but I suspect like the START CMD got the updated HOMEDRIVE environment variable, if you write a batch to update the environment variable and then execute OpenSSH that'll work.
I had a similar issue, the HOMEDRIVE variable was set to U: which was a drive we no longer used. This was just for one particular user. I went to that user's profile in AD and clicked the Attribute Editor tab. There was an attribute for HOMEDRIVE which I changed from U: to C: - when the user logged in again, it was set correctly. I also updated the HomeDirectory attribute here.
This issue had been really frustrating me trying to find a solution, but I have found what I think is the definitive answer and posted it at:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/60235759/12903197
You need to run 'net user USERNAME /homedir:PATH' where USERNAME is the name of the user you are trying to change and PATH is the drive letter and full path to the desired home folder, which must already exist.
On windows 8:
Hit "windows key".
type "system environment variables".
Allow "Advance system settings" to make changes.
Select "Advance" tab.
Click on "Enviroment Variables...".
Double click on "Path" from "User variable for XXXXXXXX"
Add at the end the variable the new path that you want separated by semicolon.
e.g. C:\Program Files\;C:\Python27\
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