up vote 4 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

Is there anyway to change my path environment variable (or variables in general) on Windows 7 Exterprise (64 bit) and have it take effect in power shell or command prompt without requiring a restart? I don't mind having the reopen the shell/prompt but having to restart sucks!

I'm currently changing variable from 'Advanced Systems settings'->'Environment Variables'.

link|improve this question
80% accept rate
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

The requirement really isn't "must restart", it's "must log out/log back in" -- mostly for your current user processes to pick up the change.

If all you're interested in is for the variable changes to take effect in a command window or power shell, starting a new shell after making said changes should be all that's needed.

link|improve this answer
1  
Its weird creating a new terminal/shell window after making changes always used to work on previous windows versions but it doesn't seem to be enough on Win7 :( – Danielb Nov 29 '09 at 19:27
Also programs (in my case NUnit) will often read the new path changes if you open and close them. – Matthew Lock Apr 2 at 23:53
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

In my Win7 (64-bit) the console command

path=drive:\dir;%path%

adds drive:\dir to the beginning of the current console's path without starting a new console. No idea why your Win7 should behave differently. I'd like to know how some programs add themselves to the %path% variable for every instance of the console, though.

To change the Windows 7 path manually, check: http://geekswithblogs.net/renso/archive/2009/10/21/how-to-set-the-windows-path-in-windows-7.aspx

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.