Setting Windows PowerShell environment variables

Question

I have found out that setting the PATH environment variable affects only the old command prompt. PowerShell seems to have different environment settings. How do I change the

Answer 1

All the answers suggesting a permanent change have the same problem: They break the path registry value.

SetEnvironmentVariable turns the REG_EXPAND_SZ value %SystemRoot%\system32 into a REG_SZ value of C:\Windows\system32.

Any other variables in the path are lost as well. Adding new ones using %myNewPath% won't work any more.

Here's a script Set-PathVariable.ps1 that I use to address this problem:

 [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$true)]
 param(
     [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
     [string]$NewLocation)

 Begin
 {

 #requires –runasadministrator

     $regPath = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
     $hklm = [Microsoft.Win32.Registry]::LocalMachine

     Function GetOldPath()
     {
         $regKey = $hklm.OpenSubKey($regPath, $FALSE)
         $envpath = $regKey.GetValue("Path", "", [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryValueOptions]::DoNotExpandEnvironmentNames)
         return $envPath
     }
 }

 Process
 {
     # Win32API error codes
     $ERROR_SUCCESS = 0
     $ERROR_DUP_NAME = 34
     $ERROR_INVALID_DATA = 13

     $NewLocation = $NewLocation.Trim();

     If ($NewLocation -eq "" -or $NewLocation -eq $null)
     {
         Exit $ERROR_INVALID_DATA
     }

     [string]$oldPath = GetOldPath
     Write-Verbose "Old Path: $oldPath"

     # Check whether the new location is already in the path
     $parts = $oldPath.split(";")
     If ($parts -contains $NewLocation)
     {
         Write-Warning "The new location is already in the path"
         Exit $ERROR_DUP_NAME
     }

     # Build the new path, make sure we don't have double semicolons
     $newPath = $oldPath + ";" + $NewLocation
     $newPath = $newPath -replace ";;",""

     if ($pscmdlet.ShouldProcess("%Path%", "Add $NewLocation")){

         # Add to the current session
         $env:path += ";$NewLocation"

         # Save into registry
         $regKey = $hklm.OpenSubKey($regPath, $True)
         $regKey.SetValue("Path", $newPath, [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryValueKind]::ExpandString)
         Write-Output "The operation completed successfully."
     }

     Exit $ERROR_SUCCESS
 }

I explain the problem in more detail in a blog post.