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

I tried to optimise SBF's and Michael's code a bit to make it more compact.

I am relying on PowerShell's type coercion where it automatically converts strings to enum values, so I didn't define the lookup dictionary.

I also pulled out the block that adds the new path to the list based on a condition, so that work is done once and stored in a variable for re-use.

It is then applied permanently or just to the Session depending on the $PathContainer parameter.

We can put the block of code in a function or a ps1 file that we call directly from the command prompt. I went with DevEnvAddPath.ps1.

param(
    [Parameter(Position=0,Mandatory=$true)][String]$PathChange,

    [ValidateSet('Machine', 'User', 'Session')]
    [Parameter(Position=1,Mandatory=$false)][String]$PathContainer='Session',
    [Parameter(Position=2,Mandatory=$false)][Boolean]$PathPrepend=$false
)

[String]$ConstructedEnvPath = switch ($PathContainer) { "Session"{${env:Path};} default{[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('Path', $containerType);} };
$PathPersisted = $ConstructedEnvPath -split ';';

if ($PathPersisted -notcontains $PathChange) {
    $PathPersisted = $(switch ($PathPrepend) { $true{,$PathChange + $PathPersisted;} default{$PathPersisted + $PathChange;} }) | Where-Object { $_ };

    $ConstructedEnvPath = $PathPersisted -join ";";
}

if ($PathContainer -ne 'Session') 
{
    # Save permanently to Machine, User
    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", $ConstructedEnvPath, $PathContainer);
}

# Update the current session
${env:Path} = $ConstructedEnvPath;

I do something similar for a DevEnvRemovePath.ps1.

param(
    [Parameter(Position=0,Mandatory=$true)][String]$PathChange,

    [ValidateSet('Machine', 'User', 'Session')]
    [Parameter(Position=1,Mandatory=$false)][String]$PathContainer='Session'
)

[String]$ConstructedEnvPath = switch ($PathContainer) { "Session"{${env:Path};} default{[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('Path', $containerType);} };
$PathPersisted = $ConstructedEnvPath -split ';';

if ($PathPersisted -contains $PathChange) {
    $PathPersisted = $PathPersisted | Where-Object { $_ -ne $PathChange };

    $ConstructedEnvPath = $PathPersisted -join ";";
}

if ($PathContainer -ne 'Session') 
{
    # Save permanently to Machine, User
    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", $ConstructedEnvPath, $PathContainer);
}

# Update the current session
${env:Path} = $ConstructedEnvPath;

So far, they seem to work.