Is there a way to set the environment path programmatically in C++ on Windows?

Question

Is there a way to set the global windows path environment variable programmatically (C++)?

As far as I can see, putenv sets it only for the current application.

Answer 1

As was pointed out earlier, to change the PATH at the machine level just change this registry entry:

HLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment

But you can also set the PATH at the user level by changing this registry entry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment\Path

And you can also set the PATH at the application level by adding the application\Path details to this registry entry:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\