How to test if an executable exists in the %PATH% from a windows batch file?

Question

I\'m looking for a simple way to test if an executable exists in the PATH environment variable from a Windows batch file.

Usage of external tools not provided by th

Answer 1

Here is a simple solution that attempts to run the application and handles any error afterwards.

file.exe /?  2> NUL
IF NOT %ERRORLEVEL%==9009 ECHO file.exe exists in path

Error code 9009 usually means file not found.

The only downside is that file.exe is actually executed if found (which in some cases is not desiderable).