Set PATH and other environment variables in Windows 11

Last updated on 05th September 2022

Environment variables are variables that are defined in the operating system to configure certain parameters such as the path to search for a command or executable, folder for temporary files, application-specific options, etc,. There are two types of environment variables - user environment variables and system environment variables. User environment variables are specfic to each user that it is set for, while system environment variables are available to everyone on that computer.

In this article you will learn how to

View Environment variables
Add / Modify Environment variables
Add / Modify / Remove PATH variable
Manage environment variables from Advanced System Settings

View Environment Variables

The SET command is used to view environment variables from the command line. To view all environment variables,

Open command prompt - click the search icon and type cmd in the search bar. Then click on the Command Prompt from the results.

On the Command Prompt, type set and press Enter.

C:\> set
ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files

To view any specific variable, the command is set followed by that variable name.
```
C:\> set windir
windir=C:\WINDOWS
```

Add or Modify Environment Variable

Use the setx command to add a new environment variable permanently or to modify an existing environment variable.

If you want to add or modify a environment variable temporarily to the current command window only, then the command to use is set.

setx variableName value
or
set variableName=value

Example

c:\> setx TESTVAR someValue
SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.

Now, open a new command prompt and run the set command to verify that the new environment variable is created.

c:\> Set testvar
TESTVAR=someValue

Adding System Environment Variables

By default, the setx command adds the variables as user variable in the local environment. To add a variable to the system environment use the /m parameter. You also need run the command prompt as an administrator.

c:\> setx TESTVAR someValue /m
SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.

If the command windows is not run in administrator mode then you will get the following error

 ERROR: Access to the registry path is denied.

The variables in the system environment are available to all users of the computer.

Difference between SET and SETX

The SET command is used to view, create and modify environment variables temporarily for the current command window. The variable that you add using SET are not available on any future command windows.

SETX command adds the variables permanently. The variables that are added using SETX are not available on the current command window but will be available on all future windows.

You cannot use setx to remove a environment variable but you can use set to remove a variable from the current command window.

Setting PATH variable

The PATH variable defines the search path for executable files. You can set the PATH variable from the command line or GUI.

View current PATH

To view the current path you can simply run the path command or echo %PATH% command.

c:\> path
PATH=C:\windows\system32;C:\windows;C:\windows\System32\Wbem;C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\;

Add path to current PATH

To add new path to the exiting path, use the SET or SETX command.

For example, to add the directory c:\NewFolder to existing path, the command is

c:\> set PATH=c:\NewFolder;%PATH%

Modify an existing path

The SET and SETX commands can be also used to modify an existing path. The syntax for this command is

set PATH=%PATH:current_path=new_path%

For example, to change c:\NewFolder in the current path to c:\AnotherFolder, the command is

set PATH=%PATH:c:\NewFolder;=c:\AnotherFolder;%

Remove path from current PATH

The syntax for removing a folder path from the current PATH is same as modifying an existing path explained above, except that you just have to omit the new path.

set PATH=%PATH:path_to_remove;=%

For example, to remove c:\AnotherFolder; from the existing path, the command is

set PATH=%PATH:c:\AnotherFolder;=%

Manage Environment variables from Advanced System Settings

You could also manage environment variables from Advanced System Settings in Windows. Type env in the search box and select Edit environment variables for your account. This will open Environment Settings dialog from where you can add, edit and delete system and user environment variables.