Path and Environment variables in Windows

Question

How to set the path and environment variables in Windows.

Answer

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
Windows 2000 and Windows XP users

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users

1. From the Desktop, right-click My Computer and click Properties.
2. Click Advanced System Settings link in the left column.
3. In the System Properties window click the Environment Variables button.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP users

The path is now managed by Windows 2000 and Windows XP and not the autoexec.bat or autoexec.nt files as was done with earlier versions of Windows. To change the system environment variables, follow the below steps.

1. From the Desktop, right-click My Computer and click Properties.
2. In the System Properties window, click on the Advanced tab.
3. In the Advanced section, click the Environment Variables button.
4. Finally, in the Environment Variables window (as shown below), highlight the Path variable in the Systems Variable section and click the Edit button. Add or modify the path lines with the paths you wish the computer to access. Each different directory is separated with a semicolon as shown below.
   
   C:\Program Files;C:\Winnt;C:\Winnt\System32

Alternatively, you can use Redmond Path Editor.