Configuring PATH and other environment variables in a bat file on Windows 7

from http://edeustace.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/configuring-path-and-other-environment-variables-in-a-bat-file-on-windows-7/

On Mac/Linux you can configure your environment variables easily by editing the ~/.bash_profile or the .bashrc file.

However in Windows one normally launches the Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings, go to the Advanced tab then click the “Environment Variables…” button.

The downside of of this is that the input field provided by windows is very small which is a problem when you are editing the PATH variable. One usually has to copy the value out to a text editor, edit it the paste it back in.

I was helping a colleague configure his environment and I noticed that he was configuring his variables in a bat file. I have since left the project so I’m not sure how he was doing it. I’ve come up with my own solution here.

Basically the solution is:
1. Create a bat file
2. Add a shortcut to this bat file the start up items folder
3. In the bat file use the “setx” command

So I have a bat file here: c:\config\environment.variables.bat
I put a shortcut to it into: C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Then this file looks like this:

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set PHP=C:\PHP5.3.3\ set PERL=C:\Perl64\site\bin set PERL64=C:\Perl64\bin set IMAGE_MAGICK=C:\Program Files (x86)\ImageMagick-6.5.6-Q8 set IMAGE_MAGICK16=C:\Program Files (x86)\ImageMagick-6.6.3-Q16 set RUBY=C:\Ruby187\bin set RUBY2=%RUBY_HOME%\bin set GRAILS=%GRAILS_HOME%\bin set ANT=%ANT_HOME%\bin set M2=%M2_HOME%\bin set ROOT=%SystemRoot%\system32 set WBEM=%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem set POWERSHELL=%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\ set SVN=C:\Program Files\SlikSvn\bin\ set PERFORCE=C:\Program Files\Perforce set TOMCAT=%TOMCAT_HOME%\bin set MYSQL=C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin set GIT=C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\cmd set QUICKTIME=C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\ set SBT=C:\Users\eeustace\dev\lift\sbt setx PATH "%PHP%;%PERL%;%PERL64%;%IMAGE_MAGICK%;%IMAGE_MAGICK16%;%RUBY%;%RUBY2%;%GRAILS%;%ANT%;%M2%;%ROOT%;%WBEM%;%POWERSHELL%;%SVN%;%PERFORCE%;%TOMCAT%;%MYSQL%;%GIT%;%QUICKTIME%;%SBT%"

As you can see I’m using this to configure my PATH variable, but I could easily configure the other environment variables also.

Setx is a command in windows 7 that allows you to configure environment variables. More info here.

What do you think – useful?