Setting environment variables?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I want to set a permanent environment variable for the currently logged on
user - as far as I can tell this would be done from the Environment Variables
dialog under the Advanced settings of the System control panel.

BUT - I'm a normal user, and can only access the Advanced Settings by
providing Admin credentials. At which point the User variables that can be
set in the dialog are for the admin account that I just authenticated with!

Is there any way I can get round this and set up persistent environment
variables as a non-admin user?
 
Is there any way I can get round this and set up persistent environment
variables as a non-admin user?
Click to expand...

Nice bug find! :)

Yes, you can get around this with the setx command.

- Open a command prompt
- Type: setx variable value

Note, that value must be enclosed in quotes if it contains any spaces.

For example,

setx MYDIR "c:\documents and settings\"

For more info on setx, check out:
http://www.ss64.com/nt/setx.html
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/9e0748f8-5c67-4dc4-b8dc-11a8481d86331033.mspx
 
Jimmy Brush said:
Yes, you can get around this with the setx command.
Click to expand...

Doh! Thanks for the pointer.

I hope this kind of bug gets caught over time. I'm sure there are a number
of similar instances where you can't just lock down the entire functionality
of an existing dialog box without breaking something!
 
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