[variables] Windows 7 environment variable not working in path

I am trying to set up some path using environment variable. I added an environment variable "MAVEN_HOME" with the value "C:\maven". Then in the path I added "%MAVEN_HOME%\bin;...rest". When I type "echo $MAVEN_HOME%" I get the correct "C:\maven" printed on the screen. But when I type "mvn" which is a batch file in the "bin" directory, it can't find it.

So, I manually added the entire path in PATH. "C:\maven\bin;...rest" and it was able to find "mvn" and execute it.

Could someone help me what I did wrong?

If there is any error at all in the PATH windows will silently disregard it. Things like having %PATH% or spaces between items in your path will break it. Be warned

I had this problem in Windows 10 and it seemed to be solved after I closed "explorer.exe" in the Task Manager.

Make sure both your System and User paths are set correctly.

To address this problem, I have used setx command which try to set user level variables.

I used below...

setx JAVA_HOME "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_92"

setx PATH %JAVA_HOME%\bin

NOTE: Windows try to append provided variable value to existing variable value. So no need to give extra %PATH%... something like %JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%

In my Windows 7.

// not working for me
D:\php\php-7.2.6-nts\php.exe

// works fine
D:\php\php-7.2.6-nts

My issue turned out to be embarrassingly simple:

Restart command prompt and the new variables should update

Also worth making sure you're using the command prompt as an administrator - the system lock on my work machine meant that the standard cmd just reported mvn could not be found when typing mvn --version

To use click 'start > all programs > accessories', right-click on 'command prompt' and select 'run as administrator'.

%M2% and %JAVA_HOME% need to be added to a PATH variable in the USER variables, not the SYSTEM variables.

Things like having %PATH% or spaces between items in your path will break it. Be warned.

Yes, windows paths that include spaces will cause errors. For example an application added this to the front of the system %PATH% variable definition:

C:\Program Files (x86)\WebEx\Productivity Tools;C:\Sybase\IQ-16_0\Bin64;

which caused all of the paths in %PATH% to not be set in the cmd window.

My solution is to demarcate the extended path variable in double quotes where needed:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\WebEx\Productivity Tools";C:\Sybase\IQ-16_0\Bin64;

The spaces are therefore ignored and the full path variable is parsed properly.

If the PATH value would be too long after your user's PATH variable has been concatenated onto the environment PATH variable, Windows will silently fail to concatenate the user PATH variable.

This can easily happen after new software is installed and adds something to PATH, thereby breaking existing installed software. Windows fail!

The best fix is to edit one of the PATH variables in the Control Panel and remove entries you don't need. Then open a new CMD window and see if all entries are shown in "echo %PATH%".

I had the same problem, I fixed it by removing PATHEXT from user variable. It must only exist in System variable with .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC

Also remove the variable from user to system and only include that path on user variable

Copy the value of path to notepad and check if this corresponds with the echo %path% in terminal window and make changes if needed. Then delete the old path value and paste the notepad value back in. I assume some invisible character entered there by some installation corrupted the path value.

Check if there is a space character between the previous path and the next:

Incorrect: c:\path1; c:\Maven\bin\; c:\path2\

Correct: c:\path1;c:\Maven\bin\;c:\path2\