Set a persistent environment variable from cmd exe

Question

I have to set environment variables on different windows machines  but I don t want to be bothered changing them manually by getting on the properties screen of  My Computer   I want to do it from the command line  with a batch file  As far as I understand  using set will only change the variable for the processes I will call in the command window   I want to set it definitely  so later  when running a new process  it will use those new settings I have set  Is there a way to do that from the command line

User · Answer

Indeed SET TEST VARIABLE value works for current process only  so SETX is required  A quick example for permanently storing an environment variable at user level     In cmd  SETX TEST VARIABLE etc  Not applied yet  echo  TEST VARIABLE  shows  TEST VARIABLE   Quick check  open cmd  echo  TEST VARIABLE  shows etc  GUI check  System Properties -  Advanced -  Environment variables -  User variables for  -  you should see Varible TEST VARIABLE with value etc

User · Answer

Use the SETX command  note the  x  suffix  to set variables that persist after the cmd window has been closed   For example  to set an env var  foo  with value of  bar    setx foo bar   Though it s worth reading the  notes  that are displayed if you print the usage  setx      in particular      2  On a local system  variables created or modified by this tool will be available in future command windows but not in the current CMD exe command window       3  On a remote system  variables created or modified by this tool will be available at the next logon session    In PowerShell  the  Environment   SetEnvironmentVariable command

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An example with VBScript   vbs  Sub sety wsh  action  typey  vary  value    Dim wu   Set wu   wsh Environment typey    wui   wu Item vary    Select Case action     Case  quot ls quot        WScript Echo wui     Case  quot del quot        On Error Resume Next       wu remove vary        On Error Goto 0     Case  quot set quot        wu Item vary    value     Case  quot add quot        If wui    quot  quot  Then         wu Item vary    value       ElseIf InStr UCase  quot   quot   amp  wui  amp   quot   quot    UCase  quot   quot   amp  value  amp   quot   quot      0 Then         wu Item vary    value  amp   quot   quot   amp  wui       End If     Case Else       WScript Echo  quot Bad action quot    End Select End Sub  Dim wsh  args Set wsh   WScript CreateObject  quot WScript Shell quot   Set args   WScript Arguments Select Case WScript Arguments Length   Case 3     value    quot  quot    Case 4     value   args 3    Case Else     WScript Echo  quot Arguments - 0  ls del set add  1  user system  2  variable  3  value quot      value    quot     quot  End Select If Not value    quot     quot  Then     0  ls del set add  1  user system  2  variable  3  value   sety wsh  args 0   args 1   UCase args 2    value End If

User · Answer

The MSDN documentation for environment variables tells you what to do      To programmatically add or modify system environment variables  add them to the HKEY LOCAL MACHINE System CurrentControlSet Control Session Manager Environment registry key  then broadcast a WM SETTINGCHANGE message with lParam set to the string  Environment   This allows applications  such as the shell  to pick up your updates    You will of course need admin rights to do this   I know of no way to broadcast a windows message from Windows batch so you ll need to write a small program to do this

User · Answer

Sets environment variables for both the current  cmd  window       and or other applications going forward     I call this file keyz cmd to be able to just type  keyz  at the prompt       after changes because the word  keys  is already taken in Windows    echo off     set for the current window set APCA API KEY ID key id set APCA API SECRET KEY secret key set APCA API BASE URL https   paper-api alpaca markets     setx also for other windows and processes going forward setx APCA API KEY ID      APCA API KEY ID  setx APCA API SECRET KEY  APCA API SECRET KEY  setx APCA API BASE URL    APCA API BASE URL      Displaying what was just set  set apca     Or for copy paste manually        setx APCA API KEY ID      key id     setx APCA API SECRET KEY  secret key     setx APCA API BASE URL    https   paper-api alpaca markets

[windows] Set a persistent environment variable from cmd.exe

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