ENV PATH didn't take effect

anaconda_wly has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Sorry it may be not proper to post the question here but I did get quick good answer here. . .I'm using Win2k3 32bit and log in as administrator. I checked computer->system properties->Environment variables->System variables->PATH has added the path(saying c:\abc) which I'm wanting. But when I click-opened a command prompt and type PATH, c:\abc is not there in PATH display and any commands under c:\abc not found. Only when run a command prompt as administrator, can I see it. Who can explain this to me? Doesn't System variables appended to all other user's ENV profiles? WHy I must always run cmd prompt as administrator?

Comment on ENV PATH didn't take effect

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Re: ENV PATH didn't take effect by Happy-the-monk (Canon) on Jun 07, 2013 at 06:03 UTC
I am afraid I am not qualified for the windows support, but my best guess is, the system variables do not get propagated to all users as you suspect. ~~I think, that should be the normal behavior.~~ You can modify your own PATH variable in Perl through the `%ENV` hash. `$ENV{PATH}` contains the PATH, and you can modify it. Subsequent shells or cmd prompts invoked by your Perl script use that information. Cheers, Sören edit: strikethrough - wrong thought (hooked on the Perl Programming language)	[reply]
Re^2: ENV PATH didn't take effect by anaconda_wly (Scribe) on Jun 07, 2013 at 06:32 UTC
Thank you for the response. In fact, I changed the Path variable using Perl by TieRegistry. The system path do changed. But the click-opened command prompt didn't. If it didn't propagate to all users, I've already logged in as administrator, why I should right click opened "run as administrator" to see this change is beyond my understanding. I expect after I added the PATH env, all users can use it, no need to set it manually any more.	[reply]
Re^3: ENV PATH didn't take effect by Happy-the-monk (Canon) on Jun 07, 2013 at 06:39 UTC
The change, if made permanent, may take effect after a logoff/logon. The environment on disk is copied to your live environment on logon. Changing the config on disk does not followup in memory right away. Cheers, Sören (hooked on the Perl Programming language)	[reply]
Re: ENV PATH didn't take effect by Anonymous Monk on Jun 07, 2013 at 07:26 UTC
You might be interested in CleanPath Cleans up the System and User-specific PATH persistent environment variables by removing duplicate and invalid entries. Can also add directories to the System PATH. Note that it has been wrapped by pl2bat for ease of use under Windows NT. This script does not work for Win9x. I've tested it under WinNT, Win2K, and WinXP.	[reply]