How to set environment variable Path using C# [duplicate]

Question

I am trying to set path environment variable for MySql.

I don't get an error, but my code doesn't work.

Code:

First:

string pathvar = @";C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\\";
System.Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", pathvar);

Second:

string pathvar = System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH");
System.Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", pathvar + @";C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\\");

Thank you for your help...

Answer 1

You are associating the environment variable with your program, but instead you want to associate it with your local machine in order to make it available to every program. Look at the overload that takes an EnvironmentVariableTarget.

var name = "PATH";
var scope = EnvironmentVariableTarget.Machine; // or User
var oldValue = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(name, scope);
var newValue  = oldValue + @";C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.1\bin\\";
Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable(name, newValue, scope);

Answer 2

Calling SetEnvironmentVariable has no effect on the system environment variables. Check this answer here:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/19705691/1057667