Why don't programs on Windows usually add themselves to the PATH variable?

Question

I couldn't even count the number of times I've had to manually add a directory. Is there a security reason for it, or do developers/installers not think about it?

Answer 1

Usually a program is started via a link, which has the path to the executable hard coded within it. There's no need to add to the general $PATH unless the program will be commonly executed from a command line.