Override System Environment variable path in windows (not admin access)

Question

Issue is very peculiar, I have a version of NodeJS installed in Windows (in program files x86) and a newer version of software downloaded and exe is extracted.

The installed NodeJS (node.exe) 's path is included in system path variable. I added the extracted path to user environment path variable. After doing my bit of RTFM I came to know that in case path variable both system and user environment variables are combined and the system gets the precedence.

Is there any way I can override (or nullify) the system variable's PATH with user variable's path ? or can the precedence of reading variables be changed ?

Answer 1

In cmd, type

set PATH=D:\Path_To_Local_Folder;%PATH%
node

It will start node from your local folder.

Answer 2

Using Powershell you can set the folder Node runs from so that it picks up the new version of Node for that instance of Powershell.

1. Open Powershell
2. Set the path variable to be your node folder $env:Path = "C:\yournodefolder";
3. Running node --version should now display the version of node from your new folder.