Menu
I am working on an installer using Wix 3.5 that needs to set the system PATH environment variable.
This is how I am setting the environment variable:
<Directory Id="DirectoryName"> <Component Id="ComponentID" Guid="{BE20AF67-5943-4AF4-BE66-226E2D4B844F}"> <Environment Id="EnvironmentID" Name="PATH" Action="set" Value="the path" Part="last" Separator=";" System="yes" /> </Component> </Directory> This seems to be working on 32-bit systems without requiring a reboot for the changes to be recognized. However, when I try it on 64-bit Windows 7 a reboot is required.
Is this a known issue on 64-bit systems?
Maybe the best approach would be to schedule a reboot to cover all bases.
Thanks, Alan
775
No, you don't need to restart your system. However, you have to restart your command prompt application to update the changes done on Environment variables.
You can set an environment variable permanently by placing an export command in your Bash shell's startup script " ~/. bashrc " (or "~/. bash_profile ", or " ~/. profile ") of your home directory; or " /etc/profile " for system-wide operations.
On the Windows taskbar, right-click the Windows icon and select System. In the Settings window, under Related Settings, click Advanced system settings. On the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables. Click New to create a new environment variable.
Check this question on ServerFault: How do you add a Windows environment variable without rebooting?
So to propagate the change to the list of environment variables, you can write a small program which broadcasts WM_SETTINGCHANGE message as described in KB article How to propagate environment variables to the system.
108
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With
