4 replies to this topic

[KevSev]

First off, everyone thanks for the help.....

i need help trying to add to the envirnment variable PATH.

i used the function that is in examples to find a file in PATH but now i need help on how to add one.

anyone's assistance is greatly appreciated.

thanks again,
KevSev

[Taco Bell]

I feel lazy today, so I'll just tell you that there have been a couple discussions on this topic before, so just do a search for the keyword "path" and I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.

[BobT]

Here is how I add a value to the path variable on NT and WIN2000.  Make sure you disable logging before creating the entry because it may remove the whole key when you uninstall.

Global Declarations
#define WM_SETTINGCHANGE 0x001A
#define HWND_BROADCAST 0xffff

Local Declaration
POINTER pEnv


Disable (LOGGING);
sKey = "SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Session Manager\\Environment";
sName = "Path";
RegDBSetDefaultRoot (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE);
//Check to see if the key exists
if (RegDBGetKeyValueEx(sKey, sName, nType, sValue, nSize) < 0) then
//If it doesn't, create it and if successful, broadcast the change
if (RegDBSetKeyValueEx(sKey, sName, REGDB_STRING_EXPAND, gsAppExePath, -1) = 0) then
sEnv = "Environment";
pEnv = &sEnv;
sendMessage (HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0, pEnv);
endif;
else
if (RegDBSetKeyValueEx(sKey, sName, nType, sValue + ";" + gsAppExePath, -1) = 0) then
//if it does exist then add the path to the end of the value and if successful, broadcast the change
sEnv = "Environment";
pEnv = &sEnv;
SendMessage (HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0, pEnv);
endif;
endif;

Enable(LOGGING);

HTH
BobT

[Taco Bell]

OKay, that'll do the job, but couple things I wanted to point out:

1.  I know some will probably disagree with me in this approach, but I _THINK_ a broadcast is only necessary if your setup doesn't already require a reboot.  Can anyone back me up on this?

2. If the PATH system variable doesn't already exist, then the OS has problems.  Particularly if it's WINNT/W2K.

3. Your code here doesn't check if your App. Path is already in PATH, so each time you run your setup your unnecessarily appending your install directory.

[Ide Nentjes]

TacoBell00:
About (1) : true, a broadcast is (only) needed to let running applications know that the environment has been changed. Since the environment is set anew during startup of windows, the broadcast isn't needed if you will reboot anyway. Note that some applications are not able to process a broadcast and hence won't receive the updated environment. Most noticably is the IS IDE. This means that if you run an install directly with setup.exe, the broadcast will get processed in your project, but if you run it from the IDE, it won't. (don't you just love IS, sometimes)

BobT & KevSev:
If you are running winNT/2000: There are scripts in the 'IS5/6 Samples > Operation System' which will handle your PATH for you.

Ide