3 replies to this topic

[prozacrefugee]

I have an install with some very weird behavior - it sets a environment variable, which then appears in CP-->System-->Environment Variables,  but this is not seen as set at the command prompt until the system is rebooted (even on XP systems).
This stops us from launching a neccesary program which depends on this variable, and rebooting is unfortunately not an option.  Does anyone know a way to force the system to refresh from the registry, or to SET a variable from the command prompt from within IS?

[Taco Bell]

No, actually that's not weird behavior.  It's standard operating (system) procedure.

To save yourself the reboot, you'll need to do a broadcast to inform the system that the environment variables have been updated.  Check out the following post for some sample code and/or the scripts in the 'IS5/6 Samples | Operation System'.

[prozacrefugee]

What I was referring to as weird is the fact that though the variable is updated in the system, it is not updated through the feeder files to cmd.exe.  
Thank you for the link, but it only works on NT 4 (this product supports all versions of Win post 95).  I've found a workaround by making a wrapper batch file to set these variables, which will do until the user reboots.

Thanks again

[Taco Bell]

Ah, my bad.  Since you specifically mentioned XP, I just assumed your OS targets were just the NT4/W2K/XP line.