Skip to main content

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

20
  • 11
    On Windows Vista onwards you can use SETX to make permanent changes. It has a slightly different syntax. SETX has to be added from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit for earlier versions of NT.
    – paradroid
    Commented May 16, 2011 at 23:58
  • 1
    @paradroid Nice, didn't know that (not a Windows user). This topic is community wiki, you can go ahead and just edit in that information.
    – Daniel Beck
    Commented May 17, 2011 at 4:05
  • 2
    @JdeBP The section title was meant to reference how to set these values on the user interface, which is called shell on Windows, in contrast to the section following, command-line interface. I edited this before I even saw your comment 10 hours ago. Noone ever mentioned that this applied only to Explorer.
    – Daniel Beck
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 18:15
  • 1
    @JdeBP The answer you linked to doesn't really apply in this case, since you talked about setting the values in the registry. Setting via dialog will broadcast that WM_SETTINGCHANGE I imagine, and therefore notify interested parties about the new values. That's why I asked how it applied here. Making something boldface doesn't change its meaning and neither makes it easier to understand, just like repeating the same sentence, only louder. Also, I edited this post a few hours ago to specifically mention that the values the processes receive are set when they are launched.
    – Daniel Beck
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 18:19
  • 3
    @JdeBP You might also notice that the question is rather basic in nature. Carefully explaining the intricacies of how changes to the environment variables are distributed (seriously, WM_SETTINGCHANGE? Windows API? This isn't this question's audience!) might not be a good idea, as it might confuse the reader instead of explaining what these variables are about.
    – Daniel Beck
    Commented May 24, 2011 at 18:23