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I am very confused on what is incorrect with my Windows Path variable.

In my System Settings I have the System Variable Path set to: 

C:\windows\system32;C:\windows;C:\windows\System32\Wbem;C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.41-windows-x64\apache-tomcat-6.0.41\bin;C:\ProgramFiles\TortoiseHg;

Yet, when I try to run hg.exe (in C:\Program Files\TortoiseHg) from the command line in another directory it returns "hg is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file".

I thought that if I set my Path to include the executable directory, then I could run hg commands from any directory. Why is this not working? How can I make my Path variable set to something global? Maybe I don't understand the difference between a User Environment variable and a System environment variable?

**Note that if I echo %path% from my command line I get something slightly different than what shows in System Variables:

C:\Users\stankard>echo %path%
C:\windows\system32;C:\windows;C:\windows\System32\Wbem;C:\windows\System32\Wind
owsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;%ANT_HOME%\bin;
C:\apache-tomcat-6.0.41-windows-x64\apache-tomcat-6.0.41\bin;C:\ProgramFiles\Tor
toiseHg;C:\ProgramFiles\TortoiseHg\
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    If you have transcribed your PATH variable correctly, then you have omitted the blank in "Program Files".
    – AFH
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 16:21
  • And why do you have ** at the end of your path? You also have WindowsPowerShell twice in your path.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 16:45
  • The ** is there from when I had formatted the text I believe. This is now edited
    – user379559
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 17:01

1 Answer 1

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As AFH points out in his comment, if you've transcribed your path here properly, then you forgot the space in "Program Files".

Additionally, you can't use a environment variables in your path, so "%ANT-HOME%" isn't going to work and could be messing up the paths after it.

See this SU question: Why can't Windows handle an environment variable in Path?

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  • This is really helpful-- thanks. What is the difference between %path% and how it appears in the gui? In My Computer-->Properties-->AdvancedSystemSettings-->EnvironmentVariables .. My Path variable there is different than when I echo %Path%. Why is this? I am going to restart and see if my changes update..
    – user379559
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 16:58
  • The PATH in the command prompt is the System's Path + your User's Path.
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 17:04
  • Ah thank you very much for clarification TECHIE007. Restart took care of all changes. Biggest problem as far as I can tell is the space that I omitted in "ProgramFiles" vs "Program Files" so thank you very much @AFH ! I also had removed my '%ANT_HOME%' so this was perhaps useful as well.
    – user379559
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 17:12

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