What is an environment variable in Windows? An environment variable is a dynamic “object” containing an editable value which may be used by one or more software programs in Windows.
In this note i am showing how to set an environment variable in Windows from the command-line prompt (CMD) and from the Windows PowerShell.
In the examples below i will set an environment variable temporary (for the current terminal session only), permanently for the current user and globally for the whole system.
Cool Tip: Add a directory to Windows %PATH% environment variable! Read More →
Set Environment Variable For The Current Session
Set an environment variable for the current terminal session:
# Windows CMD C:\> set VAR_NAME="VALUE" # Windows PowerShell PS C:\> $env:VAR_NAME="VALUE"
Print an environment variable to the console:
# Windows CMD C:\> echo %VAR_NAME% # Windows PowerShell PS C:\> $env:VAR_NAME
Cool Tip: List Windows environment variables and their values! Read More →
Set Environment Variable Permanently
Run as Administrator: The setx command is only available starting from Windows 7 and requires elevated command prompt. It works both for the Windows command-line prompt (CMD) and the Windows PowerShell.
Permanently set an environment variable for the current user:
C:\> setx VAR_NAME "VALUE"
Permanently set global environment variable (for all users):
C:\> setx /M VAR_NAME "VALUE"
Info: To see the changes after running setx – open a new command prompt.