On StackOverflow and on the internet in general, there are outdated and few guides on how to add a specific folder to the Windows 10 Path
environment variable of the user.
I think a complete guide for new developers with step-by-step instructions and screenshots could be really useful to help them execute utilities from a Command Prompt without the need of the full path, simplifying the things.
For the guide below we want to add an example utility called mytool.exe
which is located in C:\Users\NewFolderInPath\mytool.exe
, so that every time I want to execute the mytool utility I don't have to specify the full path.
I used this as an example, you can replace the folder with something more realistic like the JDK bin directory located here C:\Program Files\Java\{JDK_VERSION}\bin
to execute javac
, keytool
or everything you want.
Step 1 - Click on the
Windows
icon
Step 2 - Click on the
Settings
icon
Step 3 - Click on
System
Step 4 - Click on
About
Step 5 - Click on
System info
Step 6 - Click on
Advanced system settings
Step 7 - Click on
Environment variables...
Step 8 - Select
Path
row and then clickEdit
Step 9 - Click
New
and then clickBrowse
, then in the next panel which will open you need to select the folder you want in thePath
. For the initial premise of this guide, I will add the folderC:\Users\NewFolderInPath
Step 10 - Click
OK
and click everyOK
button you will encounter to close each previous window.
Step 11 - Open a
command prompt (cmd)
and now you can execute your utility without specifying the full path.