Adding to PATH via Python in Windows

Question

I want to add GeckoDriver exe to PATH environment variable via a python script, I found an answer on StackOverflow but this didn't work for me. My code says the path was added, but when I check in cmd or through the system settings, it isn't there:

cwd = os.getcwd()+"\\driver\\"

if 'geckodriver' not in os.environ:
    print("Added")
    os.environ["Path"] = cwd

Answer 1

The presented code will update the environment variable for the current shell and its children. It won't propagate up to setting the system-level settings.

The worse news, is that this can't be done easily. You either have to edit the registry , or you may be able to use setx command line tool. Neither are particularly friendly from Python, and both have downsides.

Answer 2

You need to run setx command to set permanent environmental variable under Windows. To run setx from Python, try this code:

from subprocess import check_output

cwd = os.getcwd()+"\\driver\\"

if 'geckodriver' not in os.environ:
    print("Added")
    check_output(f'setx Path "{cwd}"', shell=True)