How can you make a .exe file accessible from any location in the Windows command window? Is there some registry entry that has to be entered?
You need to make sure that the exe is in a folder that's on the PATH
environment variable.
You can do this by either installing it into a folder that's already on the PATH
or by adding your folder to the PATH
.
You can have your installer do this - but you may need to restart the machine to make sure it gets picked up.
Windows 10, 8.1, 8
Open start menu,
Edit environment variables
Edit the system environment variables
Environment variables...
buttonSystem Variables
box find path
variableEdit
New
.exe
or batch
file ( Directory means exclude the file name from path)Ok
on all open windows and
You can add the following registry key :
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\myexe.exe
In this key, add the default string value containing the path to the exe file.
You have to put your .exe
file's path into enviroment variable path. Go to "My computer -> properties -> advanced -> environment variables -> Path" and edit path by adding .exe
's directory into path.
Another solution I personally prefer is using RapidEE for a smoother variable editing.
Rather than putting the executable into a directory on the path, you should create a batch file in a directory on the path that launches the program. This way you don't separate the executable from its supporting files, and you don't add other stuff in the same directory to the path unintentionally.
Such batch file can look like this:
@echo off
start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Software\software.exe" %*
Let's say my exe is C:\Program Files\AzCopy\azcopy.exe
Command/CMD/Batch
SET "PATH=C:\Program Files\AzCopy;%PATH%"
PowerShell
$env:path = $env:path + ";C:\Program Files\AzCopy"
I can now simply type and use azcopy
from any location from any shell inc command prompt, powershell, git bash etc
It is very simple and it won't take more than 30 seconds.
For example the software called abc located in D:/Softwares/vlc/abc.exe Add the folder path of abc.exe to system environment variables.
My Computer -> Click Properties -> Click Advanced system settings -> Click Environment Variables
Click on Ok.
now you can just open cmd prompt and you can launch the software from anywhere. to use abc.exe just type abc in the command line.
it's amazing there's no simple solution for such a simple task on windows, I created this little cmd script that you can use to define aliases on windows (instructions are at the file header itself):
https://gist.github.com/benjamine/5992592
this is pretty much the same approach used by tools like NPM or ruby gems to register global commands.
To get global bash-like aliases in Windows for applications not added to the path automatically without manually adding each one to the path, here's the cleanest solution I've come up with that does the least amount of changes to the system and has the most flexibility for later customization:
mkdir c:\aliases
setx PATH "c:\aliases;%PATH%"
To start C:\path to\my program.exe
, passing in all arguments, opening it in a new window, create c:\aliases\my program.bat
file with the following contents(see NT Start Command for details on the start commmand):
@echo off
start "myprogram" /D "C:\path to\" /W "myprogram.exe" %*
To start C:\path to\my program.exe
, passing in all arguments, but running it in the same window (more like how bash operates) create c:\aliases\my program.bat
file with the following contents:
@echo off
pushd "C:\path to\"
"my program.exe" %*
popd
If you don't need the application to change the current working directory at all in order to operate, you can just add a symlink to the executable inside your aliases folder:
cd c:\aliases\
mklink "my program.exe" "c:\path to\my program.exe"
Add to the PATH, steps below (Windows 10):
You may also permanently (after reboots) add to the Path variable this way:
Right click My Computer -> Click Properties -> Click Advanced system settings -> Click Environment Variables
Reference: Change System/User Variables
Put it in the c:\windows directory or add your directory to the "path" in the environment-settings (windows-break - tab advanced)
regards, //t
In order to make it work
You need to modify the value of the environment variable with the name key Path
, you can add as many paths as you want separating them with ;
. The paths you give to it can't include the name of the executable file.
If you add a path to the variable Path
all the excecutable files inside it can be called from cmd or porweshell by writing their name without .exe
and these names are not case sensitive.
Here is how to create a system environment variable from a python script:
It is important to run it with administrator privileges in order to make it work. To better understand the code, just read the comments on it.
Tested on Windows 10
import winreg
# Create environment variable for call the program from shell, only works with compiled version
def environment_var(AppPath):
# Point to the registry key of the system environment variables
key = winreg.CreateKey(winreg.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, r'System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment')
def add_var(path):
# Add the variable
winreg.SetValueEx(key, 'Path', 0, winreg.REG_SZ, path)
winreg.CloseKey(key)
try:
# Try to get the value of the Path variable
allPaths = winreg.QueryValueEx(key, 'Path')[0]
except Exception:
# Create the Path variable if it doesn't exist
add_var(path=AppPath)
return
# Get all the values of the existing paths
Path=allPaths.split(';')
# If the Path is empty, add the application path
if Path == ['']:
add_var(path=AppPath)
return
# Check if the application path is in the Path variable
if AppPath not in Path:
# Add the application path to the Path environment variable and add keep the others existing paths
add_var(path=AppPath+';'+allPaths)
# Only run this if the module is not imported by another
if __name__ == "__main__":
# Run the function
environment_var(AppPath=".")
You can find more information in the winreg documentation
This worked for me:
Open the cmd, write the name of the .bat file and it will work
Example
Want to open chrome on a specific link
create a .bat file with this (save it as blog.bat for example)
start "" "https://pythonprogramming.altervista.org/"
go in enviromental variable settings from the search bar in the bottom left of the window desktop
go in enviromental variables (bottom button) then in path (bottom)
add the path, for example G:\myapp_launcher
click apply or ok
Now open cmd and write blog: chrome will open on that page
Do the same to open a file... create a .bat in the folder G:\myapp_launcher (or whatever you called the folder where you put the batch file), call it run.bat or myapp.bat or whatever (write inside of it start filemane.pdf or whatever file you want to open) and after you saved it, you can run that file from cmd with run or myapp or whatever you called your batch file.
You can also move your files to C:\Windows
, but you need to use Administrator privileges and pay attention .
What did I mean with pay attention?
You need pay attention because you can also do some messes with Windows system files (Windows may not even work anymore) if you modify, delete, and do some changes incorrectly and accidentally in this folder...
Example: Don't add a file that have the same name of a Windows file
Use a 1 line batch file in your install:
SETX PATH "C:\Windows"
run the bat file
Now place your .exe in c:\windows, and you're done.
you may type the 'exename' in command-line and it'll run it.
Another way could be through adding .LNK
to your $PATHEX. Then just create a shortcut to your executable (ie: yourshortcut.lnk) and put it into any of the directories listed within $PATH.
WARNING NOTE: Know that any .lnk files located in any directories listed in your $PATH are now "PATH'ed" as well. For this reason, I would favor the batch file method mentionned earlier to this method.
I'm not a programmer or anything of the sort, but here's my simple solution:
PATH
; This will keep you from unintentionally putting files you don't want in the PATH
.
Feel free to drop a comment if you think this answer needs to be improved. Cheers 🍻.
PS No system or File Explorer restart needed. 😀
最好的方法是将 .EXE 文件的文件夹路径添加到环境变量中的路径值中。
I'm not sure what versions of Windows this works with, but I put some useful .bat
and .exe
files into:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps
(equivalent to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
)
which seems to be on my default PATH. I'd be interested to see if this were the general case.
DOSKEY is a Microsoft version of 'alias'. That function is already built into all versions of Windows (and most versions of DOS)
doskey fred=c:\myApps\myprog.exe
You'll want to load that every time you open a command prompt. Which you can do by any number of different methods. One way is to
Make a file containing all the doskey macros you want:
doskey fred=c:\whatever.exe
doskey alan=c:\whateverelse.exe
Change the file type / file name / file extension to .CMD or .BAT
ren myfile.txt myfile.CMD
Add the CMD/BAT file to your command processor autoruns key:
reg ADD \\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor /v autorun /t REG_SZ /d myfile.CMD
For more information see
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/doskey
and https://serverfault.com/a/1049766/142882
(serverfault.com/questions/95404/is-there-a-global-persistent-cmd-history)
Should anyone be looking for this after me here's a really easy way to add your Path.
Send the path to a file like the image shows, copy and paste it from the file and add the specific path on the end with a preceding semicolon to the new path. It may be needed to be adapted prior to windows 7, but at least it is an easy starting point.
The best way to do this is just install the .EXE file into the windows/system32 folder. that way you can run it from any location. This is the same place where .exe's like ping can be found
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