GT Explains: What is Environment System Variable and How to Edit it in Windows

Whenever I write content related to Android rooting and ADB access, I often ask readers to add a specific path to Windows System Environment variable so that they can execute the command globally. However, most of the users seem to be having trouble understanding what setting up the environment variable path actually means and the way to edit it in Windows to include the path.
Today I am going to show you how you can edit Environment Variable in Windows but before we see that, let’s understand what it really means.

What Environment Variable Means

Environment Variable is only significant if you are working on Windows Command prompt. Let me state an example for better understanding. Suppose you type in the command ipconfig to find out the IP configuration of your computer. No matter in which folder you are in the Command Prompt, Windows will recognize the command and automatically run it. However, if you try to execute any executable file in a folder without actually navigating to the folder, Windows will not be able to recognize the command.

It’s not that Windows has a soft corner for the ipconfig command, but the path where the ipconfig command is located in the system, i.e. system32 is configured in Windows Environment Variable by default. So the point is, if you want to run any file on Command Prompt, no matter which folder you are in you will have to set up the Environment Variable Path for it.
So let us now see how we can set up an Environment Variable in Windows to include the path of a folder.

Setting Windows Environment Folder

Step 1: Open Windows Explorer and navigate to Computer. Here, click on the System properties button to open your computer System properties.

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Step 2: After the Windows System Properties open up, click on the link Advanced System Settings on the left sidebar.

Step 3: In Advanced System Properties click on the button Environment Variable to open Environment Variable.

Step 4: Under user variable, double click on PATH to open it. You can now add the path of the folder in the text box. Use a semicolon (;) to merge two or more paths.

Finally press the OK Button to save the settings and close all the windows. You can now access the executable files from the configured path globally on Command Prompt.

Conclusion

That was how you can edit and include a custom path to Windows Environment Variable in Windows to execute a file throughout the Command Prompt. I have tried my best to put it in as easy way as possible, still if you have questions you would like me to clear, all you need to do is drop a comment