Path Editor
Why are you editing your path with this.
Windows built in environment variable editor
When you could be editing your path with this.
Redfern Software Path Editor
If you have ever had need to alter, manage, or otherwise interact with the System or User Path on your PC then you know how painful it is do with the built in tools. Path Editor is a small utility that makes path management very straightforward with it’s intuitive user interface and drag-and-drop simplicity. Path Editor can clean your path of missing and duplicate entries with a single click of the mouse.
Features:
- Friendly intuitive user interface.
- Edit System or Current User Path.
- Edit any registry key that looks like a path
- Optionally expand environment variables used in the path.
- Automatically clean path of missing and duplicate entries.
- Rearrange entries using buttons or drag-and-drop.
- Double-click a path entry to open directory in a file explorer.
- Add a directory by dragging the directory (or a file) from a file explorer.
- Use /c on the command line to clean, save, and exit with no user interaction.
- Path Editor is distributed under the Simplified BSD License
(16 votes, average: 4.88 out of 5)
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Please post any glowing reviews, comments, bug reports in the comments below or on the alternate download sites. This software is donation-ware. You are free to use it. You are encouraged to donate if you find it useful. You can make a donation from the About… dialog in the application. Of course, if you don’t know what the Path is, then you might not really need this. If you give less than 5 stars, please leave a comment as to why. I cannot make it better without your feedback. Thanks!
Hello !
I manage the LiberKey project (www.liberkey.com). LiberKey is a
compilation of Portable Software with autoupdate features.
I have validated your software but before adding it in the LiberKey, I need your authorisation.
For your information : The LiberKey is completely FREE. You can download
it for free. There is no spyware, ads…
Regards
Christophe Peuch
(LiberKey.com)
@opendev
You have my authorization to include Path Editor. Thanks.
Great little utility, can’t believe I have tolerated the standard pathetic single text field for so long.
Any chance of an option to change the font, for those among us with a Courier allergy?
Another minor feature request: Add the option for multiple select using SHIFT-click in the path list, for manipulation of blocks of related paths.
Hi borniko,
Great ideas! I’m an old-school courier fan. I grew up with it and it’s my preferred monospaced font. But I can totally understand why others might not like it. It’s not pretty. So…I’ve added the ability to change it. The preference is stored in the registry and is persistent. You can change it by right-clicking in either path list and selecting “Change Font…”. It won’t be hard to find since it’s the only thing there.
I’ll get this update pushed up the to website soon.
I’ve thought about the multiple select feature before, but just haven’t got around to doing it yet. It’s not going to be quite as trivial as adding Font support.
Kevin,
Wow, quick response, and good job! The multiple select thing is a minor thing anyway, especially if it’s a hassle.
Thanks a lot for this fine little program. I won’t need it very often, but when I need it, I’ll be glad it’s there
Nice tool! Simple and efficient to do a such boring task. Could you share the source code because I’ve a feature I’d be glad to implement?
Thanks.
@Raj
Indispensable tool. Saves time when installing/updating SDKs and databases. Makes path editing fast and easy.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for sharing this utility.
I installed Path Editor to my machine. But before the installation started, a progress bar prompted titled Microsoft Office 2007 and the progress bar was going backwards. Then the progress bar for Path Editor popped-up and installed. Afterwards when I started MS Word and Excel, the same progress bar that was going backwards popped up, disappeared then started Word or Excel. This only happened once after installing Path Editor and never occured after subsequent opening of MS Office products.
If you can shed some light on this I would appreciate it.
Thank you.
Hi is it possible to add a direct link (like combobox) to choose the variable to edit (example CLASSPATH)
thanks
Hi Fredo,
Thanks for the idea. I have thought about adding this feature in the past, but haven’t had a personal need for it. I’ll take a look at it again now that someone has expressed interest in it.
Hi,
can this be scripted, as to check and add if required a path??
Very nice app.
Are you planning to make it possible to choose other environment variables from within the GUI not only from command line?
I just uploaded a minor update to add the “/c” command line parameter and add support for Vista/Windows 7. Under Vista/W7 the app needs to be run with administrator privileges since registry access is required. Specifying the “/c” parameter on the command line will automagically clean and save the path to the registry before exiting the app. No user interaction is required so the app can be scripted.
Kevin
Any comments on if you’re planning to make it possible to choose other environment variables from within the GUI not only from command line?
Piotr, I have thought about adding this feature in the past, but it isn’t something that I’ve personally needed yet. It is on the short list though. My regular (paying) job has kept me quite busy this year so these side projects are not moving very fast right now. Someday I’ll have lots of time on my hands again.
Very very nice tool!
thanks…
…and yes, having a way to edit other system variables, would be great!
alfonso
Lovely tool. I was about to write something like this myself, and on a hunch searched google to see if it had already been done. Yes! And with pretty much exactly what I had in mind that I wanted in the tool. Nicely done.
Kevin,
Could you please place information on license of Path Editor on your site?
Great tool. I only have one quibble:
The installer does not let me choose the location of the start menu entry and insists on putting the ‘Path Editor’ entry into the root of ‘All Programs’. Ok, no problem, many installers don’t let you choose this.
However, if I manually move the ‘Path Editor’ entry to a different subfolder in my start menu tree and run the path editor again, the installer will restore the start menu entry and I have to delete it again every time I run the program. This is the only program I have that does this (all others either let me specify the start menu location at install time, or at least let me change their start menu entry manually).
@Piotr Dobrogost
Done! Also included in the installer and the program directory. Path Editor is distributed under the Simplified BSD License.
Nice little program for its functionality, but I, like bodo, am having this weird issue where the program insists on (a) putting a shortcut on my desktop, and (2) recreating a program folder group in my start menu EACH time it starts.
It’s highly aggravating.
I like to organize my start menu myself by category (e.g. games, system tools, internet, email, etc) rather than by Vendor and Company (a strange commercial/corporate Microsoft practice in my eyes) but this program insists on trying to make me conform to the corporate Microsoft way of doing things, i.e. organizing all my programs by software vendor rather than by functional type. I have never understood why people put up with this corporate nonsense, and I am a bit appalled and perplexed that this otherwise nice program tries to bully me into doing this as well.
I totally understand where you coming from, though I’m a bit more apathetic about the situation (probably because I stopped using the Start Menu years ago in favor of keyboard launchers). Anyway, as I said in an earlier comment, this seems the be the bizarre default behavior of the installer package in Visual Studio 2008. I’m trying to figure out how to disable it.
I just bumped the version to 2.0.2.1 to fix an annoyance where the RegExFolder in the Start Menu could not be moved or renamed without the application recreating the original Start Menu entry the next time it was started.
Thank you thank you thank you! Great to see a developer so responsive, especially of a free piece of software. My computer is much happier. And I understand this was due to behavior of Visual Studio 2008, not something you built into the program, confirming my suspicion this sort of thing is down to Microsoft practices… Keep up the great work!
Thanks Kevin, I’ll give this a try. I didn’t find the forced start menu entry as aggravating as Aaron did, mainly because it happened quite rarely with the latest build (I still don’t understand why), but it would be great to have it let me keep my own start menu all the time. Thanks for fixing this.
Kevin, Just want to say thanks for the handy tool. One thing that would be nice to see is a backup/restore feature. The reason for this is recently another vendor’s installer for some reason wiped the entire env path and I had to basically readd each entry back which is why I used your tool to help speed up the process.
Hi, great work, just downloaded latest 2.0.2.2, but when installed it says still v.2.0.2.1, so I cannot use the useful /C clean switch on command line
((
This looks great, but … I downloaded the current msi from the website and installed it and tried to run it. The cursor flashes and the process silently quits. I’ve tried re-downloading, re-installing, and rebooting. Any ideas?
Does not work properly on Windows 7. It changes the PATH in the registry from REG_EXPAND_SZ to REG_SZ and then environment variables won’t expand anymore.
A few suggested fixes:
1. In the registry, Path Editor changes the Type of the PATH key (in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Session Manager\Environment) from REG_EXPAND_SZ to REG_EXPAND.
The prevents the Command Prompt (at least in Windows 7) from expanding variables like %SystemRoot%, causing basic Windows programs like NOTEPAD and PING to no longer be found (as it doesn’t parse “SystemRoot\system32;”%SystemRoot;%systemRoot\system32\Wbem” correctly).
2. Path Editor always terminates the PATH with a final “;”. This is not common practice; I have encountered some other programs that try to add directories to the PATH and always start by adding a “;”. This results in the PATH containing “;;”, which the Command Prompt does not like (it fails to find any programs in directories after that). Although I don’t think Path Editor is technically wrong here, it would be more compatible if it omitted the final “;”.
@Rob
Sorry – meant to say “from REG_EXPAND_SZ to REG_SZ”.