Section 5.8 in my sample Installation Guide for SharePoint Server 2010 and Office Web Apps states the following:
On each SharePoint server in the farm, append C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\BIN to the Path environment variable (in order to run stsadm.exe from various folder locations without having to specify the full path).
Adding a folder to the Path environment variable is pretty basic stuff and it probably doesn’t take more than 30 seconds to click through Control Panel → System and Security → System → Advanced system settings → Environment Variables (or one of the equivalent shortcuts) and add this to %Path%.
Nevertheless, I prefer to use a PowerShell script to complete this task in a fraction of that time:
C:\NotBackedUp\Public\Toolbox\PowerShell\Add-PathFolders.ps1 "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\BIN" -EnvironmentVariableTarget "Machine"
In addition to the script to add folders to the Path environment variable (Add-PathFolders.ps1), my Toolbox folder also contains a corresponding script to get the folders in %Path% (Get-PathFolders.ps1) as well as remove folders from %Path% (Remove-PathFolders.ps1). However, I honestly haven’t found much use for that last one. I created it primarily for the sake of completeness.
Note
You can download these scripts from my Toolbox repository on GitHub:
Get-PathFolders.ps1
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Gets the list of folders specified in the Path environment variable.
.PARAMETER EnvironmentVariableTarget
Specifies the "scope" to use when querying the Path environment variable
("Process", "Machine", or "User"). Defaults to "Process" if the parameter is
not specified.
.EXAMPLE
.\Get-PathFolders.ps1
C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
C:\Windows\system32
C:\Windows
C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
...
Description
-----------
The output from this example lists each folder in the Path environment variable
for the current process.
.EXAMPLE
.\Get-PathFolders.ps1 User
C:\NotBackedUp\Public\Toolbox
Description
-----------
The output from this example assumes one folder
("C:\NotBackedUp\Public\Toolbox") has previously been added to the user's Path
environment variable.
#>
param(
[string] $EnvironmentVariableTarget = "Process")
Set-StrictMode -Version Latest
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
[string[]] $pathFolders = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(
"Path",
$EnvironmentVariableTarget) -Split ";"
If ($pathFolders -ne $null)
{
Write-Output $pathFolders
}
Add-PathFolders.ps1
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Adds one or more folders to the Path environment variable.
.PARAMETER Folders
Specifies the folders to add to the Path environment variable..
.PARAMETER EnvironmentVariableTarget
Specifies the "scope" to use for the Path environment variable ("Process",
"Machine", or "User"). Defaults to "Process" if the parameter is not specified.
.EXAMPLE
.\Add-PathFolders.ps1 C:\NotBackedUp\Public\Toolbox
#>
param(
[parameter(Mandatory = $true, ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
[string[]] $Folders,
[string] $EnvironmentVariableTarget = "Process")
begin
{
Set-StrictMode -Version Latest
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
Write-Verbose "Path environment variable target: $EnvironmentVariableTarget"
[bool] $isInputFromPipeline =
($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey("Folders") -eq $false)
[int] $foldersAdded = 0
[string[]] $pathFolders = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(
"Path",
$EnvironmentVariableTarget) -Split ";"
[Collections.ArrayList] $folderList = New-Object Collections.ArrayList
$pathFolders | foreach {
$folderList.Add($_) | Out-Null
}
}
process
{
If ($isInputFromPipeline -eq $true)
{
$items = $_
}
Else
{
$items = $Folders
}
$items | foreach {
[string] $folder = $_
[bool] $isFolderInList = $false
$folderList | foreach {
If ([string]::Compare($_, $folder, $true) -eq 0)
{
Write-Verbose ("The folder ($folder) is already included" `
+ " in the Path environment variable.")
$isFolderInList = $true
return
}
}
If ($isFolderInList -eq $false)
{
Write-Verbose ("Adding folder ($folder) to Path environment" `
+ " variable...")
$folderList.Add($folder) | Out-Null
$foldersAdded++
}
}
}
end
{
If ($foldersAdded -eq 0)
{
Write-Verbose ("No changes to the Path environment variable are" `
+ " necessary.")
return
}
[string] $delimitedFolders = $folderList -Join ";"
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(
"Path",
$delimitedFolders,
$EnvironmentVariableTarget)
Write-Verbose ("Successfully added $foldersAdded folder(s) to Path" `
+ " environment variable.")
}
Remove-PathFolders.ps1
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Removes one or more folders from the Path environment variable.
.PARAMETER Folders
Specifies the folders to remove from the Path environment variable..
.PARAMETER EnvironmentVariableTarget
Specifies the "scope" to use for the Path environment variable ("Process",
"Machine", or "User"). Defaults to "Process" if the parameter is not specified.
.EXAMPLE
.\Remove-PathFolders.ps1 C:\NotBackedUp\Public\Toolbox
#>
param(
[parameter(Mandatory = $true, ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
[string[]] $Folders,
[string] $EnvironmentVariableTarget = "Process")
begin
{
Set-StrictMode -Version Latest
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
Write-Verbose "Path environment variable target: $EnvironmentVariableTarget"
[bool] $isInputFromPipeline =
($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey("Folders") -eq $false)
[int] $foldersRemoved = 0
[string[]] $pathFolders = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(
"Path",
$EnvironmentVariableTarget) -Split ";"
[Collections.ArrayList] $folderList = New-Object Collections.ArrayList
$pathFolders | foreach {
$folderList.Add($_) | Out-Null
}
}
process
{
If ($isInputFromPipeline -eq $true)
{
$items = $_
}
Else
{
$items = $Folders
}
$items | foreach {
[string] $folder = $_
[bool] $isFolderInList = $false
for ([int] $i = 0; $i -lt $folderList.Count; $i++)
{
If ([string]::Compare($folderList[$i], $folder, $true) -eq 0)
{
$isFolderInList = $true
Write-Verbose ("Removing folder ($folder) from Path" `
+ " environment variable...")
$folderList.RemoveAt($i)
$i--
$foldersRemoved++
}
}
If ($isFolderInList -eq $false)
{
Write-Verbose ("The folder ($folder) is not specified in the Path" `
+ " list.")
}
}
}
end
{
If ($foldersRemoved -eq 0)
{
Write-Verbose ("No changes to the Path environment variable are" `
+ " necessary.")
return
}
[string] $delimitedFolders = $folderList -Join ";"
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(
"Path",
$delimitedFolders,
$EnvironmentVariableTarget)
Write-Verbose ("Successfully removed $foldersRemoved folder(s) from Path" `
+ " environment variable.")
}