I’m occasionally using a beta program that requires me to change the search path. The procedure for doing this in Vista seems to be something that Microsoft do not wish to talk about, and I have to search the web to remind myself how to do it; so I’m going to post the procedure here and maybe I’ll remember it.
Click on the “Start” button and select “Computer”
Right click and select “properties”
Select “Advanced System Settings” from the left
It should display the “Advanced” tab; Click on the “Environment Variables” button
Find the “Path” variable on the “System Variables” list.
Click the “Edit” button
Edit the path, and click OK three times
Re-boot
Newton Excel Bach, not (just) an Excel Blog 
There may be a better way: use batch files to load programs with nonstandard configurations, in this case a nonstandard environment. For example, if you need to change the path to run FOOBAR.EXE, use a batch file like
@echo off
set PATH=…whatever…
start …path to…\FOOBAR.EXE
Windows applications launched from batch files inherit their environments from that of the console process from which they were launched. Further, the changed environment is limited to the console process and any separate processes launched from the console process.
Simpler AND safer than changing the standard environment.
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Thanks Harlan. That should definitely make life easier (and safer) than messing around with the standard environment in a nasty little edit box.
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