Commands Visibility at Command Prompty Not Using System32

Question

Hi,

Let's say I have a foo.exe file that I want to use it from windows command prompt. I will go to the folder which contains foo.exe and run it. Now, if I want global access for foo.exe from anywhere in the command prompt I will put foo.exe in System32 folder.

This process makes System32 a dump ground. I was wondering if there are any other ways of globally accessing the .exe or bat files without having to dump all of them in System32 folder.

Answer 1

Change your PATH environment variable. i.e. "set path=%path%;[newdir]"

where [newdir] is the new directory you want searched when you run commands.

The PATH Environment Variable

Answer 2

You can either do this programatically (StackOverFlow) or follow these instructions How to set the path in Windows 2000 / Windows XP, another one.