The Path variable from the Environment system variable is missing on some of the computers on our domain. Can that be a group policy setting? How do we find out how it happened?
We also would like to know how to add the Path variable back to the Environment on the computer.
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BTW: Env. Labels are stored in this registry key (Modify at your own risk; if you aren't experienced with registry structure/modifications then follow the instructions above:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
It's possible this key was mistakenly deleted by someone?
I've encountered this same problem recently and believe I've figured out the cause. I know the question has been answered a long time ago, but maybe this will help someone else.
The problem is that the PATH environment variable has a length limit of 2048 characters.
When you pass this limit there are some non-obvious side effects. On my machine, when you open the command line, instead of copying just the "valid" 2048 characters, it simply does not create the variable.
If you remove some of the paths from the variable, next time you open the command prompt, everything should work ok.
Note that the registry is not affected by this limitation, and it seems like Windows itself isn't either. Just the command line.
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by: gemartiPosted on 2008-05-13 at 09:13:11ID: 21556510
Check in a command window to verify that PATH is actually gone:
Click START | RUN | Enter: CMD
in the CMD window enter:
SET
Press the keyboard's ENTER key. This command will list all of the environment variables on your system.
How to add PATH variable back:
Open a command window and enter the command SET PATH=[string] where [string]=the folders you want to direct the path variable to. Since your other machines have the PATH variable you can send the string information from one of those machines to a text file with SET PATH > PATH.txt then use that text to populate the PATH variable on the machines that have lost thier data.
You may be able to determine what happened to the PATH variable in the event viewer logs but I doubt it.
I doubt that a group policy setting removed the environment variable PATH.