Changing The PATH Environmental Variable (XP)

At a minimum the Windows PATH environmental variable should contain the following paths:

C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem

Sometimes programs may alter this setting causing certain functions not to work properly. This lesson will show you how to add these strings back to the PATH environmental variable.

Open the Control Panel

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Click on Start->Control Panel.

Open The System Control Panel

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Open Environmental Variables

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Click on the Advanced tab (1). Then click on the Environmental Variables (2) button.

Edit the PATH System Variable

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Locate Path in the System variables list (1). Click on the Edit button (2).

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The Path variable is a single line of paths to folders on your system. Each path is seperated by a semi-colon. Verify that each of the following three paths exist in the string. If one of the paths does not exist then add the path to the Variable value string. Use ; to seperate paths.

C:\WINDOWS\system32

C:\WINDOWS

C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem

Click OK when you are done.