Why is my environment PATH not being permanently set in Windows?

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phylotree
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I started my days late with computer world, but lately I have enjoyed myself pretty much with DOS command line options and usage. Today people use only mouses to click, I wonder why on Earth do people still use command prompt. But I decided to learn about environment PATH SETTING, and I am stuck now that the path isn't really set.
For instance,
C:> SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\somepath
C:>PATH

Oh yes it sets my somepath
Then I issue

C:>exit

Then reopen the command prompt in Administrator mode
C:>PATH

Oh no, my somepath is not there anymore.

Thank you.
 

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I guess you are opening DOS session under Windows. If so, PATH that you see exists only for the current session, and is lost when you close the session. When you start a new session it is copied from the Windows environment variables.

DOS uses only a bastardized version of command prompt, the real thing you can find under Linux. My understanding is that if you want to experiment with a real command line under Windows you can install Cygwin, but I never tried it myself.
 
If you want it to be permanent in Windows, you need to set it through the Control Panel.
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab -> Environment Variables.

I have found that Windows doesn't seem to pick up the new values until you restart your computer.
 
Borg said:
If you want it to be permanent in Windows, you need to set it through the Control Panel.
or starting with "my computer":

start, right click on "my computer" -> properties -> advanced -> environment variables.

Note there are two pairs of temp paths, one pair for system, one pair for user.