Powershell and path environment variable

Question

I would like powershell to use the environment variable "PATH" to resolve executables. I'm sure it should be able to do this, but here is what I get.

PS C:\> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
4      0      -1     -1

PS C:\> ${ENV:PATH} = "C:\WINDOWS\System32\"
PS C:\> ls ${ENV:PATH}\cmd.exe


Directory: C:\WINDOWS\System32


Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
-a---        22/08/2013   8:03 PM     355840 cmd.exe

PS C:\> & cmd.exe
& : The term 'cmd.exe' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check
the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:3
+ & cmd.exe
+   ~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (cmd.exe:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

It should use the Path variable by default and System32 should be on it by default. Are you running the 32-bit or 64-bit version? I'm just wondering if maybe you are getting some weird file system redirection issue accessing C:\Windows\System32. — Mike Zboray
– Mike Zboray, Commented Aug 18, 2014 at 0:47
Ah thanks, I'd overwritten my PATHEXT variable and forgot to include ".exe". If this were an answer, I'd accept it. — simonhaines
– simonhaines, Commented Aug 18, 2014 at 1:16

briantist · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-18 02:05:29Z

5

Run Get-Command -Type Application to see what PowerShell is seeing as valid executables.

You may find a clue as to what's going on, such as all of the listed applications have (or don't have) a certain extension, which could indicate a problem with the PATHEXT environment variable.

answered Aug 18, 2014 at 2:05

briantist

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