Powershell - Set environment variable without having to close applications

Question

I assume this isn't possible, but when developing software getting up-to-date environment variables is a major pain.

As an example, I have a psake script which updates an env var my application requires:

[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable($myConfig, $myValue, 'Process')
[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable($myConfig, $myValue, [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine)

This env var is something which may change on a daily/weekly basis as it's based on spun up Azure infrastructure.

In Visual Studio, my app relies on this env var for configuration, and it will not run successfully until I exit VS and reopen it again (so that the 'Machine' set env var is now up to date).

Is there anything which can be done to prevent us having to close and reopen everything again everytime an env var changes on Windows?

It's any app (including a powershell window), as they all need to unload in order to see the env var change — FBryant87
– FBryant87, Commented Sep 30, 2020 at 11:32
Can you tell us more about the application? How is it deployed (Azure Function, Web App, Worker, API?), which components are involved, where is the env var value coming from? — Mathias R. Jessen
– Mathias R. Jessen, Commented Sep 30, 2020 at 12:31
I posted the answer refreshenv which works quite well, but appearantly it's an commando that comes with Chocolatey. — Peter the Automator
– Peter the Automator, Commented Sep 30, 2020 at 12:39

jfrmilner · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-04 10:10:47Z

1

The current Environment Variables can be read from the registry,

Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment' -Name myConfig

As a workaround, you could read the value from the registry and set the Environment Variable again to update your session without the need to reopen.

$myConfig = "myConfig"
$reg = Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment' -Name myConfig
$myValue = $reg.myConfig
[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable($myConfig, $myValue, 'Process')
[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable($myConfig, $myValue, [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine)

answered Oct 4, 2020 at 10:10

jfrmilner

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