README.md

Installation:

Grab the file from the repo, or use wget, curl, etc:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jakemason/PATH-Adder/master/add_folders_to_path.ps1 -o add_folders_to_path.ps1

What does it do?

This utility will add all of the folders found in the working directory to your Windows' $PATH for the current User.

Running:

Simply execute the add_folders_to_path.ps1 script from the Windows 11 Terminal or a PowerShell in the desired directory. Note that the -commit flag must be passed for any changes to be made. I recommend you run it without the commit flag at first to review the changes that will be made. All subfolders found within add_folders_to_path.ps1's directory will be added to your PATH.

Default call which does not cause changes:

.\add_folders_to_path.ps1

Commit call which will cause changes:

.\add_folders_to_path.ps1 -commit

How/why is this useful?

To save time / effort when installing tools on a new machine. I'll often find myself needing to install various tools (Python, fd, cmder, etc) that will all need to be added to the user's $PATH to be useful. I've found that the easiest way to do that is to install all of these tools in the same folder leading to a directory structure similar to:

├── E:/tools/                          # The "parent" folder in which you'll want to run this script.
      └── fd/
      └── python/
      └── php/
      └── my_cool_tool/
      └── add_folders_to_path.ps1      # The script file featured in this repo

Additionally, I can just leave the script in place and run it again whenever my E:/tools directory is updated.

Example Output:

The default call allows you to preview what changes will be made:

A '-commit' call which updates your $PATH:

Safety Features

Note that your "old" $PATH will be written to a file titled 'old_path.txt' when the script is run with the -commit flag. This means you can always use that file to reset your $PATH as it was before the update if it was run by mistake.