How to change my system path when it is already too long?

Question

In windows 7, my system path is too long. I want to edit it so I can remove some unneeded paths. However when I click advanced system settings ...

[Window Title] %windir%\system32\systempropertiesadvanced.exe

[Content] Windows cannot find '%windir%\system32\systempropertiesadvanced.exe'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

[OK]

Since the path is now too long, I can't edit the path anymore ....

Is there another way to edit the system path?

EDIT

I found it in regedit at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\Path

Now I just need to know what a healthy path should look like ...

Just leave stuff like Windows,System 32,PowerShell directories and additionally things like SQL server paths, python, perl, mysql paths, etc. etc. And you can also invoke the same system properties window by following the path: `%windir%\system32\systempropertiesadvanced.exe`. You can just open that from "Run...". You can post your `%PATH%` value here for us to have a look at it — Ashtray, Sep 05 '13 at 05:30
I found the default system path [here][1] That seems to have fixed it [1]: http://superuser.com/questions/124239/what-is-the-default-path-environment-variable-setting-on-fresh-install-of-window — sav, Sep 05 '13 at 06:33

score 17 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 28 '13 at 12:48

Alternatively, you can launch the executable that the system is trying to launch, explicitly

%windir%\system32\systempropertiesadvanced.exe

can be found in the folder

c:\windows\system32\systempropertiesadvanced.exe (the system drive and windows folder can vary)

and then can easily modify the path in the environment variables.

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 06 '13 at 05:53

The path is located in the registry at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\Path

The path should contain

%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem

and

\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\

Once the changes were made, I needed to reboot my computer

How to change my system path when it is already too long?

2 Answers2