PATH: getting it, adding to it and managing it
The PATH is a semi-colon separated list of locations that the OS will search when trying to lcoate an executable program.
Getting it
To get the current PATH environment variable:
$env:path
(or in cmd.exe just %path%, or in Windows, see Environment variables -- view/edit them on windows)
To split the path into its constituents:
$env:path.Split(";")
or
$env:path.Split(";", [System.StringSplitOptions]::RemoveEmptyEntries)
Adding to it
To add a folder to the PATH, only for the current session:
$env:path += [System.IO.Path]::PathSeparator + $NewPath
(To get the current folder: $NewPath = Get-Location
To persist the current session's path (requires admin)
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable( "Path", $env:Path, [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine )