Editing PATH

4. In "Environment Variables" click on "path" and then click the "Edit" button.

You should see a window "Edit System Variable"

The variable name should be "Path" and the variable value will be a list of directories separated by semicolons. You will see only a small part of the list in the tiny text box.

5. Click in the text box and use left and right arrow keys to scroll through the list. In my text box I see the following. You will see different things depending on what programs are installed on your system.

%SystemRoot%/system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%/System32/Wbem;C:/Program Files/Common Files/Roxio Shared/DLLShared/;

In the list, disk directories are separated by semicolons. This is the same list as you saw above when you entered the PATH command into the command prompt window (except that the PATH command prints out the value of variables like %SystemRoot%).

6. Click in the list (in the variable value box) and use the right-arrow key to position the cursor at the very end of the list. Now type in a semicolon followed by the path to the directory in which you installed Java. This path will be something like this:

C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.6.0_07/bin

The exact name of the jdk directory (jdk1.6.0_07 in the above) will be different if you are doing this sometime after Summer 2008. Be sure to put a semicolon in front of the first C and be sure to use slashes that slant in the correct direction. Here is what my system shows as this is done:

7. Click OK. Click OK. Click OK. Finally you are back at the Control Panel.