Registry PATH change/update withOUT restart 1

[subzero349]

Hello,

I have code that will read a registry entry and write a registry entry. I use this code to read in the PATH registry entry and write some new paths to it. I am modifying the following registry entry:

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

Like I said, I can add: "c:\directory\" to the path no problem, but It actually doesn't work (when I try and run an .exe from the command prompt) until I preform a restart. I cannot afford a restart.

I'm using Windows 2000 - if you right click on "my computer" and then click the "advanced" tab, and then click the "environment variables" tab and navigate to the "PATH" and make an addition there - and click ok, ok, the change happens immediately - NO restart required... I would like to do this using delphi... I have found ways to do this for the desktop wallpaper change immediatly, but not the PATH.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PS - When I run my delphi program the way it is now, I can than open up the "environment variables" dialog from the system properties box and I can find that the change is there... but I still have to click ok, ok, for it to work it's magic and actually register the change...

 

[TonHu]

I've seen a solution somewhere, that involves sending a message like WM_SETTINGS_CHANGED, or similar, to all open windows (including Explorer) to notify them all (in a single message) of the change. The exact WM_... constant I don't recall, and I can't trace back at the moment, but that's the direction to search. It will look like the message you had to send for the wallpaper change I guess.

HTH
TonHu

 

[subzero349]

Thank you for your suggestion... I will search for WM_... stuff...

Here is the example for wallpaper:

"SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER,0,nil,SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE);"

This compiles fine, but I can't find an appropriate "SPI_SETPATH" in place of "SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER"

 

[subzero349]

I tried

"SendMessage( HWND_BROADCAST, WM_WININICHANGE,0, LongInt(cs1));"

AND

"SendMessage( HWND_BROADCAST,WM_SETTINGCHANGE,0, LongInt(cs1));"

WHERE cs1 is:
const
cs1 : pchar = 'Windows';

I'm using windows 2000. Both of these calls compile and cause no errors. But they don't update the path

 

[subzero349]

MORE info:

If I use my delphi program to change the registry, than I ctrl+alt+del and open the task manager and "end task" explorer.exe and than run explorer.exe again the changes take affect!

So I just need to somehow update explorer. I don't think it would be a good idea for me to right code that kills explorer and reopens it??

Any suggestions? ideas?

 

[KempCGDR]

Doing what you did is the same as reseting as far as the computer is concerned (well.... a bit different, but that doesn't concern us here). And no, it wouldn't be a good idea, some things don't come back right.

 

[TonHu]

I found where I read the original posting, it's here:

http://news.jrsoftware.org/news/innosetup.isx/msg02129.html

The excerpt of what you would need is this:

You must specify the string "Environment" in LParam. In Delphi you'd do it
this way:

  SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0,
Integer(PChar('Environment')));

It was suggested by Jordan Russell,

http://www.jrsoftware.org,

the author of (a.o.) InnoSetup, ("Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows programs. First introduced in 1997, Inno Setup today rivals and even surpasses many commercial installers in feature set and stability.&quot (I just would like more people to use InnoSetup )

HTH
TonHu

 

[subzero349]

Thank you so much TonHu... I knew it could be done!

I tested it and it works great!

I will also check out that InnoSetup... sounds cool!

You get a star!

 

[subzero349]

Can anyone see any problems with the following PATH:

"%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\NMapWin\bin;C:\Program Files\cvsnt;C:\PROGRA~1\Borland\Delphi6\Bin"

Now when I try and run "edit.com" it can't find it I have to navigate to c:\%systemroot%\system32\ to get it...

This problem has been caused by my registry editing program...

 

[subzero349]

Never mind,

The problem was I was setting the registry to a REG_SZ instead of REG_EXPAND_SZ

This caused win2k not to understand the "%Systemroot%"