Setting environment variables on Windows differs a little bit more than setting it on Linux. There are two areas where this can be set; each with their own pros and cons:

• for a single use only
• for all users (System-Wide)

Let’s look at all three methods in this post.

Setting Environment Variables for Single Use Only

Pros: good for running the environment variable for sparing use only (such as Maven deployment)
Cons: will be cleared once the command line window is closed; tedious to re-setup

1. Run command line.
2. Run the following command: set %VARIABLE_NAME%=%PATH% (replace %VARIABLE_NAME% with the variable name you would like to set, and %PATH%with the relevant path).
   Examples of usage:

• JAVA_HOME

                      set JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_38
                  

• M2_HOME

                      set M2_HOME=C:\devel\maven-2.2.1
                  

• Run echo command to check results:
  • %JAVA_HOME%

                echo %JAVA_HOME%
                C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_38
            

  • %M2_HOME%

                echo %M2_HOME%
                C:\devel\maven-2.2.1
            

Setting Environment Variables for All Users

Pros: good to limit certain users to execute certain enviroment variables.
Cons: if other users would like have the same environment variables, they would need to set this by themselves.

1. Run command line.
2. Run the following command: setx %VARIABLE_NAME% "%PATH%" (replace %VARIABLE_NAME% with the variable name you would like to set, and %PATH%with the relevant path).
   Examples of usage:

• JAVA_HOME

                      setx JAVA_HOME "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_38"
                  

• M2_HOME

                      setx M2_HOME "C:\devel\maven-2.2.1"
                  

• Run echo command to check results:
  • %JAVA_HOME%

                echo %JAVA_HOME%
                C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_38
            

  • %M2_HOME%

                echo %M2_HOME%
                C:\devel\maven-2.2.1
            

To set the environment path, you can do so by right-clicking the My Computer icon > Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables and adding the path in the PATH variable under System Variables: