If you are an infrequent user of the Command Line Interface like me, you may have wondered why it is that some programs will only run when the full path to them is entered, and others can be started by just typing in their name.

In many operating systems, you can designate certain directories to be searched for any programs that are invoked in the command line. If the program is found it will run without requiring the full path to be entered.

In Windows Vista you open Properties on My Computer, click “Advanced system settings”, click “Environmental Variables” button, and then scroll to the “path” entry in the system variables list. Paths are delimited by a semicolon.