[Enhancement]: Customization — Environment Variable Editor (PATH management GUI) #331

Activity

1. laurentiu021

   added

   enhancementNew feature or requestNew feature or request

   on May 13, 2026
2. laurentiu021

   closed this as completedin 564fea8on May 22, 2026
3. laurentiu021

   added a commit that references this issue on May 22, 2026

   docs: CHANGELOG for v0.28.1-v0.28.5 bug fixes (#348)

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   76c29b5
4. laurentiu021

   added 2 commits that reference this issue on Jun 24, 2026

   feat: Environment Variables tab — edit User/System vars with a PATH e…

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   This issue will close once commit 3c1702e is merged into the 'main' branch.

   3c1702e

   feat: Environment Variables tab — edit User/System vars with a PATH e…

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   This issue will close once commit ae8bd17 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   ae8bd17
5. laurentiu021 commented on Jun 24, 2026

   

   laurentiu021

   on Jun 24, 2026

   OwnerAuthor

   More actions

   Shipped in v1.22.0.

   The Customization group's Environment Variables tab is now fully implemented — a proper GUI for editing User and System variables, with the dedicated PATH editor this issue asked for.

   What it does

   • Lists User and System variables in one grid; filter by scope and search by name or value.
   • Edit values in place, and add or remove variables.
   • Dedicated PATH editor for PATH-like variables: reorder directories (up/down), remove entries, and strip duplicates in one click.
   • Missing folders are highlighted so dead PATH entries are obvious at a glance.
   • Validation before apply: variable names are checked at the trust boundary (no =, no whitespace, no leading digit, no shell metacharacters).
   • Backup/restore: a one-time JSON snapshot of every variable is written before the first change, so the original environment is recoverable.

   How it's built

   • EnvironmentVariableService reads/writes both scopes via Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable, which broadcasts WM_SETTINGCHANGE so new terminals pick up changes without a reboot. It mirrors the existing HostsFileService backup contract and PrivacyService's elevation-aware writes (a denied System-scope write returns gracefully instead of throwing). PATH split/join/dedupe are pure, unit-tested helpers.
   • EnvironmentVariablesViewModel follows the existing staged-edit pattern (baseline + pending-change count, Apply/Discard, DialogService confirmation, admin elevation banner). System-scope edits require administrator; User-scope edits don't.
   • EnvironmentVariablesView reuses the standard tab layout, styles, and accessibility conventions.

   Verification

   • 20 unit tests: name validation (accept/reject, including injection-ish and overlong inputs), PATH split/join round-trips, deduplication (case-insensitive, trailing-slash aware), and backup create/no-overwrite/corrupt/missing handling.

   Install: winget upgrade laurentiu021.SysManager or grab the portable .exe from the v1.22.0 release.