Setting an environment variable

Environment variables, which are globally available to any software running on the system, provide a means for storing useful information about your application that the end user might reference—usually on the command-line. For example, you might install a variable that contains the path to your software so that the end user could use it as a shortcut when referencing the executable.

Getting ready

Create a new setup project and name it EnvironmentVariableInstaller.

How to do it...

Set an environment variable with the Environment element as described in the following steps:

1. Add a Component element with its KeyPath attribute set to yes:

   <Component Id="cmpEnvironmentVariable" 
              Guid="{313075B5-BF2C-4012-9A6E-2F4E2C461306}"  
              KeyPath="yes">
   </Component>

2. Within that component, add an Environment element that defines the name and value of the new environment variable. Set Action to set to overwrite any existing value and System to yes to...