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...