Changing the value in the registry
If the value is changed directly in the registry, a
SendMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0, "Environment") should be executed in order for the changes to take effect.
In
PowerShell, this is possible with something like the following
( add-type -passThru -name dummy -memberDefinition '
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern int SendMessage(
IntPtr hWnd,
UInt32 uMsg,
UIntPtr wParam,
String lParam // Note, this parameter is actually an IntPtr. This construct passes `Environment` as a string.
);
'
)::SendMessage(0xffff, 0x001A, [UIntPtr]::Zero, "Environment")