正如Jonathan Leaders在这里提到的，运行提升的命令/脚本来改变“machine”的环境变量是很重要的，但是运行一些提升的命令并不一定要用社区扩展来完成，所以我想在某种程度上修改和扩展JeanT的回答，即使脚本本身没有运行提升，也可以改变机器变量:

function Set-Path ([string]$newPath, [bool]$permanent=$false, [bool]$forMachine=$false )
{
    $Env:Path += ";$newPath"

    $scope = if ($forMachine) { 'Machine' } else { 'User' }

    if ($permanent)
    {
        $command = "[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('PATH', $env:Path, $scope)"
        Start-Process -FilePath powershell.exe -ArgumentList "-noprofile -command $Command" -Verb runas
    }

}

基于@Michael Kropat的回答，我添加了一个参数，将新路径前置到现有的path变量中，并检查以避免添加不存在的路径:

function Add-EnvPath {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [string] $Path,

        [ValidateSet('Machine', 'User', 'Session')]
        [string] $Container = 'Session',

        [Parameter(Mandatory=$False)]
        [Switch] $Prepend
    )

    if (Test-Path -path "$Path") {
        if ($Container -ne 'Session') {
            $containerMapping = @{
                Machine = [EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine
                User = [EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User
            }
            $containerType = $containerMapping[$Container]

            $persistedPaths = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('Path', $containerType) -split ';'
            if ($persistedPaths -notcontains $Path) {
                if ($Prepend) {
                    $persistedPaths = ,$Path + $persistedPaths | where { $_ }
                    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('Path', $persistedPaths -join ';', $containerType)
                }
                else {
                    $persistedPaths = $persistedPaths + $Path | where { $_ }
                    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('Path', $persistedPaths -join ';', $containerType)
                }
            }
        }

        $envPaths = $env:Path -split ';'
        if ($envPaths -notcontains $Path) {
            if ($Prepend) {
                $envPaths = ,$Path + $envPaths | where { $_ }
                $env:Path = $envPaths -join ';'
            }
            else {
                $envPaths = $envPaths + $Path | where { $_ }
                $env:Path = $envPaths -join ';'
            }
        }
    }
}

更改实际的环境变量可以通过 使用env:命名空间/驱动器信息。例如，这个 代码将更新path环境变量:

$env:Path = "SomeRandomPath";             (replaces existing path) 
$env:Path += ";SomeRandomPath"            (appends to existing path)

让改变永久化

有办法让环境设置永久存在，但是 如果你只从PowerShell中使用它们，它可能 使用Powershell配置文件脚本更好。

每次Powershell的一个新实例启动时，它都会查找特定的脚本文件(称为配置文件)，如果它们存在，就执行它们。您可以编辑这些概要文件中的一个来定制您的环境。

要了解这些配置文件脚本在您的计算机中的位置，请键入:

$profile                                     
$profile.AllUsersAllHosts           
$profile.AllUsersCurrentHost        
$profile.CurrentUserAllHosts    
$profile.CurrentUserCurrentHost     

你可以编辑其中一个，例如，输入:

notepad $profile

有很多附加或覆盖的例子。下面是一个在powershell (Linux, Ubuntu 18.04和pwsh 7.1.3)上预先设置路径的示例

$ENV:PATH = "/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin:$ENV:PATH"

我特别添加了linuxbrew (homebrew for linux) bin目录，使其优先于已安装的系统。它帮助我解决了一个问题，虽然这是最有帮助的地方，但它也让我“尝试”。

注意:是Linux的路径分隔符，而在Windows(或者至少是我的Windows)上，你会使用;通常是powershell。

只有将值推入注册表的答案才会影响永久更改(因此这个线程上的大多数答案，包括已接受的答案，不会永久影响Path)。

下面的函数适用于Path / PSModulePath和User / System类型。默认情况下，它还会将新路径添加到当前会话。

function AddTo-Path {
    param ( 
        [string]$PathToAdd,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][ValidateSet('System','User')][string]$UserType,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][ValidateSet('Path','PSModulePath')][string]$PathType
    )

    # AddTo-Path "C:\XXX" "PSModulePath" 'System' 
    if ($UserType -eq "System" ) { $RegPropertyLocation = 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment' }
    if ($UserType -eq "User"   ) { $RegPropertyLocation = 'HKCU:\Environment' } # also note: Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ format
    $PathOld = (Get-ItemProperty -Path $RegPropertyLocation -Name $PathType).$PathType
    "`n$UserType $PathType Before:`n$PathOld`n"
    $PathArray = $PathOld -Split ";" -replace "\\+$", ""
    if ($PathArray -notcontains $PathToAdd) {
        "$UserType $PathType Now:"   # ; sleep -Milliseconds 100   # Might need pause to prevent text being after Path output(!)
        $PathNew = "$PathOld;$PathToAdd"
        Set-ItemProperty -Path $RegPropertyLocation -Name $PathType -Value $PathNew
        Get-ItemProperty -Path $RegPropertyLocation -Name $PathType | select -ExpandProperty $PathType
        if ($PathType -eq "Path") { $env:Path += ";$PathToAdd" }                  # Add to Path also for this current session
        if ($PathType -eq "PSModulePath") { $env:PSModulePath += ";$PathToAdd" }  # Add to PSModulePath also for this current session
        "`n$PathToAdd has been added to the $UserType $PathType"
    }
    else {
        "'$PathToAdd' is already in the $UserType $PathType. Nothing to do."
    }
}

# Add "C:\XXX" to User Path (but only if not already present)
AddTo-Path "C:\XXX" "User" "Path"

# Just show the current status by putting an empty path
AddTo-Path "" "User" "Path"

所有建议永久更改的答案都有相同的问题:它们破坏了路径注册表值。

SetEnvironmentVariable将REG_EXPAND_SZ值%SystemRoot%\system32转换为c:\ windows \system32的REG_SZ值。

路径中的任何其他变量也会丢失。使用%myNewPath%添加新的将不再工作。

这里有一个脚本Set-PathVariable。我用来解决这个问题的ps1:

 [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$true)]
 param(
     [parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
     [string]$NewLocation)

 Begin
 {

 #requires –runasadministrator

     $regPath = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
     $hklm = [Microsoft.Win32.Registry]::LocalMachine

     Function GetOldPath()
     {
         $regKey = $hklm.OpenSubKey($regPath, $FALSE)
         $envpath = $regKey.GetValue("Path", "", [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryValueOptions]::DoNotExpandEnvironmentNames)
         return $envPath
     }
 }

 Process
 {
     # Win32API error codes
     $ERROR_SUCCESS = 0
     $ERROR_DUP_NAME = 34
     $ERROR_INVALID_DATA = 13

     $NewLocation = $NewLocation.Trim();

     If ($NewLocation -eq "" -or $NewLocation -eq $null)
     {
         Exit $ERROR_INVALID_DATA
     }

     [string]$oldPath = GetOldPath
     Write-Verbose "Old Path: $oldPath"

     # Check whether the new location is already in the path
     $parts = $oldPath.split(";")
     If ($parts -contains $NewLocation)
     {
         Write-Warning "The new location is already in the path"
         Exit $ERROR_DUP_NAME
     }

     # Build the new path, make sure we don't have double semicolons
     $newPath = $oldPath + ";" + $NewLocation
     $newPath = $newPath -replace ";;",""

     if ($pscmdlet.ShouldProcess("%Path%", "Add $NewLocation")){

         # Add to the current session
         $env:path += ";$NewLocation"

         # Save into registry
         $regKey = $hklm.OpenSubKey($regPath, $True)
         $regKey.SetValue("Path", $newPath, [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryValueKind]::ExpandString)
         Write-Output "The operation completed successfully."
     }

     Exit $ERROR_SUCCESS
 }

我在一篇博文中更详细地解释了这个问题。