Posted: 01 Aug 2008 18:39
I'm just running into this because i'm trying to make an autohotkey script to set some environment variables to the current 'portable apps directory' i'm building. It can't do it on it's own, of course, but I've also got SetX layoing around ... I was running into some confusion because both Find and Run Robot and XYPlorer start things with whatever the environment was when they started.
Now, XYPlorer as a program should obviously keep a static copy of environment variables for its internal purposes, scripts and all that and only refresh this on demand.
But really, IMO, any general-purpose file manager should be launching each new application / document with a new environment unless explicitly asked to do otherwise. Win Explorer, the Desktop, the shell Run dialogue all do this. The only core part of the system that dosn't is the CLI, because though start has a /i to copy the current environment, start cmd.exe on the shell does so anyway ...
Now, XYPlorer as a program should obviously keep a static copy of environment variables for its internal purposes, scripts and all that and only refresh this on demand.
But really, IMO, any general-purpose file manager should be launching each new application / document with a new environment unless explicitly asked to do otherwise. Win Explorer, the Desktop, the shell Run dialogue all do this. The only core part of the system that dosn't is the CLI, because though start has a /i to copy the current environment, start cmd.exe on the shell does so anyway ...