VS Code terminal doesn't recognize PATH variables

Question

I added a directory to my PATH but the terminal in my VS Code doesn't recognize a command(exe) that I'm trying to run from that directory. The terminal uses cmd not power shell. What am I missing?

Where did you add a directory to your PATH? System level with SETX? Inside VS Code? Did you restart VS Code after adding it? — lit
– lit, Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 18:31
At a system level. Not inside VS code and I did restart VS code. — neomib
– neomib, Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 13:09
All people modifying the system or user environment variable Path should take a look on: What is the reason for "X is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"? That long answer explains in full details how the most important environment variable PATH is managed by Windows and used by applications like the Windows Command Processor (cmd.exe) , PowerShell, Windows Script Host (cscript.exe and wscript.exe) and other executables like VS Code and other IDEs. — Mofi
– Mofi, Commented Nov 7 at 6:03

neomib · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-05 10:20:29Z

42

Restarted my computer and it worked :) Apparently VS Code didn't recognize the changes.

answered Jul 5, 2017 at 10:20

neomib

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4 Comments

AKd Over a year ago

In my case restarting VSCode didn't help, all built-in terminals didn't see the new PATH value. Singing out and in my Windows account helped.

snowynguyen Over a year ago

Alternatively, you can log out and then log back in. VSCode is just dumb at recognizing the change in PATH variables.

Worthy7 Jan 6 at 9:24

I closed all VSCode instances, and then it worked when I re-opened.

xs2bharat Aug 20 at 20:53

closing all vscode instances worked for me as well

avi.elkharrat · Accepted Answer · 2018-10-31 14:57:37Z

28

For me, a simple restart of VSC did the trick.

answered Oct 31, 2018 at 14:57

avi.elkharrat

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3 Comments

MikeA Over a year ago

Note that 'Restart to Update' does not pick up the new PATH when it starts again. Click X to close the app, check that the VS Code process is not present in Task Manager then open VS Code again, either from shortcut or by entering code in a cmd window. Then it picked up the updated PATH.

Mikael Puusaari Over a year ago

Also if you have more than one instance of vs code open, you need to close them all before restarting vs code for it to recognize the change

Koen Feb 13 at 10:12

For me, restarting vscode didn't help, however "Remote-SSH: Uninstall VS Code Server from Host..." work for me to this issue.

Nycki · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-16 19:23:52Z

If your VS Code terminal shows "Session Restored" after restarting, then it may still be using the variables from before you rebooted! If this happens, close and re-open the vscode window, or kill and restart the terminal tab.

Muhammad Nour · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-30 15:57:07Z

In my case, I had several VS Code instances opened, so I had to close all the opened instances in order to apply the changes

Fred Johnson · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-26 07:51:55Z

3

Clicking the bin/trash icon on the terminal to properly kill it and then CTRL + ' to open a new terminal works best. No need to close the app or shut down your PC.

edited Jan 26, 2022 at 7:51

answered Jan 26, 2022 at 7:13

Fred Johnson

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2 Comments

Gino Mempin Over a year ago

A screenshot of this "bin icon" might help (not everyone calls the trash button a "bin"). Also, can do this through the command palette: "Terminal: Kill the Active Terminal Instance" and then "Terminal: Create New Terminal".

Prithvi Boinpally Over a year ago

This didn't work for me. I installed terraform on my windows machine, and killed and launched a new terminal instance in vscode, yet powershell wouldn't recognize it (powershell recognized the name just fine when run outside of vscode). But once I opened a new vscode window and ran terraform, it worked

Meekohi · Accepted Answer · 2025-09-09 13:56:00Z

Sometimes this problem can happen when you misuse .bash_profile and .bashrc.

As mentioned in many materials, .bash_profile is executed for interactive login shells, and .bashrc is executed for interactive non-login shells.

VSCode terminal is interactive non-login shells. So, be sure you have correctly define your PATH and other environment variables in .bashrc

Gino Mempin · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-24 03:02:37Z

1

Go to settings.json and make sure this environment variable has empty json inside it:

"terminal.integrated.env.windows": { },

edited Aug 24, 2024 at 3:02

Gino Mempin

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answered Aug 23, 2024 at 18:35

Sharma SS

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Comments

Stephen Armstrong · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-06 18:28:53Z

1

I had this issue but all of the previous solutions in this question did not work. I found that on Windows 11 doing a custom Python install the PYTHONPATH env variable had not been set. Creating and setting up the PYTHONPATH variable, and then restarting terminals fixed the same issue for me.

edited Nov 6 at 18:28

answered Nov 6 at 18:28

Stephen Armstrong

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1 Comment

Mofi Nov 7 at 5:58

The environment variable PYTHONPATH is used only by Python (python.exe and pythonw.exe) to find Python modules (dynamically loaded libraries) imported in Python scripts as it can be read in the Python documentations Command line and environment, Using Python on Windows, Modules. This answer is related therefore only for Python script programmers and not for VS Code users in general.

KlinZ · Accepted Answer · 2023-04-20 10:34:04Z

If nothing works and you don't want to restart your computer.

For windows;

Open a command prompt (outside vscode) and type echo %PATH%
Copy the path
Open your terminal in vscode and type PATH=<your-path> (replace <your-path> with the output)

Note: This is a temporary solution and goes away if you close the terminal and open a new one.

Nathan Ridley · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-26 01:21:19Z

Another point of info that might solve the problem for some people. It's not obvious, but if you have multiple instances of VSCode open and you close one of them and relaunch it, it will pick up state from the other instances that are still open. So if you're trying to figure out why VSCode refuses to pick up new environment variables even after you've closed and reopened it, check that you don't have another VSCode process running at the same time as it will "help" the new process get started more quickly, sabotaging your attempt to solve the problem.

JoyBin · Accepted Answer · 2025-03-03 05:51:04Z

When setting environment variables, use ";" instead of ":", in Windows, this is the problem I encountered

Worthy7 · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-09 07:26:00Z

I had some files remaining in the folder 'c:\Program Files\nodejs', deleted the folder and it all worked.

blackkatalog · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-17 19:09:54Z

For me, it turns out that VS Code was not on my Path even though it should have automatically been added after the install. This could be the case if you use the command 'code' and it is not recognized. Adding

C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code

to my User PATH and restarting the terminal (and VS Code) fixed the issue on my machine.

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