powershell start-process doesn't know about environment variable (PATH) changes

Question

I use powershell to set a number of system environment variables, including the path. I then start some task with Start-Process. Unfortunately the new process has the same environment variables as those which powershell was started in. To reproduce the issue

1) Modify your path. I'm deleting %JAVA_HOME%/bin, open a command window and see that the java command does not work.

2) Start Powershell ISE

3) Add %JAVA_HOME%/bin to the system PATH. Open a new command window and see that the java command works.

4) In the previously opened Powershell window, submit the command start cmd to cause powershell to open a cmd.exe command window ("Command Prompt"). In the new command window verify that java does not work.

My expectation would be that a newly launched process would have its own fresh copy of the environment variables.

Can you tell me how to get powershell to launch a new task and have that task know the current environment?

I've tried

start cmd Start-Process -FilePath "cmd" Start-Process -FilePath "cmd" -UseNewEnvironment & cmd

Thanks!

The -UseNewEnvironment switch for Start-Process is designed to do what you want, but it is (still) broken as of PowerShell Core 7.0.0-rc.2 - see this GitHub issue. — mklement0
– mklement0, Commented Jan 21, 2020 at 22:12

Sage Pourpre · Accepted Answer · 2020-01-21 22:43:55Z

The following command will start a process which is detached from the calling environment and have the new variable available for you to use.

Invoke-CimMethod -ClassName Win32_Process -Name Create -Arguments @{CommandLine = "cmd.exe"}

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