Changing BIOS, DVSDK, INSTALL DIR environment variables in XP

From Texas Instruments Embedded Processors Wiki

How to quickly change the environment variables with a double click

This simple batch file is based on an advanced Microsoft utility calles "setx", used to manipulate registry setting (for example).

It is more a fix for the annoyance of using the graphical gui in windows to change environment variables, especially if you need to test several CCS projects with different sets of sw / tools configurations.

Often these installation directories are mentioned into project settings, and used by the IDE itself.

Since CCS v.3.3 reads installation directories (like for BIOS, evm board support libraries, etc) from the environment variables, changing these back and forth can become tedious, thus this script was developed.

• You can find the download link for the utility (among other packages) here: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools

Note that Setx needs to be installed separately on your windows machine

• A description of the setx utility is here: setx tech reference

The batch file example is reported in the following lines, and is also attached : here

 @ECHO OFF
 REM ------------------------------------------
 REM author gp 15-05-2009
 REM This script will allow to easily configure environment 
 REM variables in the windows system making possible to
 REM quickly switch configurations in case several 
 REM releases of installed sw packages are installed,  
 REM referenced via environment variables in the CCS debug
 REM environment, and each configuration needs a different
 REM setting for the same environment variable
 REM
 REM the setx utility is part of an add-on package
 REM from Microsoft which needs to be installed on the PC
 REM and downloaded from the Microsoft website
 REM 
 REM
 REM  the following flags are used:
 REM
 REM  - /m set the variable into the system environment
 REM  otherwise it will be set only for the current 
 REM  console and removed after the command window is closed
 
 REM note: you cannot remove values with setx.
 REM
 REM if desired you can use 'set' with a variable name
 REM and an empty value to remove a variable from the local
 REM environment only
 REM
 REM removing from the global variables requires to use the
 REM mycomputer > properties > advanced > environment variables 
 REM GUI interface
 
 REM   ------------------------------------------
 
 
 
 REM   ------------------------------------------
 REM	Script start
 REM   ------------------------------------------
 
 REM below an example of configuration variables
 REM customize as desired and remove the REM prefix
 REM before each line to let the script run
 
 REM define these variables local to the batch file 
 REM for safety
 SETLOCAL
 
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 REM BIOS configuration start
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 REM
 REM set the following variables to your own desired values
 REM
 SET MY_BIOS_PATH="C:\CCStudio_v3.3\bios_5_31_02"
 
 SET MY_ENV_VARIABLE=BIOS_INSTALL_DIR
 
 ECHO ------------------------------------------
 ECHO configuring the BIOS installation directory 
 ECHO %MY_ENV_VARIABLE% = %MY_BIOS_PATH%
 ECHO ------------------------------------------
 
 setx %MY_ENV_VARIABLE% %MY_BIOS_PATH% -m
 
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 REM BIOS configuration end
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 
 
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 REM XXX configuration start
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 
 
 REM SET XXX_PATH="C:\xxx"
 REM SET XXX_ENV_VARIABLE=XXX_INSTALL_DIR
 
 REM ECHO ------------------------------------------
 REM ECHO configuring the xx installation directory 
 REM ECHO %XXX_ENV_VARIABLE% = %XXX_PATH%
 REM ECHO ------------------------------------------
 
 REM setx XXX_INSTALL_DIR c:\xxx  -m 
 
 
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 REM XXX configuration end
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 
 
 REM ---------------------------------------------
 REM script finished
 REM REM ---------------------------------------------
 
 
 REM (pause to visually check the output)
 pause

Since it is principally very simple, the inlined comments should be self explaining; simply modify the variables as desired, and run.

Tip: saving the modified file with a different name, and keeping it on your system, will allow you to have different personalized scripts which you can use very quickly to switch configurations if you want to test several tools

(like having environment1_set.bat and environment2_set.bat)

Important note: This does not prevent you from needing to restart CCS 3.3 if you change the environment variables while CCS is open. Also, it is not a substitute for the CCS component manager.

It just avoids you to graphically change the XP system environment variables every time.

Hopefully it will get handy to have ready to use scripts that allow you to change with a double click (or a more automated way) the environment settings.

Use these and modify them as desired

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