I operate a windows system with several applications, that all need a special home variable.  But if I set this "home" variable, all applications use the same value. Is there a way to set this variable independent of application?
121613
On Unix operative systems I can start a process with additional environment variables like this:  $ DEBUG=1 VERBOSE=3 python myscript.py  Does the Windows CMD have an equivalent for this? I'm stuck developing on a Windows computer and I want to test release-behaviour without having to build the project or permanently change the env variables in my CMD session.
28962
When extending the Windows' shell context menu (e.g. for adding an 'Open command here' prompt on directories), a 'command' key needs to be created in the registry.  The value of this 'command' key apparently can be any valid command line.  I want to know which 'special variables' are available for use inside this command line.  For example, I use following command for opening a cmd window from within a directory's context menu (*):  cmd.exe /e:on /f:on /s /k pushd "%V"   I cannot find any reference to what %V actually means or what the full list of such variables is.    (*)    Following registry keys are created for this:  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmdshell] @=Open Command Prompt Here"  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmdshell\command] @="cmd.exe /e:on /f:on /s /k pushd \"%V\""
10769
Let's say I have Windows installed on drive C, however I install all of my programs on the D drive, and I keep my user profile on the D drive as well (things like My Documents). How can I have Windows use those folders instead of the ones on the C drive?
91643
Is there a "noop"-esque exe somewhere as part of the Windows installation? I'm preparing some batch jobs and scheduled tasks, and for a couple reasons I'd like to reference an executable that does nothing -- i.e. launches with no visible window, and quits immediately.  Does such an executable exist in the usual Windows installation anywhere? or how can I come close? I do not want to have to depend on anything not already included in Windows.
16123
I'm trying to find a way to raise all the windows that have one, specific title.  For example, I have two windows named superconky (yes, you guessed it, I'm trying to get conky running in lubuntu).  I have a command I got from the LXDE forums: sh -c 'wmctrl -k on; wmctrl -a superconky;'  I use it to show the desktop, except conky. It works perfectly, but only if you have one conky. If you have two or more, you get left with one and all the others minimized.  So, what should I do to raise all the windows?  Thanks in advance.
26524
When selecting an application from the Windows 8 Start screen, if I already have that application running the default behavior is to set the focus to the most recently opened window.  Is it possible to change this behavior so it will always open a new instance of the application without having to right-click and select "Open new window"?
90328
I use my laptop (Windows Vista Ultimate) to connect to a wireless network in college, which assigns a dynamic IP address, and at home, with a static IP address and DNS server. I'm looking for a good solution/software to switch between college/home settings without changing them manually. I've found an open-source application called , but the official site says that its development has been discontinued.  Any other suggestions? Thanks.
34093
VM software does a great job of saving state when you "turn it off," allowing instant and immediate return to that previous state.  Is there some application for Windows that allows me to do the same thing, for any arbitrary software? It would allow me to save/restore state, possibly via a shell command or button that it appends to every window.  Edit: For clarity, there are two types of apps: those that save their own states, and those that save others' states. Those that save their own state are like Chrome, which on load, reloads the windows you had open last time.  That's not what I'm asking about; I'm asking for an app that can save the state of other apps, kind of like VM software does; but for any app. (A trivial test would be load notepad++, type a bunch of stuff, and save-state; on reset-state, you should be able to multi-level undo a lot of what you wrote, as if you  never shut down the application.)
112312
How do I create a windows application that does the following:   it's a regular GUI app when invoked with no command line arguments specifying the optional "--help" command line argument causes the app to write usage text to stdout then terminate it must be a single executable.  No cheating by making a console app exec a 2nd executable. assume the main application code is written in C/C++ bonus points if no GUI window is created when "--help" is specified.  (i.e., no flicker from a short-lived window)   In my experience the standard visual studio template for console app has no GUI capability, and the normal win32 template does not send its stdout to the parent cmd shell.
28646
I've read in a couple of places that the PATH is set in /etc/profile or the .profile file that's in the home dir.  Are these the only places that the path is set in? I want a better understanding of it.  In the /etc/profile file, as the following comment says "system-wide .profile file for the Bourne shell". Does that mean that profile files are the main configuration files for bash?  In that file I don't see the PATH var being set at all. In the .profile file in the home directory there's this line:  PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"   That's resetting PATH by the looks because it's concatenating the already set $PATH string with $HOME/bin: right? But if etc/profile and ~/.profile are the only files setting PATH where is $PATH coming from in that line of code if it's not defined in /etc/profile?  Can someone experienced please give a broad and detailed explanation of the PATH variable? Thanks!
56202
I was wondering if I could keep program A from reading my entire ram, as it does not need to monitor what program B is doing.  Also I am on windows 8.1 64 bit.
81209
I'm trying to put together a generic script that will check the existence of several key directories for various users on different servers. Additionally, I want to leverage each user's $HOME variable.  For eg, let's say this were true:   on server 1: jdoe's home is /home/jdoe  on server 2: jdoe's home is /opt/jdoe2 server 3 hasn't been built yet; we won't know where they build his $HOME until the server is built. on server 4: mysql's home is /opt/home/mysql   This is what I have for my important directories (ordered from most to least impt):  $ cat mylist.txt $HOME/most_impt_dir1 $HOME/most_impt_dir2 $HOME/most_impt_dir3 $HOME/misc $HOME/junk   ...I want to find the most impt dir owned by this user.   Here's what I'm trying:  for i in `cat mylist.txt` do    if [[ -O $i ]] &amp;&amp; [[ -d $i ]]; then     echo "found it: $i"     break   else     echo "$i is not it."   fi  done   The above code does not work for anything in my list because it is literally checking for dirs beginning with $HOME. How do I get my code to use the value of the user's $HOME variable?
27190
I can get/set registry values using the Microsoft.Win32.Registry class. For example,  Microsoft.Win32.Registry.SetValue(     @"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run",     "MyApp",      Application.ExecutablePath);   But I can't delete any value. How do I delete a registry value?
7433
Is there a way to "hide" a normal windowed application in Windows?  I'm looking for something that removes it from the taskbar and possibly puts an icon in the system tray instead.
3929
I setup my Windows 7 to automatically log into my account at home.  I have a password set so that I can access it remotely.  It seems like this was a feature in control panel somewhere, but now I can't find it to turn if off.  I know I used to use Tweak UI in older versions of windows to do this, and before that I could edit the registry . . . but it appears they changed it for Windows 7
15226
I find this beyond frustrating.  I have two extra screens on my laptop at work. I take my laptop and go home, with no extra screens connected. I come back, dock the laptop, and the windows need to be rearranged again.  Is there a way to get windows (or a utility) to keep track of the overall screen configuration (#, size, resolution), and remember where windows were placed, so when the screen configuration matches again, it puts applications BACK where they were?
97625
Answers to the questions on  and , along with poking through (and reading headers of) $HOME and /etc/, indicate a number of files that can be used to set environment variables, including:   ~/.profile  ~/.bashrc  ~/.bash_profile  ~/.gnomerc ~/.Rprofile  /etc/bash_bashrc  /etc/profile /etc/screenrc    I gather that files in /etc/ work for all users whereas files in $HOME are user-specific. I also gather that .profile is loaded at login whereas .bashrc loaded when /bin/bash is executed. I also understand that different programs have different settings files (e.g. .Rprofile for R). But I would appreciate some clarification:   Are *rc and *profile files fundamentally different? What is the scope of such files (e.g. which files are are commonly used with Linux) Is there a hierarchy (e.g. .bashrc overwrites variables set in .settings) What is a good reference for this class of files? For the options in these files?   Linked questions