Computer Management - Missing the Properties Menu

[asterismW]

I stumbled upon this thread, but it's pretty old, so I thought I'd start a new one. In XP in Computer Management, you could right click on the computer and get a Properties option. This was especially useful if you were connecting to a remote computer. For example, you could edit the environment variables of a remote system. In Window 7, the Properties option is gone. (See attachments.) Is there any way to get it back, or else another way to remotely administer environment variables? Note: I know how to get to the Properties of the local system; that's not what I'm looking for. I want to be able to access the Properties of a remote system.

 

[Dave Atkin]

What do you want to be able to achive from this?

I believe they have got rid of it entirly in Windows 7. See an old Vista post here:
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/90959-computer-management-missing-properties-menu.html


Dave

 

[asterismW]

As I said, I want to be able to access the computer Properties of a remote system, specifically the environment variables.

It would be a shame to lose that functionality, as it's been very useful.

 

[Dave Atkin]

I agree, I have used it before to restart PC's and Servers on a network.

I think SysInternals had a tool to view remote PC msinfo32 information.
Sysinternals System Information Utilities

See psinfo.

Does that help?


Dave

 

[asterismW]

I've used SysInternals before, and while it's very useful, as far as I can tell, it doesn't do what I want. PsInfo only shows information, and the other tools don't allow you to edit the environment variables.

 

[Dave Atkin]

Have you come across the Setx command before?

PowerCram: Setting Windows Environment Variables With SETX

Dave

 

[asterismW]

I had not heard of setx before, thank you. I've gotten it to work... sort of. When I issue the command

setx remotecomputer PATH somevalue /m

it replaces the remote computer's PATH value with somevalue, which is what I'd expect. However, how do I simply add to the variable? If I try

setx remotecomputer PATH "%PATH%;somevalue" /m

it replaces the remote computer's PATH value with the local computer's PATH value, and adds somevalue. How do I tell it to add somevalue to the PATH value that the remote computer already has?

 

[Dave Atkin]

Have a look at this - not sure how relivant it is though:
SETX DOS command issue

Would RapidPath Editor solrt it?
About - Rapid Environment Editor

I havent tested that so if you download do a Virus scan on it!


Dave

 

[asterismW]

The first link explains setx a little better, but it doesn't really address the issue I had, which was trying to add to the PATH value of a remote computer. I installed Rapid Environment Editor, and it looks like a nice little GUI for environment editing, but it doesn't seem to have an option for remote environment editing (and it's not very complex, so I think I would have found it).

No, I think I'll have to go back to editing remote environment variables the old fashioned way: by remoting in (if no one is logged in) or walking over to the computer (if someone is). Why Microsoft thought they should do away with such a simple and useful function is beyond me.

Many thanks, Dave; you've been more than helpful.