Command line to remove an environment variable from the OS level configuration

Windows has the setx command:

Description:
    Creates or modifies environment variables in the user or system
    environment.

So you can set a variable like this:

setx FOOBAR 1

And you can clear the value like this:

setx FOOBAR ""

However, the variable does not get removed. It stays in the registry:

So how would you actually remove the variable?

To remove the variable from the current environment (not permanently):

set FOOBAR=

To permanently remove the variable from the user environment (which is the default place setx puts it):

REG delete HKCU\Environment /F /V FOOBAR

If the variable is set in the system environment (e.g. if you originally set it with setx /M), as an administrator run:

REG delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /F /V FOOBAR

Note: The REG commands above won't affect any existing processes (and some new processes that are forked from existing processes), so if it's important for the change to take effect immediately, the easiest and surest thing to do is log out and back in or reboot. If this isn't an option or you want to dig deeper, some of the other answers here have some great suggestions that may suit your use case.

To remove the variable from the current command session without removing it permanently, use the regular built-in set command - just put nothing after the equals sign:

set FOOBAR=

To confirm, run set with no arguments and check the current environment. The variable should be missing from the list entirely.

> Note: this will only remove the variable from the current environment - it will not persist the change to the registry. When a new command process is started, the variable will be back.

This has been covered quite a bit, but there's a crucial piece of information that's missing. Hopefully, I can help to clear up how this works and give some relief to weary travellers. :-)

Delete From Current Process

Obviously, everyone knows that you just do this to delete an environment variable from your current process:

set FOO=

Persistent Delete

There are two sets of environment variables, system-wide and user.

Delete User Environment Variable:

reg delete "HKCU\Environment" /v FOO /f

Delete System-Wide Environment Variable:

REG delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /F /V FOO

Apply Value Without Rebooting

Here's the magic information that's missing! You're wondering why after you do this, when you launch a new command window, the environment variable is still there. The reason is because explorer.exe has not updated its environment. When one process launches another, the new process inherits the environment from the process that launched it.

There are two ways to fix this without rebooting. The most brute-force way is to kill your explorer.exe process and start it again. You can do that from Task Manager. I don't recommend this method, however.

The other way is by telling explorer.exe that the environment has changed and that it should reread it. This is done by broadcasting a Windows message (WM_SETTINGCHANGE). This can be accomplished with a simple PowerShell script. You could easily write one to do this, but I found one in Update Window Settings After Scripted Changes:

if (-not ("win32.nativemethods" -as [type])) {
    add-type -Namespace Win32 -Name NativeMethods -MemberDefinition @"
        [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        public static extern IntPtr SendMessageTimeout(
            IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, UIntPtr wParam, string lParam,
            uint fuFlags, uint uTimeout, out UIntPtr lpdwResult);
        "@
}

$HWND_BROADCAST = [intptr]0xffff;
$WM_SETTINGCHANGE = 0x1a;
$result = [uintptr]::zero

[win32.nativemethods]::SendMessageTimeout($HWND_BROADCAST, $WM_SETTINGCHANGE,[uintptr]::Zero, "Environment", 2, 5000, [ref]$result);

Summary

So to delete a user environment variable named "FOO" and have the change reflected in processes you launch afterwards, do the following.

1. Save the PowerShell script to a file (we'll call it updateenv.ps1).
2. Do this from the command line: reg delete "HKCU\Environment" /v FOO /f
3. Run updateenv.ps1.
4. Close and reopen your command prompt, and you'll see that the environment variable is no longer defined.

Note, you'll probably have to update your PowerShell settings to allow you to run this script, but I'll leave that as a Google-fu exercise for you.

From PowerShell you can use the .NET [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable() method:

• To remove a user environment variable named FOO:

    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('FOO', $null, 'User')
  

^{Note that $null is used to better signal the intent to remove the variable, though technically it is effectively the same as passing '' in this case.}

• To remove a system (machine-level) environment variable named FOO - requires elevation (must be run as administrator):

    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('FOO', $null, 'Machine')
  

Aside from faster execution, the advantage over the reg.exe-based method is that other applications are notified of the change, via a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message (though few applications actually listen to that message and update their environment in response).

Delete Without Rebooting

The OP's question indeed has been answered extensively, including how to avoid rebooting through powershell, vbscript, or you name it.

However, if you need to stick to cmd commands only and don't have the luxury of being able to call powershell or vbscript, you could use the following approach:

rem remove from current cmd instance
  SET FOOBAR=
rem remove from the registry if it's a user variable
  REG delete HKCU\Environment /F /V FOOBAR
rem remove from the registry if it's a system variable
  REG delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /F /V FOOBAR
rem tell Explorer.exe to reload the environment from the registry
  SETX DUMMY ""
rem remove the dummy
  REG delete HKCU\Environment /F /V DUMMY

So the magic here is that by using "setx" to assign something to a variable you don't need (in my example DUMMY), you force Explorer.exe to reread the variables from the registry, without needing powershell. You then clean up that dummy, and even though that one will stay in Explorer's environment for a little while longer, it will probably not harm anyone.

Or if after deleting variables you need to set new ones, then you don't even need any dummy. Just using SETX to set the new variables will automatically clear the ones you just removed from any new cmd tasks that might get started.

Background information: I just used this approach successfully to replace a set of user variables by system variables of the same name on all of the computers at my job, by modifying an existing cmd script. There are too many computers to do it manually, nor was it practical to copy extra powershell or vbscripts to all of them. The reason I urgently needed to replace user with system variables was that user variables get synchronized in roaming profiles (didn't think about that), so multiple machines using the same windows login but needing different values, got mixed up.

I agree with CupawnTae.

SET is not useful for changes to the master environment.

FYI: System variables are in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment (a good deal longer than user vars).

The full command for a system var named FOOBAR therefore is:

REG delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /F /V FOOBAR

(Note the quotes required to handle the space.)

It is too bad the setx command doesn't support a delete syntax. :(

PS: Use responsibly - If you kill your path variable, don't blame me!

The command in DougWare's answer did not work, but this did:

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v FOOBAR /f

The shortcut HKLM can be used for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

setx FOOBAR ""

just causes the value of FOOBAR to be a null string. (Although, it shows with the set command with the "" so maybe double-quotes is the string.)

I used:

set FOOBAR=

and then FOOBAR was no longer listed in the set command. (Log-off was not required.)

Windows 7 32 bit, using the command prompt, non-administrator is what I used. (Not cmd or Windows + R, which might be different.)

BTW, I did not see the variable I created anywhere in the registry after I created it. I'm using RegEdit not as administrator.

You can also create a small VBScript script:

Set env = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Environment("System")
If env(WScript.Arguments(0)) <> vbNullString Then env.Remove WScript.Arguments(0)

Then call it like %windir%\System32\cscript.exe //Nologo "script_name.vbs" FOOBAR.

The disadvantage is you need an extra script, but it does not require a reboot.

By the way I just figured out how to unset a permanent variable that you've set using setx.

Simply write quotation marks, like:

setx myvar ""

And on next cmd window restart, if you search for the variable

set myvar

There won't be anything set for it.