I have been doing some SharePoint development, and I am using a variety of little utilities to get certain tasks done. However, in many cases, the utilities are installed as part of an SDK, a toolkit or something else. For example, to install a Web Part package to a Windows SharePoint Services-enabled computer, I use stsadm.exe. so, to install a Web Part I go to the command line and type:

stsadm.exe -o addwppack -filename deployOfficeTalk.cab

The only thing is, the utility is in one place, and I hate having to type the whole filepath in the command line. I usually use the Visual Studio .NET 2003 Command Prompt (it has all of the key paths already configured), so, what I normally do is add the paths to my favorite utilities to the environment variables this command prompt uses.

You can find it in: c:\program files\microsoft visual studio .net 2003\common\tools\vsvars32.bat.

Open the batch file and find the "PATH=" add a semicolon and append the path to your utility. The next time you open the prompt, you can just use your utility from any directory.

You can also change the system environment variables (either in the Control Panel) or the Windows registry.

 Rock thought for the day: So, I am driving my boys to their baseball game last night, and my 6 year old turns to me and says, "Pop, I think it smells like Teen Spirit in here." with a smile. That was my hint to throw in the first song on the Nevermind album. He likes the beginning riff. Who doesn't?

Rock on