Environment Manager

Environment Manager is a desktop app for viewing and editing Windows environment variables with safer PATH editing and quick visual validation.

It is built with Avalonia UI and targets Windows.

What It Does

• Shows User and System environment variables in separate panels.
• Supports creating, editing, and deleting variables.
• Opens a smart multi-entry editor for semicolon-separated values (especially PATH-like variables).
• Highlights potential issues with color indicators (invalid paths, duplicates, warnings, etc.).
• Detects cross-scope overlap (for example, user entries that duplicate system entries).
• Copies the previous value to clipboard before delete as a safety fallback.

Key Features

1) User vs System Scope

• User variables are editable in normal mode.
• System variables require Administrator privileges to create/edit/delete.
• In non-admin mode, system values are visible but protected (read-only behavior enforced by app actions).

2) Smart Editor For PATH-Like Values

When editing a variable value, the Smart Editor splits entries by semicolon and allows:

• Add folder from picker.
• Move entries up/down.
• Edit a selected entry inline.
• Remove selected entry.
• Remove all dead entries (entries flagged invalid).
• Save back to a semicolon-joined value.

3) Validation + Color Status

The app computes status for variables and individual path entries:

• Green: valid path/file or healthy value.
• Yellow: warning (empty value, empty directory, malformed/uncertain path case).
• Orange: duplicate or shadowed value.
• Red: path-like value that does not exist.
• Blue: non-path value (informational).

4) Shadowing / Duplicate Detection

• Detects duplicate entries within the same variable value.
• Detects overlap against system/user values when comparing scopes.
• Marks user variables that shadow system variables with the same name.

Tech Stack

• .NET 10 (target framework: net10.0-windows)
• C#
• Avalonia UI 11

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 SDK (or compatible preview SDK for net10.0-windows)

Build And Run

From the repository root:

dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run --project "environment manager.csproj"

To manage System variables, launch the app as Administrator.

Project Structure

• source/Program.cs: app entry point.
• source/App.axaml + source/App.axaml.cs: app bootstrap and theme setup.
• source/Windows/MainWindow.axaml(.cs): main UI and variable CRUD workflow.
• source/Windows/SmartEditor.axaml(.cs): structured editor for semicolon-separated entries.
• source/Models/PathValidator.cs: path heuristics and validation rules.
• source/Models/EnvVarItem.cs + source/Models/PathEntry.cs: UI-bound models and status logic.

Notes

• The app uses Windows-specific APIs (registry + machine/user environment targets), so this build is Windows-focused.
• Changes are written through standard environment variable APIs and refreshed in the app after each operation.

Future Improvements

• Add export/import of selected variables.
• Add search/filter and sort options.
• Add undo/history for safer bulk edits.
• Add installer/package for easier distribution.

Notice

This project was generated entirely with AI.