EnvVar

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A visual environment variable management tool for Windows, built with .NET 10 / WPF.

Download

You can download the latest installer from the Releases page.

Windows Security Notice

Because this project is a brand-new open source application and does not yet have a code signing certificate, Windows SmartScreen may show warnings such as:

• Windows protected your PC
• Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting

If that happens, click Run anyway to continue installation.

This software is fully open source and malware-free, and you can inspect the source code yourself.

VirusTotal result: 1/70. Only one machine-learning engine reported a false positive; the other 69 security vendors reported no issue.

This is a common false positive for new Inno Setup installers, not a real problem. Full report: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/0e1f6913a12bfc16547a948d793d55e54318d18cd1f2bad00f05538a1ae1a67f/detection

Features

• Browse user-level and system-level environment variables
• Combined display or grouped by level, supports column sorting
• Create, edit, and delete environment variables
• Edit local metadata (Alias / Description), with built-in presets for common variables
• Real-time search and filtering (by name, alias, value), search box with magnifying glass indicator
• Structured editing for multi-value variables (like PATH): item-by-item editing, adding, deleting, moving, and sorting
• Import / Export as JSON files
• Automatically record single variable history versions (configurable limit, default 5), support independent viewing and restoration by variable
• Built-in rolling log system for lifecycle events, key operations, and unhandled exceptions
• Multi-language support: English / Simplified Chinese / Traditional Chinese (selection persistence)
• Theme support: Light / Dark / Follow System (theme persistence)
• Prompt to restart as administrator when permissions are insufficient

Local Data

To avoid polluting real environment variables, Alias and Description are saved separately in local JSON files.

Data	Path
Metadata	%LocalAppData%\EnvVar\metadata.json
Variable History	%LocalAppData%\EnvVar\history.json
Settings	%LocalAppData%\EnvVar\settings.json
Logs	%LocalAppData%\EnvVar\Logs\YYYY-MM-DD.log

Metadata key format: Name@Level

{
  "JAVA_HOME@User": {
    "alias": "Java Home",
    "description": "JDK installation path"
  }
}

Instructions

1. After starting the application, the left side displays the environment variable list, and the right side displays the editing panel.
2. Click any variable to view and edit its content.
3. Click "New" to enter creation mode.
4. Click "Save" to write to the registry and local metadata.
5. Clicking "Delete" will require confirmation.
6. If the variable value contains ;, the right side will display a structured editing area where items can be edited, added, deleted, moved, and sorted individually.
7. When editing an existing variable, click the "History" button to view and restore historical versions of that variable.
8. Export / Import through the "File" menu.
9. Use the "Preferences" menu to switch language, theme, alias column visibility, max history, and logging. Choices are remembered automatically.

Permission Notes

• User-level variables can usually be modified directly.
• System-level variables require administrator permissions; a prompt will appear to restart as administrator if permissions are insufficient.

Development

Project based on .NET 10 / WPF:

dotnet build

Project Structure

Directory / File	Description
MainWindow.xaml(.cs)	Main Window
ViewModels/	ViewModel Layer
Models/	Data Models (Entries, Settings, History, Logging)
Services/	Business Services (Env var R/W, Metadata, Import/Export, History, Logging, Localization, Settings, Themes)
Infrastructure/	Infrastructure (ObservableObject)
Utilities/	Utilities (Multi-value parsing)
Views/	Sub-windows (About, Settings, Themed MessageBox)
Resources/Languages/	Multi-language resource files
docs/	Documents
installer/	Installer scripts (Inno Setup)

Testing

The project includes a comprehensive suite of unit tests using xUnit and Moq.

To run the tests:

dotnet test

For more details, see the Testing Documentation.

Documentation

• Functional Design Document
• UI Design Document
• Testing Documentation
• Suggestions and Improvements
• Installer Build Guide

Building the Installer

The project uses Inno Setup 6 to create the Windows installer.

Local Build

1. Ensure .NET 10 SDK and Inno Setup 6 are installed.
2. Run the build script:

   ./installer/build-installer.ps1 -version 1.0.0

3. The generated installer will be located in the release/ directory.

Automated Build (GitHub Actions)

This project includes a GitHub Actions workflow for automated building and publishing:

• On Push/PR to main: Builds the installer and uploads it as a workflow artifact.
• On Tag (v*): Builds the installer with the tag version and creates a GitHub Release.

For more details, see the Installer Build Guide.