http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm The path is now managed by Windows 2000 / Windows XP and not the autoexec.bat or autoexec.nt files. To change the system environment variables follow the below steps.

1. From the desktop right click My Computer and click properties.
2. In the System Properties window click on the Advanced tab.
3. In the Advanced section click the Environment Variables button. 
4. Finally, in the Environment Variables window highlight the path variable in the Systems Variable section and click edit. Add or modify the path lines with the paths you wish the computer to access. Each different directory is separated with a semicolon as shown below.

   C:\Program Files;C:\Winnt;C:\Winnt\System32