Refresh-Desktop is not refreshing the global environment block about psappdeploytoolkit

[mmashwani]

Please post code in code blocks so it's easier to read. You can do so by surround the code block with three back ticks before and after (I edited your post to add the code block).

Refresh-Desktop will refresh desktop icons and also update the environment block for Windows Explorer so that new processes that are spawned reflect the newly created environment variables. Processes load environment variables at initial start and then it is impossible to update the environment block for that process unless you restart the process. If you need to use an environment variable you just created in the same process that created it, then make a call to Refresh-SessionEnvironmentVariables.

[mmashwani]

Please explain in detail what behaviour you notice when using the custom code you posted above vs the behaviour you notice when you use the code in the toolkit. That will give me a better understanding of the issue and what I need to fix.

[appPackager]

Perform your test as follows:

1. Open Regedit and change the PATH value located at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment;Path
2. Open a command prompt and type SET. Note the value for PATH. It will not reflect your change.
3. Run Refresh-Desktop
4. Open a new command prompt and type SET. Note the value still reflects the value you saw in step #2.
5. Run Refresh-GlobalEnvironment
6. Open a new command prompt and type SET. Note the value for PATH now reflects the change you made in step 1.

[appPackager]

The change required to resolve the issue is to make the following change to AppDeployToolkitMain.cs:
new:

public static void RefreshDesktopAndEnvironmentVariables()
        {
            // Update desktop icons
            SHChangeNotify(0x8000000, 0x1000, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);
            // Update environment variables
            SendMessageTimeout(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, IntPtr.Zero, "Environment", SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG, 100, IntPtr.Zero);
        }

old:

public static void RefreshDesktopAndEnvironmentVariables()
        {
            // Update desktop icons
            SHChangeNotify(0x8000000, 0x1000, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);
            // Update environment variables
            SendMessageTimeout(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, IntPtr.Zero, null, SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG, 100, IntPtr.Zero);
        }

[mmashwani]

Thanks for the update. I've implemented the fix in the latest beta.

[twahab]

Hello, we are running version 3.8.1 of the toolkit and seen where the explorer.exe process is stopped during the installation step using Execute-Msi function. It sounds to me it's happening during the [Installation] :: Refresh the Desktop and the Windows Explorer environment process block. Update-Desktop 8/6/2020 3:51:08 PM 16600 (0x40D8) Step. The package completes running to post-installation step, however then user has to sign in and out to get explorer back or launch taskmgr and initiate explorer.exe. Would appreciate any feedback, thanks

[Garg0yle216]

The package completes running to post-installation step, however then user has to sign in and out to get explorer back or launch taskmgr and initiate explorer.exe. Would appreciate any feedback, thanks

I am using 3.8.4 and I started receiving this same issue in about March 2022. Did you ever get a response on this?