A method and/or system for managing path environment variables in a data processing or computer system includes the steps of reading at least one path environment variable string; parsing at least one path variable from the at least one path environment variable string; and determining if a file directory associated with the at least one path variable exists; if the file directory does not exist, deleting the at least one path variable and reassembling the path environment variable string. Furthermore, the method and system will allow a user to rearrange the order of the path variables so operating system program searching could be optimized to allow known heavily used directories to be searched first thereby reducing processing time.