Command prompt and setting environment variable properties

Working on multiple projects which require different compiler versions can be a daunting task especially if you are using windows command prompt cmd.exe to build the projects. You need to export the compiler specific environment variables and set the PATH variable appropriately each time you launch the command window to build each project. Here is a small tip that can help save some time

Tip
Write a batch file which will set the necessary environment variables and the path variable before launching the command window

A simple batch script which sets JAVA_HOME to jdk1.6.0_21 and launches the command prompt window

set JAVA_HOME=
set JAVA_HOME=c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_21

set PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
start cmd /k

On executing the batch file, command prompt window is launched with the JAVA_HOME environment variable set to the desired version (jdk1.6.0_21)