MATLAB was unable to launch my System web browser

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Hi,
when I try to click on a help mathworks link, it doesn't open web browser and returns me the warning message:
Warning: MATLAB was unable to launch your System web browser
and...
'cmd.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command
the same if I type:
!cmd or system('cmd')
Have I to set something in environment variables ?
  7 Comments
Luo Gang
Luo Gang on 24 Apr 2022
Awesome, the command setenv('PATH', [getenv('PATH') ';C:\Windows\system32']); by typing it in the matlab command window has solved my problem. Thanks
Luo Gang
Luo Gang on 26 Apr 2022
I find the way that cannot resolve this issue permanently. After you restarting your computer and then starting yout matlab, you will meet the issue again. So in order to solve this permanently, you can firstly run the command setenv('PATH', [getenv('PATH') ';C:\Windows\system32']); and secondly run the command getenv('PATH'), you will see a path. Finally go to edit your PC's the system environment variable, 'Path', by append above partial path to the end of 'PATH' in the Tab of system environment variable.

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Answers (1)

Sebastian Hölz
Sebastian Hölz on 13 Mar 2013
Edited: Sebastian Hölz on 13 Mar 2013
I had the same problem and just found the cause: too many entries in the PATH environment variable. Win7 (and most likely older versions as well) limit this variable to 2048 characters. If the variable gets larger this will cause problems. Try the following:
>> getenv('path')
If this returns an empty string, your path variable might be to long. To fix this you will have to manually edit the path variable. To this, open the dialog to edit environment variables:
c:\windows\system32\systempropertiesadvanced.exe -> "Environment Variables"
Search for the "PATH" variable in the lower list (System variables), open it and make sure it has less than 2048 character.
This can be done by copying the value to an editor and
  • removing redundant directories in the string,
  • shorten directory path(s) by abbreviating them with variables.
After editing, copy the new path-variable to the "Edit System Variable" box. Then, after restarting Matlab, your problems are (hopefully) gone.
Cheers
Sebastian
  1 Comment
karl hoitsma
karl hoitsma on 15 Aug 2021
Unfortunately, this happens on a mobile device -- an iPhone.
What might be the fix here ??

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