How to open MySQL session from any location in Windows

In this blog post I will show you how to open a MySQL session from any location using command prompt.
By default if you try to open a session, you will get below message.

The same command works from the bin directory. In my case path is <C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.6\bin>.

The solution for this is simple, just go ahead and add bin directory path in system variable path.  Follow the below steps to make the entry

1) Go to ‘Computer’ properties and Select ‘Advanced system settings’.
2) Navigate to ‘Advanced’ tab and select ‘Environment Variables’.

3) Under system variables, look for ‘Path’ variable and click ‘edit’.

4) Now at the end of existing variable value use a semicolon (;) and without leaving space paste the bin directory path with a backslash (\) at the end.

I have highlighted (in red) the path below which was pasted in my case.

…..Doctrine extensions for PHP\;C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.6\bin\

That’s it we are done. By adding this path we will be able to connect from any location. Open command prompt and now you can run MySQL session from any location. I tried it from D drive this time and it worked :-)

Hope this helps

Cheers,
Naveen