Setting permanent Environment Variables via VBscript or GPO xp/vista?

I need a way to set an environment variable based on the type of OS
installed.. ie: If the OS is 32bit only, then I need to set an
environment variable %ProgramFilesx86%= "" (blank), if the envronment
is 64bit, then I want something like %ProgramFilesX86"= the x86 path
here...

The reason for this is a coding language used in an application cannot
handle the "(x86)" part of the default environment variables.. there
is no way around it.. so the only way is to create a new environment
variable


Does anyone know of a way to do this via GPO.. or is there some other
way that wouldnt involve a GPO?

I tried this with a vbs file.. which worked fine in XP, but not in vista..

Here was my VBS code:

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

' makes environment settings permanent
Set WshSystemEnv = WshShell.Environment("SYSTEM")


' Set environment variable
WshSystemEnv("test") = "1234"

I got a permission denied on the last line.

I also tried using the schtasks.exe method of scheduling the vbs script at logon for Vista, as I do with the mapped drives situation, but this wasnt even working, gave me access denied errors just running the schtasks.exe command...


If I try this during the login script, it gets lost after the
login.bat window closes...


This needs to stay in "memory" while the OS is running, after the
login script..


(I've seen some examples of doing environment variables via GPO ADM
templates, but I'm not sure how to make it dynamic based on if the
program files (x86) folder exists or not)


Any help would be great.


Thanks