How can I restore my Vista PATH environment variable when System Restore is not available?

After installing IShadow I found out that my PATH environment variable was changed from some 20 paths to only one path: c:\program files\ishadow\system32. Many Windows tools stopped working, well known commands in the command prompt could not be found, Visual Studio SDK didn't work anymore etc etc.

The bad news: I found out too late and I don't have a system restore that goes back to before installing the (extremely bad behaving) IShadow Desktop. The owning company does not respond to my queries.

Another result is that Windows Backup fails with error 0x80080005 which I reckon also has to do with the paths not being correct. EDIT: that error was not related, but a result of wrong ACL on System Volume Information.

Any idea on how to restore the PATH? What are common paths that should go in there, after c:\windows? Can someone lookup his/her own list, esp. the first few, for me? It would be great if you could include the Windows SDK / .NET SDK paths as well.

System path contains the following general entries for 32-bits Windows which might apply in your case:

%SystemRoot%\system32
%SystemRoot%
%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem

However, many entries in System and Local paths pertain to products you have installed. You might have no choice but to reinstall these products that don't work.

I note that an excellent utility for editing the two paths is System Path Commander by donationcoder.