-snip-
>At the end of the rope at this point.
Mark,

A couple of things. First, try:

DECLARE INTEGER GetEnvironmentVariable IN Win32API;
  STRING @lpname, STRING @lpbuffer, INTEGER nSize
lcname = "PATH"
* You may need to make this larger
lcbuffer = SPACE(260)
lnsize = LEN(lcbuffer)
lnresult = GetEnvironmentVariable(@lcname, @lcbuffer, lnsize)
? LEFT(lcbuffer, lnresult)

It should reflect the change even though GENENV() does not.

However, I think that this is strictly local to the current VFP process and won't affect Oracle. You can try though.