What are the potential pitfalls and best practices for setting the System variable Path to include the PHP directory for PHP extension accessibility in Windows environments?

When setting the System variable Path to include the PHP directory for PHP extension accessibility in Windows environments, potential pitfalls include incorrectly formatting the Path variable, causing system errors. Best practices involve ensuring the PHP directory is correctly added to the Path variable with the appropriate syntax.

$phpDir = "C:\path\to\php";
$oldPath = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "Machine");
$newPath = $oldPath + ";" + $phpDir;
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", $newPath, "Machine");