diff --git a/src/main/runtime/harness-runtime.ts b/src/main/runtime/harness-runtime.ts
index d398bb072..233a8fe20 100644
--- a/src/main/runtime/harness-runtime.ts
+++ b/src/main/runtime/harness-runtime.ts
@@ -197,6 +197,37 @@ export function buildHarnessArguments(
   ]
 }
 
+/**
+ * The captured PATH, looked up the way Windows actually stores it.
+ *
+ * `resolveShellEnvironment()` returns a plain object built by `parseEnvOutput`,
+ * keyed by whatever case the environment block reported — and Windows does not
+ * normalise that case, it follows the registry value name. A machine whose
+ * PATH value name is stored lowercase yields the key `path`, which an
+ * exact-case read misses entirely, launching the Harness with an empty PATH
+ * (issue #232). `process.env` never has this problem because Node makes it
+ * case-insensitive on win32 — but spreading it into a plain object keeps
+ * only the stored casing, so every copy needs this lookup too.
+ *
+ * POSIX keeps the exact read: there `path` and `PATH` are genuinely
+ * different variables.
+ */
+export function resolveEnvironmentPath(
+  environment: NodeJS.ProcessEnv,
+  platform: NodeJS.Platform = process.platform
+): string {
+  if (platform !== 'win32') return environment.PATH ?? ''
+  // Exact-case reads first; the scan is the last resort for other casings.
+  // A real Windows block stores a single casing, so the order between them
+  // is never observable outside synthetic inputs.
+  const direct = environment.Path ?? environment.PATH
+  if (direct !== undefined) return direct
+  for (const [name, value] of Object.entries(environment)) {
+    if (/^path$/iu.test(name) && value !== undefined) return value
+  }
+  return ''
+}
+
 export function buildHarnessSpawnOptions(
   launchDirectory: string,
   dshHome: string,
@@ -233,7 +264,7 @@ export function buildHarnessSpawnOptions(
       // the dedicated lock-recovery runner instead (see pnpm-runner.mjs).
       npm_config_side_effects_cache: 'false',
       PNPM_CONFIG_SIDE_EFFECTS_CACHE: 'false',
-      [pathKey]: environment[pathKey] ?? environment.PATH ?? ''
+      [pathKey]: resolveEnvironmentPath(environment, platform)
     },
     stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe'],
     windowsHide: true,
diff --git a/src/main/runtime/profile-plugin-command.ts b/src/main/runtime/profile-plugin-command.ts
index 2b5b8b8ef..d976476a9 100644
--- a/src/main/runtime/profile-plugin-command.ts
+++ b/src/main/runtime/profile-plugin-command.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import { spawn } from 'node:child_process'
 import { existsSync } from 'node:fs'
 import { chmod, mkdir, readdir, stat, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
 import { delimiter, dirname, join } from 'node:path'
+import { resolveEnvironmentPath } from './harness-runtime'
 
 const PROFILE = 'web'
 const OPERATION_TIMEOUT_MS = 15 * 60 * 1000
@@ -146,11 +147,10 @@ export function buildProfilePluginCommandEnvironment(
   const result = { ...environment }
   delete result.ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE
 
-  const currentPath =
-    (process.platform === 'win32' ? result.Path : result.PATH) ??
-    result.PATH ??
-    result.Path ??
-    ''
+  // The spread above keeps only the casing the OS block actually stores —
+  // even for `process.env`, whose case-insensitivity does not survive a
+  // copy — so the PATH read must be case-insensitive itself (issue #232).
+  const currentPath = resolveEnvironmentPath(result)
   const parts = currentPath.split(delimiter).filter(Boolean)
   const additions = [shimDirectory, dirname(nodeExecutablePath)].filter(
     (directory) => !parts.includes(directory)
diff --git a/test/profile-plugin-command.test.ts b/test/profile-plugin-command.test.ts
index 2bcfeb17e..574f4dd74 100644
--- a/test/profile-plugin-command.test.ts
+++ b/test/profile-plugin-command.test.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import { join } from 'node:path'
 import { afterEach, describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
 import {
   buildPnpmShimCommand,
+  buildProfilePluginCommandEnvironment,
   buildProfilePluginRemoveArguments,
   diagnosticLine,
   removeProfilePluginWithDsh
@@ -142,3 +143,24 @@ describe('profile pnpm shim and failure reporting', () => {
     expect(diagnosticLine('   ')).toBeUndefined()
   })
 })
+
+describe('buildProfilePluginCommandEnvironment', () => {
+  it('keeps the user PATH when the environment block stores it lowercase', () => {
+    // Spreading `process.env` keeps only the casing the OS block stores, so
+    // on a machine whose registry PATH value name is lowercase the previous
+    // exact-case read produced an empty base PATH — plugin commands then ran
+    // with just the shim and bundled-node directories (issue #232).
+    const userPath = 'C:\\Windows\\System32;C:\\Users\\tester\\bin'
+    const result = buildProfilePluginCommandEnvironment(
+      { path: userPath },
+      'C:\\shim',
+      'C:\\bundled\\node.exe'
+    )
+    if (process.platform === 'win32') {
+      expect(result.PATH).toContain(userPath)
+    } else {
+      // POSIX: `path` is a different variable and must stay out of PATH.
+      expect(result.PATH).not.toContain(userPath)
+    }
+  })
+})
diff --git a/test/runtime.test.ts b/test/runtime.test.ts
index ae35fea54..09d7b30e2 100644
--- a/test/runtime.test.ts
+++ b/test/runtime.test.ts
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import {
   extractSlotConflictName,
   formatExitCode,
   isHarnessStartupProbeHealthy,
+  resolveEnvironmentPath,
   resolveShellEnvironment,
   updateReadyStability
 } from '../src/main/runtime/harness-runtime'
@@ -133,6 +134,25 @@ describe('Harness launch contract', () => {
     }
   })
 
+  it('finds the Windows PATH when the environment block stores it lowercase', () => {
+    // Windows environment variable names are case-insensitive and the captured
+    // block is not normalised, so a machine whose registry PATH value name is
+    // lowercase hands `resolveShellEnvironment()` the key `path`. An exact-case
+    // read misses it and the Harness launches with no PATH at all — every
+    // PATH-resolved tool call fails with ENOENT (issue #232).
+    const userPath = 'C:\\Windows\\System32;C:\\Users\\tester\\bin'
+    const options = buildHarnessSpawnOptions('C:\\launch-root', 'C:\\harness', 'win32', {
+      path: userPath
+    })
+    // Every key spelling PATH must carry the value: whichever of them survives
+    // Node's win32 case-dedupe, the child receives the user's PATH.
+    const pathEntries = Object.entries(options.env ?? {}).filter(([name]) =>
+      /^path$/iu.test(name)
+    )
+    expect(pathEntries.length).toBeGreaterThan(0)
+    for (const [, value] of pathEntries) expect(value).toBe(userPath)
+  })
+
   it('passes the internal-loader flag directly to bundled Node.js', () => {
     expect(
       buildNodeArguments(
@@ -247,8 +267,8 @@ describe('shell environment resolution', () => {
     () => {
       const env = resolveShellEnvironment()
       expect(env).toBeDefined()
-      // Windows may preserve the conventional mixed-case key.
-      expect(env.PATH ?? env.Path).toBeTruthy()
+      // Windows preserves whatever casing the environment block stores.
+      expect(resolveEnvironmentPath(env)).toBeTruthy()
     },
     20_000
   )
@@ -262,7 +282,7 @@ describe('shell environment resolution', () => {
 
   it('produces a PATH that includes platform-standard system directories', () => {
     const env = resolveShellEnvironment()
-    const path = env.PATH ?? env.Path ?? ''
+    const path = resolveEnvironmentPath(env)
     if (process.platform === 'win32') {
       expect(path).toMatch(/[A-Za-z]:\\/)
     } else {
diff --git a/test/shell-environment-encoding.test.ts b/test/shell-environment-encoding.test.ts
index 2496c8464..fed8814a1 100644
--- a/test/shell-environment-encoding.test.ts
+++ b/test/shell-environment-encoding.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest'
-import { withoutUndecodableValues } from '../src/main/runtime/harness-runtime'
+import {
+  resolveEnvironmentPath,
+  withoutUndecodableValues
+} from '../src/main/runtime/harness-runtime'
 
 /**
  * Windows PowerShell writes stdout in the console codepage. Decoding that as
@@ -42,4 +45,17 @@ describe('captured shell environment', () => {
   it('preserves an empty value', () => {
     expect(withoutUndecodableValues({ EMPTY: '' }, {})).toEqual({ EMPTY: '' })
   })
+
+  // Windows does not normalise environment variable name casing either — the
+  // captured block follows the registry value name, so PATH can arrive as
+  // `path` or any other spelling and an exact-case read misses it (issue #232).
+  it('reads PATH case-insensitively only on Windows', () => {
+    expect(resolveEnvironmentPath({ path: 'C:\\lower' }, 'win32')).toBe('C:\\lower')
+    expect(resolveEnvironmentPath({ PaTh: 'C:\\mixed' }, 'win32')).toBe('C:\\mixed')
+    // POSIX: `path` is a different variable, not a spelling of PATH.
+    expect(resolveEnvironmentPath({ path: '/ignored' }, 'linux')).toBe('')
+    expect(resolveEnvironmentPath({ PATH: '/usr/bin', path: '/ignored' }, 'linux')).toBe(
+      '/usr/bin'
+    )
+  })
 })