Path to shell executable and path to project get mixed up

I freshly installed PlatformIO IDE via the VS Code Extensions tab and tried to program a NodeMCU-32S (ESP32).

When I try to build the project, I get the following error:

The terminal process failed to launch: Path to shell executable
“C:\platformio.exe” does not exist.

PlatformIO itself is installed correctly. The executable is located at:

C:\Users\Me.platformio\penv\Scripts\platformio.exe

My active project is located at:

E:\Documents\PlatformIO\Projects\test

However, when building, VS Code / PlatformIO is searching for platformio.exe inside the project directory instead of the actual installation path.

As a temporary workaround, I copied platformio.exe into the project folder. After that, build and upload work correctly and I can program my ESP32. However, this does not feel like a correct or permanent solution, and I do not want to repeat this for every new project.

My question:
What is the correct and permanent way to fix this, so PlatformIO always uses the global installation path and does not look for platformio.exe inside the project directory?

Any ideas or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Add %USERPROFILE%\.platformio\penv\Scripts the PATH (Windows Environment Variable).