Posted: January 17, 2009/Under: Operating Systems/By: My Digital Life Editorial Team

Windows and DOS (Command Prompt) have several environment variables which provides a set of dynamic values that points to important system locations or settings. Environment variables provided a way for running programs and batch command script to access the true discrete values, system paths or user management settings for configuration and processing purposes, avoiding the use of hard-coded values which may fail on some systems due to great variety of system configuration.

Tip: Batch file (.bat or .cmd) also uses environment variables to store temporary values for reference later in the script, and also to communicate data and preferences to child processes.

The table lists the common built-in environment variables in Windows operating system, together with their brief explanations and default values. All environment variables is not case-sensitive.

Variable Usage Windows XP Windows Vista and Windows 7
%AllUsersProfile% Expand to full path to the All Users profile directory which contains resources such as shortcuts for Start Menu and Desktop for all users. {SystemDrive}:\Documents and Settings\All Users {SystemDrive}:\ProgramData
%AppData% Contain full path to the Application Data folder of the logged-in user. {SystemDrive}:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data {SystemDrive}:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming
%CD% Display current working directory or folder.
%ComputerName% {ComputerName} {ComputerName}
%CommonProgramFiles% Point to Common Files directory. {SystemDrive}:\Program Files\Common Files {SystemDrive}:\Program Files\Common Files
%CommonProgramFiles(x86)% Only available in 64-bit (x64) OS, and point to Common Files directory in 32-bit Program Files folder. {SystemDrive}:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files {SystemDrive}:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
%ComSpec% Display full path to the command processor (Cmd.exe on Windows NT based OS and Command.exe on Windows 9x and ME). {SystemDrive}:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe {SystemDrive}:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
%Date% Display current date in regional format.
%ErrorLevel% Point to current error level, normally used to check error returned from previous command.
%HomeDrive% Point to the drive for current signed on user’s home folder. {SystemDrive}:\ {SystemDrive}:\
%HomePath% Point to the signed on user’s home folder. {SystemDrive}:\Documents and Settings\{username} {SystemDrive}:\Users\{username}
%LogonServer% Hold the hostname of the server that authenticated the current user’s logon credentials (name and password), normally own PC or domain controller.
%Path% Contains a semicolon-delimited list of directories in which the command interpreter will search for executable files. {SystemDrive}:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;{plus program paths} {SystemDrive}:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;{plus program paths}
%PathExt% Contains a semicolor-delimited list of extensions which are defined as exectable. .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.WSF;.WSH .com;.exe;.bat;.cmd;.vbs;.vbe;.js;.jse;.wsf;.wsh;.msc
%ProgramFiles% Point to Program Files directory, which stores all the installed program of Windows and others. {SystemDrive}:\Program Files {SystemDrive}:\Program Files
%ProgramFiles(x86)% Only available in 64-bit version, the variable force accesses to 32-bit Program Files folder bypassing Windows-on-Windows 64-bit redirection. {SystemDrive}:\Program Files (x86) {SystemDrive}:\Program Files (x86)
%ProgramW6432% Only available in 64-bit version, the variable force accesses to 64-bit Program Files folder. {SystemDrive}:\Program Files {SystemDrive}:\Program Files
%Prompt% Display code for current command prompt format. $P$G $P$G
%Random% Return a random number between 0 and 32767.
%SystemDrive% Point to the drive where the system folder is placed. C: ({SystemDrive} or any other drive letter) C: ({SystemDrive} or any other drive letter)
%SystemRoot% Display full path location of the system folder. {SystemDrive}:\Windows (fomerly C:\WINNT and C:\WINNT35) {SystemDrive}:\Windows
%Temp% and%Tmp% Point to temporary folder. {SystemDrive}:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Temp {SystemDrive}:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp
%Time% Display current time in regional format.
%UserDomain% Hold the name of the Workgroup or Windows Domain to which the current user belongs.
%UserName% Display currently logged on active user’s account identification name. {UserName} {UserName}
%UserProfile% Return location of the current user’s profile directory as defined in HKCU registry hive (NTUSER). {SystemDrive}:\Documents and Settings\{username} {SystemDrive}:\Users\{username}
%WinDir% Similar %SystemRoot% and point to Windows directory. {SystemDrive}:\Windows (C:\WINNT for previous OS and C:\WTSRV for NT4 Terminal Server Edition) {SystemDrive}:\Windows
%Public% Display full path to Public Application Data folder. {SystemDrive}:\Users\Public

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