List of Environment Variables in Windows Operating System

Environment variables work like placeholder or alias for drives, file/folder names and various paths in Windows operating system.

We here at AskVG frequently use environment variables references in our tutorials like %windir%\Resources, %programfiles%\Internet Explorer, etc. Many people don’t know about them and get confused how to access the mentioned path.

So today we are going to list some important and frequently used system-defined environment variables in this article which will help you in better understanding them.

Most of these environment variables are same for older Windows versions such as Windows XP and newer Windows versions such as Windows Vista or later but some are different. So we are listing them separately for Windows XP and other Windows versions.

You can access the list of Environment Variables present in your computer using System properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables button.

You can also directly access it using control sysdm.cpl,system,3 command in RUN dialog box.

Windows XP Environment Variables

Environment Variable	Path
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
%APPDATA%	C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%	C:\Program Files\Common Files
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%	C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
%COMSPEC%	C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
%HOMEDRIVE%	C:\
%HOMEPATH%	C:\Documents and Settings\Username
%PROGRAMFILES%	C:\Program Files\
%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%	C:\Program Files (x86)\ (only in 64-bit version)
%SystemDrive%	C:\
%SystemRoot%	C:\Windows\
%TEMP% and %TMP%	C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temp
%USERPROFILE%	C:\Documents and Settings\Username
%WINDIR%	C:\Windows\

 

Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10

Environment Variable	Path
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%	C:\ProgramData\
%APPDATA%	C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%	C:\Program Files\Common Files
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%	C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
%COMSPEC%	C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
%HOMEDRIVE%	C:\
%HOMEPATH%	C:\Users\Username
%LOCALAPPDATA%	C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local
%PROGRAMDATA%	C:\ProgramData\
%PROGRAMFILES%	C:\Program Files\
%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%	C:\Program Files (x86)\ (only in 64-bit version)
%PUBLIC%	C:\Users\Public\
%SystemDrive%	C:\
%SystemRoot%	C:\Windows\
%TEMP% and %TMP%	C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp
%USERPROFILE%	C:\Users\Username
%WINDIR%	C:\Windows\

 

NOTE: Here C: is the system drive where Windows is installed in your system. It might differ for you if you installed Windows in a different drive in your system.