Windows 10 default environment variables

Variable    Windows 10

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%    C:\ProgramData
%APPDATA%    C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%    C:\Program Files\Common Files
%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%    C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
%CommonProgramW6432%    C:\Program Files\Common Files
%COMSPEC%    C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
%HOMEDRIVE%    C:\
%HOMEPATH%    C:\Users\{username}
%LOCALAPPDATA%    C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local
%LOGONSERVER%    \\{domain_logon_server}
%PATH%    C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
%PathExt%    .com;.exe;.bat;.cmd;.vbs;.vbe;.js;.jse;.wsf;.wsh;.msc
%PROGRAMDATA%    C:\ProgramData
%PROGRAMFILES%    C:\Program Files
%ProgramW6432%    C:\Program Files
%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%    C:\Program Files (x86)
%PROMPT%    $P$G
%SystemDrive%    C:
%SystemRoot%    C:\Windows
%TEMP%    C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp
%TMP%    C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Temp
%USERDOMAIN%    {userdomain}
%USERNAME%    {username}
%USERPROFILE%    C:\Users\{username}
%WINDIR%    C:\Windows
%PUBLIC%    C:\Users\Public
%PSModulePath%    %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\

Although you can use environment variables to quickly access certain locations within Windows 10, you’ll typically use these variable when building an script or an application.

Keep in mind that some of the variables mentioned are not location specific, including %COMPUTERNAME%, %PATHEXT%, %PROMPT%, %USERDOMAIN%, %USERNAME%.

While this guide is focused on Windows 10, it’s important to note that these variable will also work on Windows 8.x, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.