Environment Variables


Environment variables for windows 2000/XP

Here below a list of useful windows environment variables:
ALLUSERSPROFILE Returns the location of the All Users Profile.
APPDATA Returns the location where applications store data by default.
CD Returns the current directory string.
COMPUTERNAME Returns the name of the computer.
COMSPEC Returns the exact path to the command shell executable.
DATE Returns the current date. 
HOMEDRIVE Returns which local workstation drive letter is connected to the user's home directory.
HOMEPATH Returns the full path of the user's home directory.
HOMESHARE Returns the network path to the user's shared home directory.
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS Specifies the number of processors installed on the computer.
OS Returns the OS name. Windows XP and Windows 2000 display the OS as Windows_NT.
PATH Specifies the search path for executable files.
PATHEXT Returns a list of the file extensions that the OS considers to be executable.
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE Returns the processor's chip architecture. Values: x86, IA64.
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER Returns a description of the processor.
PROCESSOR_LEVEL Returns the model number of the computer's processor.
PROCESSOR_REVISION Returns the revision number of the processor.
ProgramFiles Returns the location of the default install directory for applications.
SYSTEMDRIVE Returns the drive containing the Windows root directory (i.e., the system root).
SYSTEMROOT Returns the location of the Windows root directory.
TEMP Return the default temporary directories.
TMP Return the default temporary directories.
TIME Returns the current time.
USERDOMAIN Returns the name of the domain that contains the user's account.
USERNAME Returns the name of the user currently logged on.
USERPROFILE Returns the location of the profile for the current user.
WINDIR Returns the location of the OS directory



Environment variables for GNU/Linux

To know all the current environment variables in your system, invoke the printenv program.
Here below a list of some of them:
PATH System specifies the search path for executable files.
USER Returns the name of the user currently logged on.
HOME Returns the full path of the user's home directory.
DISPLAY Returns the name and display number of the X Window server on which programs will appear.
LANGUAGE Return set language.
TMP Return the default temporary directories.
BROWSER Return the default browser.
DESKTOP Return desktop currently running.