Windows – Environment Variables Windows 2000/XP

Environment variables are a set of dynamic named values that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer.

%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
%CMDCMDLINE%Returns the exact command line used to start the current cmd.exe
%CMDEXTVERSION%Returns the version number of the current Command Processor Extensions
%COMPUTERNAME%Returns the name of the computer
%COMSPEC%Returns the exact path to the command shell executable
%DATE%Returns the current date.
%ERRORLEVEL%Returns the error code of the most recently used command
%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
%LOGONSERVER%Returns the name of the domain controller that validated the current logon session
%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%Returns the number of processors installed on the computer
%OS%Returns the OS name.
%PATH%Returns 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
%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
%PROMPT%Returns the command-prompt settings for the current interpreter
%RANDOM%Returns a random decimal number between 0 and 32767
%SYSTEMDRIVE%Returns the drive containing the Windows root directory 
%SYSTEMROOT%Returns the location of the Windows root directory
%TEMP%Return the default tem dir for apps that are available to users who are currently logged on
%TMP%Return the default tem dir for apps that are available to users who are currently logged on
%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

You can use these in either batch files or enter these straight into the Command Prompt.

C:\Documents and Settings\administrator> echo %DATE%
26/07/2009

Rick Donato
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