Where are environment variables stored in the Windows Registry?

Question

I need to access an environment variable remotely. To do this, I think the best way is to read it from registry.

Where are environment variables stored in the Windows Registry?

Answer 1

Here's where they're stored on Windows XP through Windows Server 2012 R2:

User Variables

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment

System Variables

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment

Answer 2

There is a more efficient way of doing this in Windows 7. SETX is installed by default and supports connecting to other systems.

To modify a remote system's global environment variables, you would use

setx /m /s HOSTNAME-GOES-HERE VariableNameGoesHere VariableValueGoesHere

This does not require restarting Windows Explorer.

Answer 3

CMD:

reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment

PowerShell:

Get-Item "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
Get-Item HKCU:\Environment

Powershell/.NET: (see EnvironmentVariableTarget Enum)

[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables([System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine)
[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables([System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User)

Answer 4

I always had problems with that, and I made a getx.bat script:

:: getx %envvar% [\m]
:: Reads envvar from user environment variable and stores it in the getxvalue variable
:: with \m read system environment

@SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
@echo OFF

@set l_regpath="HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment"
@if "\m"=="%2" set l_regpath="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"

::REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v PATH /t REG_SZ /f /d "%PATH%"
::@REG QUERY %l_regpath% /v %1 /S

@FOR /F "tokens=*" %%A IN ('REG QUERY %l_regpath% /v %1 /S') DO (
@  set l_a=%%A
@    if NOT "!l_a!"=="!l_a:    =!" set l_line=!l_a!
)

:: Delimiter is four spaces. Change it to tab \t
@set l_line=!l_line!
@set l_line=%l_line:    =    %

@set getxvalue=

@FOR /F "tokens=3* delims=  " %%A IN ("%l_line%") DO (
@    set getxvalue=%%A
)
@set getxvalue=!getxvalue!
@echo %getxvalue% > getxfile.tmp.txt
@ENDLOCAL

:: We already used tab as a delimiter
@FOR /F "delims=    " %%A IN (getxfile.tmp.txt) DO (
    @set getxvalue=%%A
)
@del getxfile.tmp.txt

@echo ON