A complete list of "%%" relative paths/variables in Windows Explorer in Widows 10?

Solution 1:

If you want to see the list of paths available such as %AppData% and similar then simply open a command prompt and type set. You will see something like

ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\ProgramData
APPDATA=C:\Users\<your user profile>\AppData\Roaming
CommonProgramFiles=C:\Program Files\Common Files
CommonProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files
CommonProgramW6432=C:\Program Files\Common Files
DriverData=C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\DriverData
HOMEDRIVE=C:
HOMEPATH=\Users\<your user profile>
LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\<your user profile>\AppData\Local
OneDrive=C:\Users\<your user profile>\OneDrive
OneDriveConsumer=C:\Users\<your user profile>\OneDrive
ProgramData=C:\ProgramData
ProgramFiles=C:\Program Files
ProgramFiles(x86)=C:\Program Files (x86)
ProgramW6432=C:\Program Files
PUBLIC=C:\Users\Public
SystemDrive=C:
SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS
TEMP=C:\Users\<your user profile>\AppData\Local\Temp
TMP=C:\Users\<your user profile>\AppData\Local\Temp
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\<your user profile>
windir=C:\WINDOWS

Anything that begins and ends with a % is an environment variable with a Name=Value pair.

If the likes of %appdata% (or a relative sub-path of it) is not working for you then you may need to put a \ between %appdata% and the rest of the path like so

%appdata%\Microsoft

Most %% environment variables do not have the trailing \ so you have to add it yourself.

Solution 2:

I would like to know the full list of variables that I can use in Windows Explorer or related relative paths that is accepted by Windows 10. Variables like %appdata%, %userprofile%, %windir%...etc.

You can list the system's environmental variables by running the following PowerShell command:

Get-ChildItem Env: | Sort Name

Any variable that contains a path, can be viewed with File Explorer, by using the %NAME% (i.e. %ALLUSERSPROFILE%) syntax.