Where are environment variables stored in the Windows Registry?

Solution 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

Solution 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.

Solution 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)