Where are environment variables stored in the Windows Registry?
Here's where they're stored on Windows XP through Windows Server 2012 R2:
User Variables
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\EnvironmentSystem Variables
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
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 VariableValueGoesHereThis does not require restarting Windows Explorer.
CMD:
reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\EnvironmentPowerShell:
Get-Item "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"Get-Item HKCU:\EnvironmentPowershell/.NET: (see EnvironmentVariableTarget Enum)
[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables([System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine)[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables([System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User)