List all environment variables from the command line

Question

Is it possible to list all environment variables from a Windows' command prompt?

Something equivalent to PowerShell's gci env: (or ls env: or dir env:).

Dupondius

For a description of each, see ss64.com/nt/syntax-variables.html – Mandibular

Answer 1

Just do:

SET

You can also do SET prefix to see all variables with names starting with prefix.

For example, if you want to read only derbydb from the environment variables, do the following:

set derby 

...and you will get the following:

DERBY_HOME=c:\Users\amro-a\Desktop\db-derby-10.10.1.1-bin\db-derby-10.10.1.1-bin

Evanthe

This prompts me for a name? – Mauriac

@KevinMeredith: All commands in the Windows shell are case insensitive. – Evanthe

@Mauriac are you using powershell? It appears that it has hikacked set with one of its command-lets. This is one of its less useful features! I asked a question about disabling this here – Ursola

This doesn't seem to work with cmd /c. /e:on flag also doesn't help. – Mazur

This is not guaranteed to work. This requires command extensions to be enabled. They are enabled by default on newer windows, but not older ones, and they can be turned off. – Ecumenicity

@John Lord: What is "command extensions"? Do you have a reference? Do you mean PowerShell Community Extensions (PSCX)? – Swartz

i do not mean those. I'm talking about the command prompt (cmd.exe). Read this: computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=13988.0 They can break command scripts in some cases when enabled so it's possible a user that does a lot of batch processing has them turned off by default, and they can be turned of on a single-use instance as well in the batch file. In a specific command instance, it may be required to run this as well: C:> cmd.exe /E:ON to turn them on. – Ecumenicity

Answer 2

Jon has the right answer, but to elaborate a little more with some syntactic sugar..

SET | more

enables you to see the variables one page at a time, rather than the whole lot, or

SET > output.txt

sends the output to a file output.txt which you can open in Notepad or whatever...

Straitlaced

it's actually built in to some functions as well. Dir for example will page with a /p. – Ecumenicity

Answer 3

To list all environment variables in PowerShell:

Get-ChildItem Env:

Or as suggested by user797717 to avoid output truncation:

Get-ChildItem Env: | Format-Table -Wrap -AutoSize

Source: Creating and Modifying Environment Variables (Windows PowerShell Tip of the Week)

Grefe

Even if I don't use PowerShell because it doesn't work for every cmd command, this is the only solution for a pretty printing (on 2 columns) without big efforts. To achieve the same behavior in cmd, you need something like this for /f "tokens=1,2 delims==" ... which becomes very complicated ... – Taffeta

To avoid output being truncated, I would use the following: Get-ChildItem Env: | Format-Table -Wrap -AutoSize – Hit

gci env: instead Get-ChildItem Env:, easier to remember – Cannoneer

Answer 4

Simply run set from cmd.

Displays, sets, or removes environment variables. Used without parameters, set displays the current environment settings.

Subdue

Doesn't seem to work these days (in 2021) ` $ set $ cmdlet Set-Variable at command pipeline position 1 $ Supply values for the following parameters: $ Name[0]: $ Set-Variable: Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Name' because it is an empty array. ` – Amylum

set is run in cmd, not Powershell @JayKilleen – Dunning

So VERY very true @Grant! +1 But I think the MORE command option was to paginate. :D @JayKilleen and any other people: ---> Command Prompt CMD Answer: set | more (or in shortcut: set | more & pause) ---> PowerShell PS Answer: gci env: | Format-Table -Wrap -AutoSize -OR- Get-ChildItem Env: | Format-Table -Wrap -AutoSize – Parma

Answer 5

Non expanded variables -

User variables -

reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment

System variables -

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

Expanded variables -

In CMD -

SET

In Powershell -

Source - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/powertip-use-windows-powershell-to-display-all-environment-variables/

dir env:

Torrell

set by itself doesn't work with Github Actions, but the reg query does! – Encephalomyelitis

Sorry @HrishikeshKadam - it doesn't work. Command: PS C:\Users\User> dir env Error Message: dir : Cannot find path 'C:\Users\User\env' because it does not exist... FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetChildItemCommand – Parma

Answer 6

You can use SET in cmd

To show the current variable, just SET is enough

To show certain variable such as 'PATH', use SET PATH.

For help, type set /?.

Tiein

How is this different from existing answers? – Swartz

Answer 7

Don't lose time. Search for it in the registry:

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"

returns less than the SET command.

Warford

although that might be true, one difference is that the registry query returns unexpanded REG_EXPAND_SZ keys. For example reg query "HKCU\Environment" shows me that my %TEMP% variable depends on the value of %USERPROFILE%, so if that value changes, so would the value for %TEMP%. In contrast, SET just returns "C:\Users\mpag\AppData\Local\Temp" – Rudiger

Why do you say "don’t lose time"? Isn’t writing "set" in the command prompt faster than "reg query ..."? – Exegesis

Answer 8

If you want to see the environment variable you just set, you need to open a new command window.

Variables set with setx variables are available in future command windows only, not in the current command window. (Setx, Examples)

Woody