how to get program files x86 env variable

Question

I would like to know how I can display the location of Program Files  x86  in command prompt  I m using Windows 7 64bit    I ve tried    echo  programfiles x86   and echo  programfiles   both of which displays only C  Program Files   When I manually checked the registry  HKLM Software microsoft windows currentversion  the programfilesdir points to C  Program Files and   HKLM Software WOW64 Microsoft winodws currentversion  the programfilesdir points to C  Program Files  x86    But  why am I always being displayed with C  Program Files

User · Answer

On a Windows 64 bit machine  echo  programfiles x86   does print C  Program Files  x86

User · Answer

On a 64-bit machine running in 64-bit mode    echo  programfiles           C  Program Files echo  programfiles x86       C  Program Files  x86    On a 64-bit machine running in 32-bit  WOW64  mode    echo  programfiles           C  Program Files  x86  echo  programfiles x86       C  Program Files  x86    On a 32-bit machine running in 32-bit mode    echo  programfiles           C  Program Files echo  programfiles x86        programfiles x86

User · Answer

On a 64-bit Windows system  the reading of the various environment variables and some Windows Registry keys is redirected to different sources  depending whether the process doing the reading is 32-bit or 64-bit  The table below lists these data sources  X   HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Y   HKLM SOFTWARE Wow6432Node Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Z   HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion ProfileList       READING ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES     Source for 64-bit process               Source for 32-bit process ------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------                  ProgramFiles     X ProgramW6432Dir                       X ProgramFilesDir  x86              ProgramFiles x86      X ProgramFilesDir  x86                  X ProgramFilesDir  x86                   ProgramW6432     X ProgramW6432Dir                       X ProgramW6432Dir                  CommonProgramFiles     X CommonW6432Dir                        X CommonFilesDir  x86        CommonProgramFiles x86      X CommonFilesDir  x86                   X CommonFilesDir  x86             CommonProgramW6432     X CommonW6432Dir                        X CommonW6432Dir                         ProgramData     Z ProgramData                           Z ProgramData         READING REGISTRY VALUES     Source for 64-bit process               Source for 32-bit process ------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------              X ProgramFilesDir    X ProgramFilesDir                       Y ProgramFilesDir        X ProgramFilesDir  x86     X ProgramFilesDir  x86                  Y ProgramFilesDir  x86              X ProgramFilesPath    X ProgramFilesPath    ProgramFiles      Y ProgramFilesPath    ProgramFiles x86                X ProgramW6432Dir    X ProgramW6432Dir                       Y ProgramW6432Dir                     X CommonFilesDir    X CommonFilesDir                        Y CommonFilesDir         X CommonFilesDir  x86     X CommonFilesDir  x86                   Y CommonFilesDir  x86                X CommonW6432Dir    X CommonW6432Dir                        Y CommonW6432Dir        So for example  for a 32-bit process  the source of the data for the  ProgramFiles  and  ProgramFiles x86   environment variables is the Registry value HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ProgramFilesDir  x86   However  for a 64-bit process  the source of the data for the  ProgramFiles  environment variable is the Registry value HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ProgramW6432Dir    and the source of the data for the  ProgramFiles x86   environment variable is the Registry value HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ProgramFilesDir  x86  Most default Windows installation put a string like C  Program Files  x86  into the Registry value HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ProgramFilesDir  x86  but this  and others  can be changed  Whatever is entered into these Windows Registry values will be read by Windows Explorer into respective Environment Variables upon login and then copied to any child process that it subsequently spawns  The registry value HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ProgramFilesPath is especially noteworthy because most Windows installations put the string  ProgramFiles  into it  to be read by 64-bit processes  This string refers to the environment variable  ProgramFiles  which in turn  takes its data from the Registry value HKLM SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion ProgramW6432Dir    unless some program changes the value of this environment variable apriori  I have written a small utility  which displays these environment variables for 64-bit and 32-bit processes   You can download it here  The source code for VisualStudio 2017 is included and the compiled 64-bit and 32-bit binary executables are in the directories    x64 Release and    x86 Release  respectively

User · Answer

Another relevant environment variable is    ProgramW6432   So  on a 64-bit machine running in 32-bit  WOW64  mode         echo  programfiles      C  Program Files  x86    echo  programfiles x86       C  Program Files  x86    echo  ProgramW6432      C  Program Files      From Wikipedia      The  ProgramFiles  variable points to the Program Files directory    which stores all the installed programs of Windows and others  The   default on English-language systems is  C  Program Files   In 64-bit   editions of Windows  XP  2003  Vista   there are also    ProgramFiles x86    which defaults to  C  Program Files  x86    and    ProgramW6432   which defaults to  C  Program Files   The    ProgramFiles  itself depends on whether the process requesting the   environment variable is itself 32-bit or 64-bit  this is caused by   Windows-on-Windows 64-bit redirection     Reference  http   en wikipedia org wiki Environment variable

User · Answer

IMHO  one point that is missing in this discussion is that whatever variable you use  it is guaranteed to always point at the appropriate folder   This becomes critical in the rare cases where Windows is installed on a drive other than C

[windows] how to get program files x86 env variable?

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