How do you find the current user in a Windows environment

Question

When running a command-line script  is it possible to get the name of the current user

User · Answer

In a standard context  each connected user holds an explorer exe process  The command  tasklist  V find  explorer   returns a line that contains the explorer exe process owner s  with an adapted regex it is possible to obtain the required value  This also runs perfectly under Windows nbsp 7   In rare cases explorer exe is replaced by another program  the find filter can be adapted to match this case  If the command return an empty line then it is likely that no user is logged on  With Windows nbsp 7 it is also possible to run  query session find

User · Answer

It should be in  USERNAME    Obviously this can be easily spoofed  so don t rely on it for security     Useful tip  type set in a command prompt will list all environment variables

User · Answer

Just type whoami in command prompt and you ll get the current username

User · Answer

Just use this command in command prompt  C   gt  whoami

User · Answer

I use this method in writing batch files for testing    echo  userdomain   username    Since you must include the password in plain text if authentication is required  I will only use it in a completely private environment where other users cannot view it or if a user seeing the password would bear no consequences    Hope this helps someone out

User · Answer

In most cases  the  USERNAME  variable will be what you want   echo  USERNAME    However  if you re running an elevated cmd shell  then  USERNAME  will report the administrator name instead of your own user name  If you want to know the latter  run   for  f  tokens 2   u in   query session    findstr  R    gt     do  echo  u

User · Answer

The answer depends on which  command-line script  language you are in   Cmd  In the old cmd exe command prompt or in a  bat or  cmd script  you can use the following    USERNAME  - Gets just the username    USERDOMAIN  - Gets the user s domain   PowerShell  In the PowerShell command prompt or a  ps1 or  psm1 script  you can use the following    System Security Principal WindowsIdentity   GetCurrent   Name - Gives you the fully qualified username  e g  Domain Username   This is also the most secure method because it cannot be overridden by the user like the other  Env variables below    Env Username - Gets just the username    Env UserDomain - Gets the user s domain    Env ComputerName - Gets the name of the computer

User · Answer

USERNAME  will get you the username of the currently running process  Depending on how you are running your batch file  this is not necessarily the same as the name of the current user   For example  you might be running your batch file through a scheduled task  from a service  etc   Here is a more sure way of getting the username of the currently logged on user by scraping the name of the user that started the explorer exe task   for  f  TOKENS 1 2      a in   tasklist  FI  IMAGENAME eq explorer exe   FO LIST  V   do if  i    a   b    User Name   set  currdomain user   c for  f  TOKENS 1 2 DELIMS      a in     currdomain user    do set  currdomain   a  amp  set  curruser   b

User · Answer

Via powershell  file ps1  I use the following  username    System Security Principal WindowsIdentity   GetCurrent   Name  It returns the name of the user in the  quot Domain Username quot  format  If you just want the username just write  username    System Security Principal WindowsIdentity   GetCurrent   Name Split  quot   quot   1   The advantage is that It works with windows 10 windows 8 server 2016  As far as I remember with also other OS like Win7 etc   not older    And yeah via batch you can simply use   username    amp whoami

User · Answer

USERNAME  is the correct answer in batch and other in Windows environments   Another option is to use  USERPROFILE  to get the user s path  like C  Users username

User · Answer

As far as find BlueBearr response the best  while I m running my batch script with eg  SYSTEM rights  I have to add something to it   Because in my Windows language version  Polish  line that is to be catched by    a   b    User Name   gets REALLY COMPLICATED  it contains some diacritic characters in my language  I skip first 7 lines and operate on the 8th    for  f  SKIP  7 TOKENS 3 4 DELIMS       G in   tasklist  FI  IMAGENAME eq explorer exe   FO LIST  V   do  IF   G   COMPUTERNAME  set  currdomain user   H

User · Answer

Username   echo  USERNAME    Domainname   echo  USERDOMAIN    You can get a complete list of environment variables by running the command set from the command prompt

User · Answer

You can use the username variable   USERNAME

User · Answer

It s always annoyed me how Windows doesn t have some of more useful little scripting utilities of Unix  such as who whoami  sed and AWK  Anyway  if you want something foolproof  get Visual Studio Express and compile the following    include  lt windows h gt   include  lt stdio h gt   int main int argc  char   argv        printf   s   GetUserName         And just use that in your batch file

User · Answer

This is the main difference between username variable and whoami command   C  Users user name gt echo  username  user name  C  Users user name gt whoami domain user name  DOMAIN   bios name of the domain  not fqdn

[windows] How do you find the current user in a Windows environment?

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