What does %windir% stands for?
I am receiving a malware analysis report with things like windir%\system32\catroot, %windir%\folder1\folder2 and I want to know what does it mean?
Asked
Active
Viewed 8.4k times
11
phuclv
- 26,555
- 15
- 113
- 235
thepumpumwater
- 137
- 1
- 1
- 3
-
2C:\WINDOWS is highly likely. ;) – Rajib Dec 22 '14 at 14:20
-
7%windir% is an environment variable for the windows path so its just a 'shortcut' to C:\windows or wherever you installed windows... – CharlesH Dec 22 '14 at 14:21
-
1-1 because Googling "What is %windir%?" gives you plenty of correct info in the first matches. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Dec 22 '14 at 18:59
-
3+1 because Googling "What is %windir%?" gives this question and answer without all the superfluous stuff on other results. – Adrian Carr Aug 26 '16 at 14:46
-
2+1 because I think this site is *exactly* the right kind of place you should up on when googling this type of question. – Henrik Apr 28 '18 at 21:12
2 Answers
9
The Windows directory or SYSROOT. This corresponds to the %WINDIR% or %SYSTEMROOT% environment variables. A typical path is C:\Windows.
This variable points to the Windows directory (on Windows NT-based operating systems it is identical to the %SystemRoot% variable. If the system is on drive C:, then the default values are "C:\WINDOWS" on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7.
For more info see Wikipedia's Environment Variables entry.
Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
- 111,883
- 19
- 201
- 268
malakrsnaslava
- 2,753
- 4
- 23
- 37
6
Open a command prompt by clicking Start, typing cmd, then Enter. Type echo %windir%, then Enter, and the path should print to the screen. Usually C:\WINDOWS
MattSayar
- 323
- 1
- 4
- 8
-
1WOW, thank you so much for posting this. There are many questions out there asking about what the various system variables are, and this is the first answer I have seen that tells you how to actually see what path the variable represents. `echo %windir%`. Now that I see it, I understand how simple it is, but I'm not a sys admin so I knew it had to be something easy, but wasn't sure what it was. Thanks again. – Travis Heeter Dec 27 '16 at 02:29