Environment Variable

Environment Variable

Environment variables are a set of dynamic named values that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer.

They can be said in some sense to create the operating environment in which a process runs. For example, an environment variable with a standard name can designate the location that a particular computer system uses to store temporary files – this may vary from one computer system to another. A process which invokes the environment variable by (standard) name can be sure that it is storing temporary information in a directory (folder) that exists and is expected to have sufficient space.