echo %JAVA_HOME% returns %JAVA_HOME%

Question

When I do

echo %JAVA_HOME%  

it returns %JAVA_HOME% on windows 10 what did I do wrong?

Answer 1

If you are sure that you have set them properly, you can print your environment variables like JAVA_HOME using any of the below methods in Windows 10.

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1. Windows Command prompt ( cmd.exe )

   C:\>echo %JAVA_HOME% C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_80 

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2. Git Bash within windows, you need to use the bash format

   user12231@TP-UN103 MINGW64 /c $ echo $JAVA_HOME C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_80 

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3. From the conversation, it looks like you are using Windows 10 powershell.
   To print the environment variable in windows powershell, use one of the following commands as below

   PS C:\>Get-ChildItem Env:JAVA_HOME  Name                           Value ----                           ----- JAVA_HOME                      C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_80 

   or

   PS C:\> echo $env:JAVA_HOME C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_80 

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   You can refer the Powershell documentation here.

   https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_environment_variables?view=powershell-6#displaying-environment-variables

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Answer 2

There is high possibility that you used the Windows10 PowerShell terminal unknowingly instead of the standard windows command prompt.

In a standard Windows command prompt, when you type the below command, you would get the JAVA_HOME path as expected.

echo %JAVA_HOME% 

Upon issuing the same command in PowerShell you would see %JAVA_HOME% written out.

PowerShell does things differently. In this case to output environment variables, you need to use

echo $env:JAVA_HOME 

Additional tip: To print all environment variables dictionary use

dir env: