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 these output 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/windows/currentversion,
the programfilesdir points to C:\Program Files (x86).

But, why am I always seeing C:\Program Files displayed?

Answer 1

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)%