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Environment Class

Definition

Provides information about, and means to manipulate, the current environment and platform. This class cannot be inherited.

public static class Environment
public sealed class Environment
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible(true)]
public static class Environment
Inheritance
Environment
Attributes

Examples

The following example displays a list of information about the current environment.

// Sample for Environment class summary
using System;
using System.Collections;

class Sample
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        string str;
        string nl = Environment.NewLine;
        //
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("-- Environment members --");

        //  Invoke this sample with an arbitrary set of command line arguments.
        Console.WriteLine("CommandLine: {0}", Environment.CommandLine);

        string[] arguments = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();
        Console.WriteLine("GetCommandLineArgs: {0}", String.Join(", ", arguments));

        //  <-- Keep this information secure! -->
        Console.WriteLine("CurrentDirectory: {0}", Environment.CurrentDirectory);

        Console.WriteLine("ExitCode: {0}", Environment.ExitCode);

        Console.WriteLine("HasShutdownStarted: {0}", Environment.HasShutdownStarted);

        //  <-- Keep this information secure! -->
        Console.WriteLine("MachineName: {0}", Environment.MachineName);

        Console.WriteLine("NewLine: {0}  first line{0}  second line{0}  third line",
                              Environment.NewLine);

        Console.WriteLine("OSVersion: {0}", Environment.OSVersion.ToString());

        Console.WriteLine("StackTrace: '{0}'", Environment.StackTrace);

        //  <-- Keep this information secure! -->
        Console.WriteLine("SystemDirectory: {0}", Environment.SystemDirectory);

        Console.WriteLine("TickCount: {0}", Environment.TickCount);

        //  <-- Keep this information secure! -->
        Console.WriteLine("UserDomainName: {0}", Environment.UserDomainName);

        Console.WriteLine("UserInteractive: {0}", Environment.UserInteractive);

        //  <-- Keep this information secure! -->
        Console.WriteLine("UserName: {0}", Environment.UserName);

        Console.WriteLine("Version: {0}", Environment.Version.ToString());

        Console.WriteLine("WorkingSet: {0}", Environment.WorkingSet);

        //  No example for Exit(exitCode) because doing so would terminate this example.

        //  <-- Keep this information secure! -->
        string query = "My system drive is %SystemDrive% and my system root is %SystemRoot%";
        str = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(query);
        Console.WriteLine("ExpandEnvironmentVariables: {0}  {1}", nl, str);

        Console.WriteLine("GetEnvironmentVariable: {0}  My temporary directory is {1}.", nl,
                               Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP"));

        Console.WriteLine("GetEnvironmentVariables: ");
        IDictionary environmentVariables = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariables();
        foreach (DictionaryEntry de in environmentVariables)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("  {0} = {1}", de.Key, de.Value);
        }

        Console.WriteLine("GetFolderPath: {0}",
                     Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System));

        string[] drives = Environment.GetLogicalDrives();
        Console.WriteLine("GetLogicalDrives: {0}", String.Join(", ", drives));
    }
}
/*
This example produces results similar to the following:
(Any result that is lengthy or reveals information that should remain
secure has been omitted and marked "!---OMITTED---!".)

C:\>env0 ARBITRARY TEXT

-- Environment members --
CommandLine: env0 ARBITRARY TEXT
GetCommandLineArgs: env0, ARBITRARY, TEXT
CurrentDirectory: C:\Documents and Settings\!---OMITTED---!
ExitCode: 0
HasShutdownStarted: False
MachineName: !---OMITTED---!
NewLine:
  first line
  second line
  third line
OSVersion: Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600.0
StackTrace: '   at System.Environment.GetStackTrace(Exception e)
   at System.Environment.GetStackTrace(Exception e)
   at System.Environment.get_StackTrace()
   at Sample.Main()'
SystemDirectory: C:\WINNT\System32
TickCount: 17995355
UserDomainName: !---OMITTED---!
UserInteractive: True
UserName: !---OMITTED---!
Version: !---OMITTED---!
WorkingSet: 5038080
ExpandEnvironmentVariables:
  My system drive is C: and my system root is C:\WINNT
GetEnvironmentVariable:
  My temporary directory is C:\DOCUME~1\!---OMITTED---!\LOCALS~1\Temp.
GetEnvironmentVariables:
  !---OMITTED---!
GetFolderPath: C:\WINNT\System32
GetLogicalDrives: A:\, C:\, D:\

*/

Remarks

Use the Environment class to retrieve information such as command-line arguments, the exit code, environment variable settings, contents of the call stack, time since last system boot, and the version of the common language runtime.

Properties

CommandLine

Gets the command line for this process.

CpuUsage

Get the CPU usage, including the process time spent running the application code, the process time spent running the operating system code, and the total time spent running both the application and operating system code.

CurrentDirectory

Gets or sets the fully qualified path of the current working directory.

CurrentManagedThreadId

Gets a unique identifier for the current managed thread.

ExitCode

Gets or sets the exit code of the process.

HasShutdownStarted

Gets a value that indicates whether the current application domain is being unloaded or the common language runtime (CLR) is shutting down.

Is64BitOperatingSystem

Gets a value that indicates whether the current operating system is a 64-bit operating system.

Is64BitProcess

Gets a value that indicates whether the current process is a 64-bit process.

IsPrivilegedProcess

Gets a value that indicates whether the current process is authorized to perform security-relevant functions.

MachineName

Gets the NetBIOS name of this local computer.

NewLine

Gets the newline string defined for this environment.

OSVersion

Gets the current platform identifier and version number.

ProcessId

Gets the unique identifier for the current process.

ProcessorCount

Gets the number of processors available to the current process.

ProcessPath

Returns the path of the executable that started the currently executing process. Returns null when the path is not available.

StackTrace

Gets current stack trace information.

SystemDirectory

Gets the fully qualified path of the system directory.

SystemPageSize

Gets the number of bytes in the operating system's memory page.

TickCount

Gets the number of milliseconds elapsed since the system started.

TickCount64

Gets the number of milliseconds elapsed since the system started.

UserDomainName

Gets the network domain name associated with the current user.

UserInteractive

Gets a value indicating whether the current process is running in user interactive mode.

UserName

Gets the user name of the person who is associated with the current thread.

Version

Gets a version consisting of the major, minor, build, and revision numbers of the common language runtime.

WorkingSet

Gets the amount of physical memory mapped to the process context.

Methods

Exit(Int32)

Terminates this process and returns an exit code to the operating system.

ExpandEnvironmentVariables(String)

Replaces the name of each environment variable embedded in the specified string with the string equivalent of the value of the variable, then returns the resulting string.

FailFast(String, Exception)

Immediately terminates the process before reporting an error message. For Windows, the error message is written to the Windows Application event log, and the message and exception information is included in error reporting to Microsoft. For Unix-like systems, the message alongside the stack trace is written to the standard error stream.

FailFast(String)

Immediately terminates the process before reporting an error message. For Windows, the error message is written to the Windows Application event log, and the message is included in error reporting to Microsoft. For Unix-like systems, the message, alongside the stack trace, is written to the standard error stream.

GetCommandLineArgs()

Returns a string array containing the command-line arguments for the current process.

GetEnvironmentVariable(String, EnvironmentVariableTarget)

Retrieves the value of an environment variable from the current process or from the Windows operating system registry key for the current user or local machine.

GetEnvironmentVariable(String)

Retrieves the value of an environment variable from the current process.

GetEnvironmentVariables()

Retrieves all environment variable names and their values from the current process.

GetEnvironmentVariables(EnvironmentVariableTarget)

Retrieves all environment variable names and their values from the current process, or from the Windows operating system registry key for the current user or local machine.

GetFolderPath(Environment+SpecialFolder, Environment+SpecialFolderOption)

Gets the path to the specified system special folder using a specified option for accessing special folders.

GetFolderPath(Environment+SpecialFolder)

Gets the path to the specified system special folder.

GetLogicalDrives()

Retrieves the names of the logical drives on this computer.

SetEnvironmentVariable(String, String, EnvironmentVariableTarget)

Creates, modifies, or deletes an environment variable stored in the current process or in the Windows operating system registry key reserved for the current user or local machine.

SetEnvironmentVariable(String, String)

Creates, modifies, or deletes an environment variable stored in the current process.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0