Retrieves the environment variables for the current process.
Syntax
LPTCH WINAPI GetEnvironmentStrings(void);
Parameters
This function has no parameters.
Return Value
If the function succeeds, the return value is a pointer to the environment block of the current process.
If the function fails, the return value is NULL.
Remarks
The
GetEnvironmentStrings function returns a pointer to a block of memory that contains the environment variables of the calling process (both the system and the user environment variables). Each environment block contains the environment variables in the following format:
- Var1=Value1\0
- Var2=Value2\0
- Var3=Value3\0
- ...
- VarN=ValueN\0\0
Treat this memory as read-only; do not modify it directly. To add or change an environment variable, use the
GetEnvironmentVariable and
SetEnvironmentVariable functions.
When the block returned by
GetEnvironmentStrings is no longer needed, it should be freed by calling the
FreeEnvironmentStrings function.
Note that the ANSI version of this function, GetEnvironmentStringsA, returns OEM characters.
Examples
For an example, see
Changing Environment Variables.
Requirements
| Minimum supported client | Windows 2000 Professional |
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| Minimum supported server | Windows 2000 Server |
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| Header | Winbase.h (include Windows.h) |
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| Library | Kernel32.lib |
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| DLL | Kernel32.dll |
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| Unicode and ANSI names | GetEnvironmentStringsW (Unicode) and GetEnvironmentStringsA (ANSI) |
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See Also
- Environment Variables
- FreeEnvironmentStrings
- GetEnvironmentVariable
- SetEnvironmentVariable
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Build date: 11/19/2009