Environment variable may not expand %APPDATA% to the Application folder

If you add %APPDATA% to any user or system environment variable by using the following method, %APPDATA% may not be resolved to the appropriate user application data folder:

• Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
• On the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables.
• Add a new user or system environment variable named PATH. Set the Variable value entry to %APPDATA%.
• Apply the settings.

If you then start a command session (Cmd.exe) and check the PATH environment variable by using the set path command, %APPDATA% may not be expanded to the appropriate user application folder. Instead, you see "%APPDATA%."

Problem example: Working example:
If %APPDATA% is not resolved correctly, and you try to start a program that is located in the user application folder, the program does not start because the program cannot be located in the path.

This behavior is caused by a problem in Shell32.dll.

To work around this problem, use the following method to set the environment variable:

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. In the left pane, right-click Computer Management (Local), and then click Properties.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Under Environment variables, click Settings.
5. Add a new user or system environment variable named PATH, and set the Variable value entry to %APPDATA%.

You can use this method to set any user or system environment variable.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.