starred/terminal
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/microsoft/terminal.git synced 2026-02-03 21:25:34 +00:00
Code Issues 19.0k Packages Projects Releases 20 Wiki Activity

REG_EXPAND_SZ environment variables not properly expanded for shells #13344

New Issue
Open
opened 2026-01-31 03:40:15 +00:00 by claunia · 0 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-31 03:40:15 +00:00
Owner
Copy Link

Originally created by @chrisdjali-wrld3d on GitHub (Apr 7, 2021).

Windows Terminal version (or Windows build number)

1.7.572.0

Other Software

No response

Steps to reproduce

  1. Set a system environment variable including %USERPROFILE%, e.g. TestVariable set to %USERPROFILE%\bin.
  2. In Regedit, confirm that the type is REG_EXPAND_SZ by finding it under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment.
  3. Start PowerShell or CMD normally, e.g. from the WinX menu, or Shift+RMB in Windows Explorer.
  4. Print the variable's value, e.g. echo $env:TestVariable.
  5. Observe that %USERPROFILE% has been expanded, e.g. C:\Users\Chris\bin is printed.
  6. Open Windows Terminal and create a new PowerShell or CMD tab.
  7. Print the variable's value, e.g. echo $env:TestVariable.
  8. Observe that %USERPROFILE% has not been expanded, e.g. %USERPROFILE%\bin is printed.

Expected Behavior

Like with standalone PowerShell or CMD via CONHOST, the environment variable is properly expanded.

Actual Behavior

The unexpanded value is used.

This isn't happening with every environment variable - others get expanded correctly, like windir being %SystemRoot% becoming C:\WINDOWS. My suspicion is that it's just variables not defined in the system scope not being expanded if they're used in the system scope.

I'm pretty sure this is Windows Terminal doing something weird rather than Windows itself as when viewing the WindowsTerminal.exe process' environment in Process Explorer, the variables are properly expanded, but when doing the same for the actual shell process, they aren't. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe Windows Terminal is attempting to read the up-to-date environment from the registry when starting new shells instead of letting them inherit its potentially outdated environment, but is doing so inconsistently with how Windows does it. If that's actually what's happening, it may be sensible to use Chocolatey's RefreshEnv batch script or PowerShell module as a reference implementation as that gets the same result as Windows.

This is happening in MSYS-esque Bash shells, too, but the Windows-to-Unix path conversion seems to be doing another round of expansion that masks the symptoms.

Originally created by @chrisdjali-wrld3d on GitHub (Apr 7, 2021). ### Windows Terminal version (or Windows build number) 1.7.572.0 ### Other Software _No response_ ### Steps to reproduce 1. Set a system environment variable including `%USERPROFILE%`, e.g. `TestVariable` set to `%USERPROFILE%\bin`. 2. In Regedit, confirm that the type is `REG_EXPAND_SZ` by finding it under `HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment`. 3. Start PowerShell or CMD normally, e.g. from the WinX menu, or Shift+RMB in Windows Explorer. 4. Print the variable's value, e.g. `echo $env:TestVariable`. 5. Observe that `%USERPROFILE%` has been expanded, e.g. `C:\Users\Chris\bin` is printed. 6. Open Windows Terminal and create a new PowerShell or CMD tab. 7. Print the variable's value, e.g. `echo $env:TestVariable`. 8. Observe that `%USERPROFILE%` has not been expanded, e.g. `%USERPROFILE%\bin` is printed. ### Expected Behavior Like with standalone PowerShell or CMD via CONHOST, the environment variable is properly expanded. ### Actual Behavior The unexpanded value is used. This isn't happening with *every* environment variable - others get expanded correctly, like `windir` being `%SystemRoot%` becoming `C:\WINDOWS`. My suspicion is that it's just variables not defined in the system scope not being expanded if they're used in the system scope. I'm pretty sure this is Windows Terminal doing something weird rather than Windows itself as when viewing the `WindowsTerminal.exe` process' environment in Process Explorer, the variables are properly expanded, but when doing the same for the actual shell process, they aren't. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe Windows Terminal is attempting to read the up-to-date environment from the registry when starting new shells instead of letting them inherit its potentially outdated environment, but is doing so inconsistently with how Windows does it. If that's actually what's happening, it may be sensible to use Chocolatey's RefreshEnv batch script or PowerShell module as a reference implementation as that gets the same result as Windows. This is happening in MSYS-esque Bash shells, too, but the Windows-to-Unix path conversion seems to be doing another round of expansion that masks the symptoms.
claunia added the Issue-TaskNeeds-Tag-FixProduct-TerminalArea-TerminalConnection labels 2026-01-31 03:40:15 +00:00
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag Specified
Branches Tags
Labels
Clear labels
⛺ Reserved
A11yCO
A11yMAS
A11ySev1
A11ySev2
A11ySev3
A11yTTValidated
A11yUsable
A11yVoiceAccess
A11yWCAG
Area-Accessibility
Area-AtlasEngine
Area-AzureShell
Area-Build
Area-Build
Area-Chat
Area-CmdPal
Area-CodeHealth
Area-Commandline
Area-CookedRead
Area-DefApp
Area-Extensibility
Area-Fonts
Area-GroupPolicy
Area-i18n
Area-Input
Area-Interaction
Area-Interop
Area-Localization
Area-Output
Area-Performance
Area-Portable
Area-Quality
Area-Remoting
Area-Rendering
Area-Schema
Area-Server
Area-Settings
Area-SettingsUI
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-Suggestions
Area-Suggestions
Area-TerminalConnection
Area-TerminalControl
Area-Theming
Area-UserInterface
Area-VT
Area-Windowing
Area-WPFControl
AutoMerge
Blocking-Ingestion
Culprit-Centennial
Culprit-WinUI
Disability-All
Disability-Blind
Disability-LowVision
Disability-Mobility
External-Blocked-WinUI3
Fixed
Gathering-Data
good first issue
HCL-E+D
HCL-WindowsTerminal
Help Wanted
Impact-Compatibility
Impact-Compliance
Impact-Correctness
Impact-Visual
In-PR
InclusionBacklog
InclusionBacklog-Windows TerminalWin32
InclusionCommitted-202206
Issue-Bug
Issue-Docs
Issue-Feature
Issue-Feature
Issue-Question
Issue-Samples
Issue-Scenario
Issue-Task
Needs-Attention
Needs-Author-Feedback
Needs-Bisect
Needs-Discussion
Needs-Repro
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Triage
No-Recent-Activity
Priority-0
Priority-1
Priority-2
Priority-3
Product-Cmd.exe
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Conhost
Product-Conpty
Product-Meta
Product-Powershell
Product-Terminal
Product-WSL
pull-request
Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request
 Resolution-Answered
Resolution-By-Design
Resolution-Duplicate
Resolution-External
Resolution-Fix-Available
Resolution-Fix-Committed
Resolution-No-Repro
Resolution-Won't-Fix
Severity-Blocking
Severity-Crash
Severity-DataLoss
spam
this-will-be-a-breaking-change
Tracking-External
WindowsTerminal_Win32
Work-Item
zAskModeBug
zInbox-Bug
No Label Area-TerminalConnection Issue-Task Needs-Tag-Fix Product-Terminal
Milestone
No items
No Milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
claunia
No Assignees
1 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: starred/terminal#13344
Delete Branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?