Retrieving Environment variables in VB.NET

In one of my recent applications, I needed machine name, program files folder, and other system related variables. The System.Environment class provides handy members to do so. In this article, I will talk about the Environment class and its members and how to use them in your applications.

The Environment class defined in the System namespace allows developers to get the information about the current environment and platform. Listing 1 describes some of the Environment class properties.

The Environment class also provides some useful methods. Listing 2 shows some of these methods. 

 
Now let's write a simple program that will use some of the Environment class properties and methods. The following code displays the machine information and logical drives of a machine.

VB.NET Code:

Imports System
Module Module1
Sub Main()
' Getting machine and user information
Console.WriteLine("Machine Information")
Console.WriteLine("======================")
Console.WriteLine("Machine Name: " + Environment.MachineName)
Console.WriteLine("OS Version: " & Environment.OSVersion.ToString())Console.WriteLine("System Directory: " + Environment.SystemDirectory)Console.WriteLine("User Name: " + Environment.UserName)
Console.WriteLine("Version: " + Environment.Version.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Current Directory: " + Environment.CurrentDirectory)
Console.WriteLine()
' Get all logical hard drives
Dim drives As String()
Dim counter As Int32
drives = Environment.GetLogicalDrives()
Console.WriteLine("======================")
Console.WriteLine("Available drives:")
For counter = 0 To drives.Length - 1
Console.WriteLine(drives(counter).ToString())
Next
Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
End Module

C# Code:

using System;
class EnvironmentClass
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//Getting machine and user information
Console.WriteLine("Machine Information");
Console.WriteLine("======================");
Console.WriteLine("Machine Name: "+ Environment.MachineName);
Console.WriteLine("OS Version: "+ Environment.OSVersion);
Console.WriteLine("System Directory: "+ Environment.SystemDirectory);
Console.WriteLine("User Name: "+ Environment.UserName);
Console.WriteLine("Version: "+ Environment.Version);
Console.WriteLine("Current Directory: "+ Environment.CurrentDirectory);
Console.WriteLine();
// Get all logical hard drives
string[] drives = Environment.GetLogicalDrives();
Console.WriteLine("======================");
Console.WriteLine("Available drives:");
foreach(string drive in drives)
Console.WriteLine(drive);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}