What's the environment variable for the path to the desktop?

To be safe, you should use the proper APIs in Powershell (or VBScript)
Using PowerShell:

[Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop")

Copy something using Powershell:

Copy-Item $home\*.txt ([Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop"))

Here is a VBScript-example to get the desktop path:

dim WSHShell, desktop, pathstring, objFSO
set objFSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set WSHshell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
desktop = WSHShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
pathstring = objFSO.GetAbsolutePathName(desktop)
WScript.Echo pathstring

I found that the best solution is to use a vbscript together with the batch file.

Here is the batch file:

@ECHO OFF
FOR /F "usebackq delims=" %%i in (`cscript findDesktop.vbs`) DO SET DESKTOPDIR=%%i
ECHO %DESKTOPDIR%

Here is findDesktop.vbs file:

set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strDesktop = WshShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
wscript.echo(strDesktop)

There may be other solutions but I personally find this one less hackish.

I tested this on an English PC and also a French PC - it seems to work (Windows XP).

HTH,

Iulian Şerbănoiu

EDIT: Use the accepted answer, this will not work if the default location isn't being used, for example: The user moved the desktop to another drive like D:\Desktop

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At least on Windows XP, Vista and 7 you can use the "%UserProfile%\Desktop" safely.

Windows XP en-US it will expand to "C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Desktop"
Windows XP pt-BR it will expand to "C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Desktop"
Windows 7 en-US it will expand to "C:\Users\YourName\Desktop"
Windows 7 pt-BR it will expand to "C:\Usuarios\YourName\Desktop"

On XP you can't use this to others folders exept for Desktop My documents turning to Meus Documentos and Local Settings to Configuracoes locais Personaly I thinks this is a bad thing when projecting a OS.