On Windows 7, how does Java JVM set “user.home” System property?

Question

I am using JRE 1.7 and I discovered the user.home System property is very unusual. How does the JVM set this value?

Answer 1

This Java bug explains how: http://bugs.sun.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=4787931

System property user.home is set by:

1. Read the registry value for key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\Desktop
2. Take the parent path of this value, but do not resolve environment variables.

Example: %userprofile%\Desktop => %userprofile% (unresolved environment variable)

This issue should be fixed in Java 8.

Related Ref: Java user.home is being set to %userprofile% and not being resolved