here you can read more about environment variables.
Strange thing is, my %HOMEPATH% variable doesn't show up in My Computer>Properties>Advanced>Environment Variables dialog, but it can be found from a command prompt...
edit:
just tested it and it doesn't work. I guess it is because the crappy way m$ handles shortcuts. All shortcuts in windows have a .lnk extension which does not show in explorer... if you get the file list in a command prompt by using dir, you can see the real name is lvback.gif.lnk
microSUCKS