The location of your files in the directory tree; used for expansion of file names starting with a tilde (@file{~}).  <ins>If set, it should be set to an absolute file name.  (If set to a relative file name, Emacs interprets it relative to the directory where Emacs was started, but we don't recommend to use this feature.)  If unset, @env{HOME} normally defaults to the home directory of the user given by @env{LOGNAME}, @env{USER} or your user ID, or to @file{/} if all else fails.</ins>  On MS-DOS, it defaults to the directory from which Emacs was started, with @samp{/bin} removed from the end if it was present.  On Windows, the default value of @env{HOME} is the @file{Application Data} subdirectory of the user profile directory (normally, this is @file{C:/Documents and Settings/@var{username}/Application Data}, where @var{username} is your user name), though for backwards compatibility @file{C:/} will be used instead if a @file{.emacs} file is found there.