title: Why do Windows environment variable names use a special escape character?
body: <p>I am curious if there is any history behind why the <code>^</code> character is used to escape the special characters <code>&lt;</code>, <code>&gt;</code>, <code>|</code>, <code>&amp;</code>, and <code>^</code> in environment variable names in Windows instead the <code>\</code> character that is typically used to escape special characters.</p>
  
  <p>Please note that I realize there may be no reason for this, but I'd be interested to hear if there is a reason.</p>