I scoured the web for this information and couldn’t find a single resource that described how to set up environment variables in a Node.js process that actually worked for me. I finally found this info in a helpful video by Chris Courses on YouTube, so

The Express development environment includes an installation of Nodejs, the NPM package manager, and (optionally) the Express Application Generator on your local computer. Node and the NPM package manager are installed together from prepared binary packag

Search for "Environment Variables" in the Start Menu Search or in the Control Panel; Select "Edit the system environment variables" A dialogue will open. Click the button "Environment Variables" at the bottom of the dialogue.