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user_id=539787

If expandvars worked for nt variable syntax too, then just 
before the expanduser final return, the following code would 
suffice, right?

max_recursion = 3
while '%' in userhome and max_recursion > 0:
    userhome = expandvars(userhome)
    max_recursion -= 1

ignoring the fact that path[1:] could contain variables too.

Shouldn't expandvars be made to work with %var% format 
too?  If yes, I'll offer code.