The tilde character ~ doesn't function as the home directory shortcut on Windows, unlike as on Unix systems. I've always used the character as the home path in written text for all operating systems and I wonder if this is factually wrong.
%USERPROFILE% may be more suitable as it can be used as an actual shortcut in the Windows Explorer.
For most cases, you are correct (which is immensely maddening when I'm on my work computer).
One exception: PowerShell accepts use of the ~ character and it is expanded to your home directory if you use tab completion.
Third-party Bash installs (such as the copy that comes with Git) support ~ as well.
The tilde character may have a totally different meaning in Windows, and I would consider it invalid – or at least ambiguous – to use it to refer to the user's home directory.
On file systems that do not support long file paths, the tilde would be used as a replacement character:
A long file name is considered to be any file name that exceeds the short MS-DOS (also called 8.3) style naming convention. When you create a long file name, Windows may also create a short 8.3 form of the name, called the 8.3 alias or short name, and store it on disk also.
[…]
On many file systems, a file name will contain a tilde (~) within each component of the name that is too long to comply with 8.3 naming rules.
You can read more about 8.3 filenames on Wikipedia, which is a legacy file naming convention that dates back to the times of DOS.
That said, modern programs may indeed use ~ as an alias for the user's home – PowerShell for example, see @Broam's answer. And of course there is a difference between having the user type something that the shell then interprets vs. what a shell may output. However, as you cannot assume users to use PowerShell, or be knowledgeable about Unix conventions, I'd recommend against it.
