Description of the feature request:

I'd be grateful if Bazel could honor XDG_CACHE_HOME on Windows like it does on Linux and macOS (thanks to #26773 for the latter).

Which category does this issue belong to?

Configurability

What underlying problem are you trying to solve with this feature?

This would simplify our setup by providing a uniform way to configure caches in CI, without having to pass --output_user_root=%XDG_CACHE_HOME%/bazel explicitly.

Which operating system are you running Bazel on?

Linux, macOS, Windows.

What is the output of bazel info release?

release 8.4.2

If bazel info release returns development version or (@non-git), tell us how you built Bazel.

No response

What's the output of git remote get-url origin; git rev-parse HEAD ?

No response

Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?

No response

Any other information, logs, or outputs that you want to share?

This feature request is only for practical reasons, with about the same rationales as #26773.
I’m aware that the XDG Base Directory variables, of which XDG_CACHE_HOME, were defined by freedesktop.org with Unix-like systems in mind, and that they were never part of Windows’ native conventions.