{"id":4061,"date":"2013-03-06T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2013\/03\/06\/learn-how-to-use-the-powershell-env-psdrive\/"},"modified":"2013-03-06T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T00:01:00","slug":"learn-how-to-use-the-powershell-env-psdrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/learn-how-to-use-the-powershell-env-psdrive\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn How to Use the PowerShell Env: PSDrive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using the Windows PowerShell Env: PSDrive.<\/p>\n

\"Hey, Hey, Scripting Guy! I was attending a Windows PowerShell user group meeting the other day, and I overheard someone talking about using an Environment PowerShell Drive. Huh? I did not want to ask him about this, because I would feel foolish. I have been using Windows PowerShell for a while now, but I do not have an Environmental PowerShell drive that I know of. Can you explain what this is, how I would get one, and why I would even want to use such a thing?<\/p>\n

—BB<\/p>\n

\"Hey, Hello BB,<\/p>\n

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. My endless days of searching have finally come to an end—my new laptop finally arrived. I have taken it out of the box, and plugged it in to charge the battery, but that is about it. I know I will be spending the next several weeks setting up the thing.<\/p>\n

Where is the Environment PowerShell drive?<\/h2>\n

To an extent, there really is no such thing as an Environment PowerShell drive. If I use the Get-PSDrive<\/strong> cmdlet, I see that there is a drive named Env, and a provider named Environment. This command and associated output are shown here.<\/p>\n

PS C:\\> Get-PSDrive<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name           Used (GB)     Free (GB) Provider      Root<\/p>\n

—-           ———     ——— ——–      —-<\/p>\n

Alias                                  Alias<\/p>\n

C                  40.70        108.00 FileSystem    C:\\<\/p>\n

Cert                                   Certificate   \\<\/p>\n

D                                      FileSystem    D:\\<\/p>\n

Env                                    Environment<\/p>\n

Function                               Function<\/p>\n

HKCR                                   Registry      HKey_Classes_Root<\/p>\n

HKCU                                   Registry      HKEY_CURRENT_USER<\/p>\n

HKLM                                   Registry      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE<\/p>\n

Variable                               Variable<\/p>\n

WSMan                                  WSMan<\/p>\n

If I use the Get-PSProvider<\/strong> cmdlet, I see the names of the PS Providers and the capabilities and drives associated with them as shown here.<\/p>\n

PS C:\\> Get-PSProvider<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name                 Capabilities                    Drives<\/p>\n

—-                 ————                    ——<\/p>\n

Alias                ShouldProcess                   {Alias}<\/p>\n

Environment          ShouldProcess                   {Env}<\/p>\n

FileSystem           Filter, ShouldProcess, Crede… {C, D}<\/p>\n

Function             ShouldProcess                   {Function}<\/p>\n

Registry             ShouldProcess, Transactions     {HKLM, HKCU, HKCR}<\/p>\n

Variable             ShouldProcess                   {Variable}<\/p>\n

Certificate          ShouldProcess                   {Cert}<\/p>\n

WSMan                Credentials                     {WSMan}<\/p>\n

Exploring the Env PowerShell drive<\/h2>\n

The Env drive created by the Environment PS provider provides access to the environmental variables. These are the same variables you would see if you opened a traditional CMD prompt and typed the command set. This output is shown here.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

When I try to set my working location to the Env drive, an error arises. This is shown in the following image.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

The error message is a bit misleading. It says it cannot find c:\\env because it does not exist. So, I need to use drive <\/em>notation and include a colon at the end of the drive name. After I set my working location to the Env drive, I can use the same type of commands I use on drive C or any other drive. This is shown here.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

I can use the standard Windows PowerShell cmdlets such as Get-Item<\/strong>, Get-Content<\/strong>, Get-ChildItem<\/strong>, Set-Item<\/strong>, Set-Content<\/strong> to work with the Env drive. For example, I can use the Get-Item<\/strong> cmdlet to return the path for the temp<\/strong> <\/em>Environment variable. This technique is shown here.<\/p>\n

PS Env:\\> Get-Item temp<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name                           Value<\/p>\n

—-                           —–<\/p>\n

TEMP                           C:\\Users\\ED6C0B~1.IAM\\AppData\\Local\\Temp<\/p>\n

I can also use the Get-Content<\/strong> cmdlet to retrieve the value. This technique is shown here.<\/p>\n

PS Env:\\> Get-Content temp<\/p>\n

C:\\Users\\ED6C0B~1.IAM\\AppData\\Local\\Temp<\/p>\n

The members of the Environment variables appear here.<\/p>\n

PS Env:\\> Get-Item temp | Get-Member -MemberType *property<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

   TypeName: System.Collections.DictionaryEntry<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name          MemberType    Definition<\/p>\n

—-          ———-    ———-<\/p>\n

Name          AliasProperty Name = Key<\/p>\n

PSDrive       NoteProperty  System.Management.Automation.PSDriveInfo PSDrive=Env<\/p>\n

PSIsContainer NoteProperty  System.Boolean PSIsContainer=False<\/p>\n

PSPath        NoteProperty  System.String PSPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\\Enviro…<\/p>\n

PSProvider    NoteProperty  System.Management.Automation.ProviderInfo PSProvider=…<\/p>\n

Key           Property      System.Object Key {get;set;}<\/p>\n

Value         Property      System.Object Value {get;set;}<\/p>\n

This means that I can directly access the value<\/strong> <\/em>property as shown here.<\/p>\n

PS Env:\\> (Get-Item temp).value<\/p>\n

C:\\Users\\ED6C0B~1.IAM\\AppData\\Local\\Temp<\/p>\n

I can also use a shortcut method to access this. This technique is shown here.<\/p>\n

PS Env:\\> $env:temp<\/p>\n

C:\\Users\\ED6C0B~1.IAM\\AppData\\Local\\Temp<\/p>\n

This shortcut technique has the advantage of being usable from any PSDrive location as shown here.<\/p>\n

PS Env:\\> sl c:<\/p>\n

PS C:\\> $env:temp<\/p>\n

C:\\Users\\ED6C0B~1.IAM\\AppData\\Local\\Temp<\/p>\n

BB, that is all there is to using the Env PowerShell drive. Windows PowerShell Provider Week will continue tomorrow when I will talk about working with the Alias PSDrive.<\/p>\n

I invite you to follow me on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com<\/a>, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/p>\n

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using the Windows PowerShell Env: PSDrive.  Hey, Scripting Guy! I was attending a Windows PowerShell user group meeting the other day, and I overheard someone talking about using an Environment PowerShell Drive. Huh? I did not want to ask him about this, because I would feel foolish. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[415,3,4,45],"class_list":["post-4061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-psproviders","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using the Windows PowerShell Env: PSDrive.  Hey, Scripting Guy! I was attending a Windows PowerShell user group meeting the other day, and I overheard someone talking about using an Environment PowerShell Drive. Huh? I did not want to ask him about this, because I would feel foolish. […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}