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Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. I spent the day at SQL Saturday<\/font><\/a> in Charlotte, NC. I could not resist the opportunity to network with that many rabid Windows PowerShell addicts. I mean, anyone who gives up their Saturday to come to a Microsoft office and sit in training sessions all day is dedicated. Definitely my type of geek. It was a wonderful day, and I was able to meet some tweeps (Twitter followers) in real life. <\/p>\n During one of the breaks, I was talking to a scripter from Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is a beautiful town with lots of old houses, as seen in this picture I took a few years ago when I was in town to teach a VBScript class. <\/p>\n He was asking about accessing environmental variables from within Windows PowerShell. I told him there were several ways, but he did not seem to believe me, and thought it was a rather difficult task. <\/p>\n One way to access the environmental variables is to use the Windows PowerShell environmental drive. To do this, you use the $env:<\/b> variable, which represents the environmental drive. You then access the specific variable by using its name. For example, the value of the os<\/b> environmental variable is seen here:<\/p>\n PS C:> $env:os<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Windows_NT<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n PS C:><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Another way to access environmental variables is by using WMI and querying the Win32_Environment<\/b> WMI class. This is shown here:<\/p>\n PS C:> get-wmiobject win32_environment | where-object { $_.name -eq ‘os’ }<\/p>\n VariableValue <\/span> <\/span>Name PS C:><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n You can use the wshEnvironment<\/font><\/a> object that is obtained from the environment<\/b> property of the WshShell<\/font><\/a> object:<\/p>\n PS C:> $wshShell = New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell <\/span><\/p>\n In addition to working directly with the wshEnvironment<\/b> object, the WshShell<\/b> object also contains a method called ExpandEnvironmentStrings<\/b> that can be used to translate the value of an environmental variable. This is seen here:<\/p>\n PS C:> $wshShell = New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell <\/span><\/p>\n One of my favorite tricks is to run the command interpreter inside Windows PowerShell. By running the command interpreter, you have access to the set<\/b> command. You can use set<\/b> to query the current value of an environmental variable as well as change the value. This is seen here (remember, that you will need to type exit<\/b> to leave the cmd prompt and return to Windows PowerShell):<\/p>\n PS C:> cmd C:>set os C:>exit <\/span><\/p>\n One last way to obtain the value of an environmental variable is to use the System.Environment<\/font><\/a> .NET Framework class. The System.Environment<\/b> .NET Framework class has the GetEnvironmentVariable<\/font><\/a> static method that accepts an environmental variable as an argument. This is seen here:<\/p>\n PS C:> [environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(“os”) <\/span><\/p>\n Well, there are a half dozen different ways of accessing the same environmental variable. I am sure that there are more, but right now, it is getting kind of late (it has been a rather long day), and I cannot think of any more ways at this tired moment. If you think of any more ways to access environmental variables, send e-mail to us at scripter@microsoft.com<\/font><\/a> and I will collect the new ways, and talk about them.<\/p>\n If you want to know exactly what we will be looking at tomorrow, follow us on Twitter<\/font><\/a> or Facebook<\/font><\/a><\/span>. If you have any questions, send e-mail to us at scripter@microsoft.com<\/font><\/a> or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/font><\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Ed Wilson and Craig Liebendorfer, Scripting Guys<\/p>\n <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n <\/span><\/b> <\/p>\n<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. I spent the day at SQL Saturday in Charlotte, NC. I could not resist the opportunity to network with that many rabid Windows PowerShell addicts. I mean, anyone who gives up their Saturday to come to a Microsoft office and sit in training sessions all day is dedicated. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86,31,3,61,45],"class_list":["post-51003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-basic-information","tag-operating-system","tag-scripting-guy","tag-weekend-scripter","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson here. I spent the day at SQL Saturday in Charlotte, NC. I could not resist the opportunity to network with that many rabid Windows PowerShell addicts. I mean, anyone who gives up their Saturday to come to a Microsoft office and sit in training sessions all day is dedicated. 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————- <\/span>—-
Windows_NT <\/span>OS<\/p>\n
PS C:> $wshShell.Environment().item(“os”)
Windows_NT
PS C:><\/p>\n
PS C:> $wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings(“%os%”)
Windows_NT
PS C:><\/p>\n
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. <\/span>All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
OS=Windows_NT<\/p>\n
PS C:><\/p>\n
Windows_NT
PS C:><\/p>\n