PowerShell Get-PSProvider

An Introduction Get-PSProvider

I find the best way to explain PowerShell’s Providers is to start with the filesystem.  I understand how Get-ChildItem views the  C:\ drive; and I see how to extend the filesystem to include network drives.

Now it’s only a short step to appreciate how the registry could be a provider, especially when I see the results of:
Get-ChildItem HKLM:\System.

Topics for Windows PowerShell Providers

• List PowerShell’s PSProviders
• Techniques to Access the Provider’s Drive
• Alternative Method Using the Provider’s Name
• The Environmental Variable Provider – Env:

 ♣

List PowerShell’s PSProviders

This is how to research Providers, observe how PowerShell refer to them as drives.

Name        Drives 
----        ------ 
Alias       {Alias}Environment {Env} 
FileSystem  {C, D, E, F...}
Function    {Function} 
Registry    {HKLM, HKCU}
Variable    {Variable} 
Certificate {Cert}WSMan       {WSMan}

Techniques to Access the Provider’s Drive

Using Get-ChildItem you can access the values under ‘Drives’; but with this method using the ‘Name’ does not work.  For example, Get-ChildItem Filesystem: produces an error, but Get-ChildItem C: works. My point is that you need Get-ChildItem Env: and Get-ChildItem HKLM:\

Let us use Variable: as our example

Note 1: Remember the colon: furthermore, there is no need for a $sign to access any of the Providers.  Get-ChildItem $Variable won’t work, just as Set-Location $C:\ would also produce an error.

Note 2: Of all the PSProviders, I found the 'Variable': drive the most interesting.

Alternative Method Using the Provider’s Name

Here is a filesystem example starting with Get-PSProvider, piping into Select-Object, and then using the -ExpandProperties parameter.

Note 3: You can get a list of all drives for all providers by omitting ‘Filesystem’ in the above example.

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The Environmental Variable Provider – Env:

It’s easy to forget the full range of built-in environmental variables, therefore, let us employ PowerShell to list what you can see in the Control Panel – Advanced system settings:

Name                   	Value 
----                   	---------------- 
ALLUSERSPROFILE        	C:\ProgramData 
APPDATA                	C:\Users\Guy\AppData\Roaming 
CommonProgramFiles     	C:\Program Files\Common Files 
CommonProgramFiles(x86)	C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files 
CommonProgramW6432     	C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME           	WIN7 
ComSpec                	C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe 
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK       	NOHOMEDRIVE              	C: 
HOMEPATH               	\Users\Guy 
LOCALAPPDATA		C:\Users\Guy\AppData\Local 
LOGONSERVER    		\\WIN7 
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS 	4 
OS 			Windows_NT 
Path 			C:\Program Files\Common Files\.....PATHEXT 		.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.JS;......PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE 	AMD64 
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER 	Intel64 Family 6 Model 37 Stepping 5, Genuine
PROCESSOR_LEVEL 	6 
PROCESSOR_REVISION 	2505 
ProgramData 		C:\ProgramData 
ProgramFiles 		C:\Program Files 
ProgramFiles(x86) 	C:\Program Files (x86) 
ProgramW6432 		C:\Program Files 
PSModulePath		C:\Users\Guy\Documents\WindowsPowerShell		
PUBLIC 			C:\Users\Public 
SESSIONNAME 		Console 
SystemDrive 		C:SystemRoot 		C:\Windows 
TEMP 			C:\Users\Guy\AppData\Local\Temp 
TMP 			C:\Users\Guy\AppData\Local\Temp 
USERDOMAIN 		Win7 
USERNAME 		GuyUSERPROFILE 		C:\Users\Guy 
windir 			C:\Windows 

Note 4: To see how many Windows environment variables you have try:
(Get-ChildItem Env:).count

Note 5: Environmental variables in ‘Proper’ case are the newer .Net and PowerShell variables, whereas those in UPPERCASE are older Microsoft (or possibly UNIX) style variables.

See more on PowerShell PSDrives »

Summary of PowerShell Get-PSProvider

Here is a cmdlet which not only reveals the filesystem drives, but also the registry hives, and Environmental variables.

See more Windows PowerShell  examples of variables

• Syntax   • PowerShell Variables   • Get-PSProvider   • PowerShell Dollar Variable

• PowerShell Functions   • Get-PSDrive   • PowerShell New-PSDrive   • Remove-PSDrive

• PowerShell Home   • Foreach loops   • PowerShell Foreach   • Foreach-Object cmdlet

Please email me if you have a better example script.  Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to  correct the fault.