Command to list all Environment Variables:
PS C:> Get-ChildItem Env: (You can also use get-item)
Name Value
—- —–
ALLUSERSPROFILE C:ProgramData
APPDATA C:UsersgovardhanAppDataRoaming
CommonProgramFiles C:Program FilesCommon Files
COMPUTERNAME TEST-PC1
ComSpec C:Windowssystem32cmd.exe
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK NO
HOMEDRIVE C:
HOMEPATH Usersgovardhan
LOCALAPPDATA C:UsersgovardhanAppDataLocal
LOGONSERVER \TESTDOM-DC01
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS 2
OS Windows_NT
Path %SystemRoot%system32WindowsPowerShellv1.0…
PATHEXT .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;….
PGInstallDir C:Program FilesPowerGUI
PGSnippetPath C:Windowssystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0Mo…
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE x86
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL 6
PROCESSOR_REVISION 0f0d
ProgramData C:ProgramData
ProgramFiles C:Program Files
PSModulePath C:UsersgovardhanDocumentsWindowsPowerShel…
PUBLIC C:UsersPublic
QTJAVA C:Program FilesJavajre6libextQTJava.zip
SESSIONNAME Console
SIKULI_HOME C:Sikuli
SystemDrive C:
SystemRoot C:Windows
TEMP C:UsersGOVARD~1AppDataLocalTemp
TMP C:UsersGOVARD~1AppDataLocalTemp
USERDNSDOMAIN TESTDOM.COM
USERDOMAIN TESTDOM
USERNAME Govardhan
USERPROFILE C:Usersgovardhan
windir C:Windows
PS C:>
List all environment variables matching a string:
PS C:> Get-ChildItem Env:pro* (You can also use get-item)
Name Value
—- —–
ProgramFiles C:Program Files
ProgramData C:ProgramData
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE x86
PROCESSOR_LEVEL 6
PROCESSOR_REVISION 0f0d
PS C:>
Use Get-Item or Get-ChildItem for while working with Environment Variables?
You can use either Get-Item or Get-ChildItem to retrieve the environment variables via ENV provider (note NOT referred by $ENV) which gives you the same number of results as shown below:
PS C:> Get-Item Env: | wc -l
43
PS C:> Get-ChildItem Env: | wc -l
43
PS C:>
When it matters using Get-Item or Get-ChildItem with environment variables?
It really matters when you try to refer the environment variables values via scalar notation (referred as $ENV:) as shown below:
PS C:> Get-Item $ENV:appdata
Directory: C:UsersgovardhanAppData
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
—- ————- —— —-
d—- 4/13/2011 3:56 PM Roaming
PS C:> Get-ChildItem $ENV:appdata
Directory: C:UsersgovardhanAppDataRoaming
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
—- ————- —— —-
d—- 3/17/2011 10:48 AM Adobe
d—- 3/16/2011 11:31 AM WinRAR
d—- 3/16/2011 11:30 AM WordWeb
PS C:>
Magic of using ENV and $ENV in PS programming: (Or Differences referring environment variables via ENV and $ENV)
PS C:> Get-ChildItem ENV:appdata
Name Value
—- —–
APPDATA C:UsersgovardhanAppDataRoaming
PS C:> Get-ChildItem $ENV:appdata
Directory: C:UsersgovardhanAppDataRoaming
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
—- ————- —— —-
d—- 3/17/2011 10:48 AM Adobe
d—- 3/16/2011 11:31 AM WinRAR
d—- 3/16/2011 11:30 AM WordWeb
PS C:>
