Windows powershell show environment variables

In the above post, I explained how to use different PowerShell commands like dir env: , gci env: , ls env:, and Get-ChildItem to print environment variables on console or output to file as well. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. PowerShell — Get-ChildItem alias to echo environment variables.

Table of Contents hide. PowerShell Print environment variables. PowerShell — gci env: show environment variables. Any running processes will not see variable changes in the registry. Processes only see the registry variables and values that were present when the process was started, unless Windows notifies them that there has been a change.

Instead of modifying the registry directly, you can use a. NET class instead. NET [System. Environment] class can modify machine and user — scoped environment variables and handle the registry housekeeping for you. NET class offers a simpler, Microsoft-supported approach. NET class later in this article. These environment variables are expanded when the value is retrieved. To demonstrate this, use the REG utility. This is a small command-line utility included with Windows.

Query the TEMP environment variable as seen below. This is the old-school way of showing environment variables via cmd. Know that PowerShell does not recognize this format. The REG utility allows us to see the native value of the registry value. Click on the EnvironmentVariables button, which is highlighted in the image below. The Environment Variables dialog, shown below, allows you to view, create and modify user and machine-scoped environment variables.

Note that the dialog refers to machine scoped variables as System variables. A PS drive allows you to treat environment variables as if they are a file system through the Env: drive.

But to save some keystrokes, switch to the Env: drive just as you would any file system drive, as shown below. You can use the same commands you would use to access a file system, such as Get-Item and Get-ChildItem to access environment variables. Because environment variables are stored in a PS drive, you can use the tab completion feature of PowerShell to cycle through the available variables, as shown below.

NET objects. You can access a specific value of an environment variable by wrapping the Get-Item command reference in parentheses and referencing the Value property as shown below:. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. The Overflow Blog. Podcast Making Agile work for data science. Stack Gives Back Featured on Meta. New post summary designs on greatest hits now, everywhere else eventually.

Linked Related Hot Network Questions. Question feed. The following expression creates a variable named Computers. The variable has a global scope, even when it's created in a script or function. For any script or command that executes out of session, you need the Using scope modifier to embed variable values from the calling session scope, so that out of session code can access them. Variables that you create are available only in the session in which you create them. They're lost when you close your session.

To create the variable in every PowerShell session that you start, add the variable to your PowerShell profile. The PowerShell Variable provider creates a Variable: drive that looks and acts like a file system drive, but it contains the variables in your session and their values. To get the value of a particular variable, use file system notation to specify the name of the drive and the name of the variable.

To display more information about the Variable: drive and the PowerShell Variable provider, type:. Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported.

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