New-Item `
HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\TestKey1
This command creates the TestKey1 key in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Micro
soft. Figure 7 shows this command’s results.
After you create the key, you can use the
New-ItemProperty cmdlet to add a property
to the key. (Adding a property in PowerShell
is the same as adding an entry in the registry
editor.) The following statement adds the
TestProperty property to TestKey1:
New-ItemProperty `
HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\TestKey1 `
-Name TestProperty -PropertyType string `
-Value “test value”
The added property has a value of test value,
which is a string data type. When you run
the statement, PowerShell returns a list of
all properties and their values. As Figure 7 shows, the new property has been added.
You also can take other actions through
the PowerShell drives. For example, the following
command uses the Rename-Item
cmdlet to rename TestKey1 to TestKey2:
Rename-Item `
HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\TestKey1 `
TestKey2
In this command, the first argument identifies
the original key and the second argument
provides the new name. You can also
use the Remove-Item cmdlet to remove a
registry key:
Remove-Item `
HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\TestKey2
As these statements demonstrate, working
with a registry drive is similar to working with
a file-system drive. You can just as easily use
the New-Item, Rename-Item, and Remove
Item cmdlets with files and folders—or items
in any other drive for that matter.
Creating PowerShell Drives
Up to this point, I’ve shown you only statements
that use the built-in PowerShell
drives. However, you can also create drives
based on existing providers. This can be useful
when you want to simplify commands
that you use often.
To create a PowerShell drive, you use the
New-PSDrive cmdlet. For example, the following
statement creates a drive named ps:
New-PSDrive -Name ps `
-PSProvider FileSystem -Root $pshome
The statement identifies the name of the new
drive, then the provider, and finally the root. In
this case, I use the PSHOME built-in variable
to retrieve the PowerShell home folder name.
When you run this statement, PowerShell
creates the drive and displays information
about the drive, as shown in Figure 8. Notice
that PowerShell displays the actual root name,
not the variable name. (For more information
about variables, see Lesson 5.)
After you’ve created your drive, you
can use it just like the built-in drives. For
example, the following statement changes
the working location to the ps drive:
cd ps:\
As Figure 8 shows, the PowerShell command
prompt reflects the name of the new
drive. You can now work in this drive as
though you had changed the working location
to C:\Windows\system32\Windows
PowerShell\v1.0.
To test whether you’re working in the correct
folder, you can run the Get-ChildItem
cmdlet. Figure 9 shows you the type of
results you should expect. Notice that the
results include the correct name of the working
location. (In this example, PowerShell is
running on a Windows XP computer. If you
run PowerShell on a different OS, you might
see different results because the Power-
Shell home directory is set up differently for
different OSs.)
PowerShell also includes the Remove-
PSDrive cmdlet, which lets you remove
user-defined drives. To use the cmdlet, you
must be in a working location other than the
one you want to delete. For example, the following
code changes the working location,
then deletes the ps drive:
cd C:\; Remove-PSDrive ps
Note that any drives you create within a
session persist only until you end that session, so you don’t need to remove a drive
unless you have a reason to explicitly delete
it. For example, you might want to simplify
your list of available drives when you’re
no longer using a particular drive. You can
persist custom drives across sessions by
modifying your profile file. In a later lesson,
you’ll learn how to create and customize
profile files. However, if you’re anxious
to learn more about profile files now, see
the TechNet article “Window PowerShell
Profiles” (technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc162758.aspx).
That’s All for Now
In this lesson, I introduced you to Power-
Shell providers and drives. As the examples
demonstrate, you can access a number of
data stores in a manner similar to accessing
files and folders. In addition, because
PowerShell uses providers and drives, the
methods used to access data are consistent
among the data stores. In fact, much of
what you’ve learned in the PowerShell 101
series can be applied to the various drives.
When the PowerShell 201 series begins,
you’ll be able to use the information from
this lesson as well as the other lessons to
create complex statements that can access
and manipulate a wide range of resources.