CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellregistry
Justin Dearing
Justin Dearing

Reputation: 14978

More succinct way of getting a registry value as a string than (Get-ItemProperty $key $valueName)._VALUENAME_?

The method for getting a value in a registry key from PowerShell is:

Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion CommonFilesDir

However, that command returns some extra properties I don't usually want:

CommonFilesDir : C:\Program Files\Common Files
PSPath         : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
PSParentPath   : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
PSChildName    : CurrentVersion
PSDrive        : HKLM
PSProvider     : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry

I just want the actual value, a string in this case. To do that I have to use the more verbose:

$commonFilesDir = (Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion CommonFilesDir).CommonFilesDir

Other than writing my own alias, is there a way of not writing the property name twice and getting a string?

I could run the following command, but it returns a PSObject:

Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion | Select CommonFilesDir

Upvotes: 14

Views: 21581

Answers (4)

Chris
Chris

Reputation: 3529

I'm going to replicate an answer by Mike Shepard here (see comment under Musaab's answer) since he has not posted it himself. It is better because you don't have to put the name of the variable in your code.

So you can take this:

Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion | Select -expandproperty CommonFilesDir

And instead do this:

$w = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion"
$q = "CommonFilesDir"
Get-ItemProperty $w | Select -expandproperty $q

Upvotes: 0

jlalughery
jlalughery

Reputation: 286

I'm new to PowerShell, but it seems to work in PowerShell 2 and 3 if you leave out the registry value name in Get-ItemProperty, using the value name only as a property:

(Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion).CommonFilesDir

or even shorter with the alias:

(gp HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion).CommonFilesDir

No repetition of the value name, clean, and it can't get much more succinct.

Upvotes: 14

Musaab Al-Okaidi
Musaab Al-Okaidi

Reputation: 3784

What about:

Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion | `
    Select CommonFilesDir

Upvotes: 3

x0n
x0n

Reputation: 52480

This is no less clunky, but there's no repetition if that's an itch you need to scratch:

(gi HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion).GetValue("CommonFilesDir")

(personally I'd use $env:commonprogramfiles but that's besides the point.)

Upvotes: 4

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