Managing Windows PowerShell Drives

You can add your own Windows PowerShell drives by using the New-PSDrive command. To get the syntax for the New-PSDrive command, enter the Get-Command command with the Syntax parameter:

PS> Get-Command -Name New-PSDrive -Syntax
New-PSDrive [-Name] <String> [-PSProvider] <String> [-Root] <String> [-Descript
ion <String>] [-Scope <String>] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-Verbose] [-Debug
] [-ErrorAction <ActionPreference>] [-ErrorVariable <String>] [-OutVariable <St
ring>] [-OutBuffer <Int32>] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm]

To create a new Windows PowerShell drive, you must supply three parameters:

• A name for the drive (you can use any valid Windows PowerShell name)
  
  
• The PSProvider (use "FileSystem" for file system locations and "Registry" for registry locations)
  
  
• The root, that is, the path to the root of the new drive
  
  

For example, you can create a drive named "Office" that is mapped to the folder that contains the Microsoft Office applications on your computer, such as C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11. To create the drive, type the following command:

PS> New-PSDrive -Name Office -PSProvider FileSystem -Root "C:\Program Files\Micr
osoft Office\OFFICE11"

Name       Provider      Root                                   CurrentLocation
----       --------      ----                                   ---------------
Office     FileSystem    C:\Program Files\Microsoft Offic...

	Note:
	In general, paths are not case-sensitive.

You refer to the new Windows PowerShell drive as you do all Windows PowerShell drives -- by its name followed by a colon (:).

A Windows PowerShell drive can make many tasks much simpler. For example, some of the most important keys in the Windows registry have extremely long paths, making them cumbersome to access and difficult to remember. Critical configuration information resides under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion. To view and change items in the CurrentVersion registry key, you can create a Windows PowerShell drive that is rooted in that key by typing:

PS> New-PSDrive -Name cvkey -PSProvider Registry -Root HKLM\Software\Microsoft\W

indows\CurrentVersion

Name Provider Root CurrentLocation

---- -------- ---- ---------------

cvkey Registry HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\...

You can then change location to the cvkey: drive as you would any other drive:

PS> cd cvkey:

or:

PS> Set-Location cvkey: -PassThru

Path

----

cvkey:\

The New-PsDrive cmdlet adds the new drive only to the current Windows PowerShell session. If you close the Windows PowerShell window, the new drive is lost. To save a Windows PowerShell drive, use the Export-Console cmdlet to export the current Windows PowerShell session, and then use the PowerShell.exe PSConsoleFile parameter to import it. Or, add the new drive to your Windows PowerShell profile.

You can delete drives from Windows PowerShell by using the Remove-PSDrive cmdlet. The Remove-PSDrive cmdlet is easy to use; to delete a specific Windows PowerShell drive, you just supply the Windows PowerShell drive name.

For example, if you added the Office: Windows PowerShell drive, as shown in the New-PSDrive topic, you can delete it by typing:

PS> Remove-PSDrive -Name Office

To delete the cvkey: Windows PowerShell drive, also shown in the New-PSDrive topic, use the following command:

PS> Remove-PSDrive -Name cvkey

It's easy to delete a Windows PowerShell drive, but you can't delete it while you are in the drive. For example:

PS> cd office:
PS Office:\> remove-psdrive -name office
Remove-PSDrive : Cannot remove drive 'Office' because it is in use.
At line:1 char:15
+ remove-psdrive  <<<< -name office

Windows PowerShell detects file system drives that are added or removed in Windows, including network drives that are mapped, USB drives that are attached, and drives that are deleted by using either the net use command or the WScript.Network MapNetworkDrive and RemoveNetworkDrive methods from a Windows Script Host (WSH) script.