Exploring the Get-PSProvider Cmdlet

Welcome back to Wahmans PowerShell Blog! Today we’re taking a look at a very useful, though sometimes overlooked, cmdlet: Get-PSProvider.

What is Get-PSProvider?

According to the official documentation from Microsoft:

Get-PSProvider gets information about the specified PowerShell provider.

PowerShell Providers expose data stores like the file system, registry, and environment variables as if they were file systems, which allows cmdlets like Get-ChildItem and Set-Location to navigate and interact with them in a consistent way. Understanding what providers are available and what capabilities they offer is a crucial step towards mastering PowerShell.

Basic Usage

To explore how Get-PSProvider works, let’s go through it with a set of progressively advanced examples.

Example 1: List All Available Providers

This is the most basic use of Get-PSProvider:

Get-PSProvider

This command lists all providers available in your PowerShell session, such as FileSystem, Registry, Alias, Environment, and more.

Example 2: Get Details About a Specific Provider

If you want to know more about a specific provider, such as the FileSystem provider, you can specify it by name:

Get-PSProvider -Name FileSystem

This shows provider-specific details such as the drives it supports and additional capabilities like Filter, Credentials, or ShouldProcess.

Example 3: Use Provider Information to Explore a Data Store

Now that you know that the FileSystem provider is available, you can explore it with cmdlets such as:

Set-Location -Path FileSystem::C:\
Get-ChildItem

Here, the double colons (::) denote the use of a provider path. This allows direct access to that provider.

Example 4: Filter Providers Based on Capabilities (Advanced)

This advanced example uses Where-Object to filter providers that support the Credentials capability:

Get-PSProvider | Where-Object { $_.Capabilities -contains 'Credentials' }

This is helpful when you’re scripting automation that requires credential support, so you can dynamically determine which provider is capable.

Wrap-Up

Get-PSProvider is an essential cmdlet when working with PowerShell’s data access model. Knowing your available providers and their capabilities can greatly enhance your scripting toolkit.

Happy scripting, and I will see you in the next post!