- Windows logical drives on the computer, including drives mapped to network shares.
- Drives exposed by Windows PowerShell providers (such as the Certificate:, Function:, and Alias: drives) and the
HKLM: and HKCU: drives that are exposed by the Windows PowerShell Registry provider.
- Session-specified temporary drives and persistent mapped network drives that you create by using the New-PSDrive
cmdlet.
Beginning in Windows PowerShell 3.0, the Persist parameter of the New-PSDrive cmdlet can create mapped network
drives that are saved on the local computer and are available in other sessions. For more information, see
The value of LiteralName is used exactly as it is typed. No characters are interpreted as wildcards. If the
name includes escape characters, enclose it in single quotation marks. Single quotation marks tell Windows
PowerShell not to interpret any characters as escape sequences.
Required? true
Position? 0
Default value None
- a number relative to the current scope (0 through the number of scopes, where 0 is the current scope and 1
is its parent).
"Local" is the default. For more information, see about_Scopes (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113260).
Required? false
Position? named
Default value None
This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,
ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,
OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable. For more information, see
about_CommonParameters (https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113216).
INPUTS
None
You cannot pipe objects to this cmdlet.
OUTPUTS
System.Management.Automation.PSDriveInfo
This cmdlet returns objects that represent the drives in the session.
NOTES
* This cmdlet is designed to work with the data exposed by any provider. To list the providers available in
your session, use the Get-PSProvider cmdlet. For more information, see about_Providers
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113250). Mapped network drives that are created by using the Persist*
parameter of the New-PSDrive cmdlet are specific to a user account. Mapped network drives that you create in
sessions that are started with the Run as administrator option or with the credentials of another user are not
visible in sessions that are started without explicit credentials or with the credentials of the current user.
Example 1: Get drives in the current session
PS C:\>Get-PSDriveName Provider Root---- -------- ----Alias AliasC FileSystem
C:\cert Certificate \D FileSystem D:\Env EnvironmentFunction FunctionHKCU
Registry HKEY_CURRENT_USERHKLM Registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEVariable VariableX FileSystem
X:\
This command gets the drives in the current session.
The output shows the hard drive (C:) and CD-ROM drive (D:) on the computer, the drives exposed by the Windows
PowerShell providers (Alias:, Cert:, Env:, Function:, HKCU:, HKLM:, and Variable:), and a drive mapped to a
network share (X:).
Example 2: Get a drive on the computer
PS C:\>Get-PSDrive DName Provider Root---- -------- ----D FileSystem D:\
This command gets the D: drive on the computer. Note that the drive letter in the command is not followed by a
colon.
Example 3: Get all the drives that are supported by the Windows PowerShell file system provider
PS C:\>Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystemName Provider Root---- -------- ----C
FileSystem C:\D FileSystem D:\X FileSystem X:\Y FileSystem
\\Server01\PublicZ FileSystem C:\Windows\System32
This command gets all of the drives that are supported by the Windows PowerShell FileSystem provider. This
includes fixed drives, logical partitions, mapped network drives, and temporary drives that you create by using
the New-PSDrive cmdlet.
Example 4: Check to see if a drive is in use as a Windows PowerShell drive name
PS C:\>if (!(Get-PSDrive X)) {New-PSDrive -Name X -PSProvider Registry -Root HKLM:\Network}else { Write-Host "The
X: drive is already in use." }
This command checks to see whether the X drive is already in use as a Windows PowerShell drive name. If it is not,
the command uses the New-PSDrive cmdlet to create a temporary drive that is mapped to the HKLM:\Network registry
key.
Example 5: Compare the types of files system drives
PS C:\>Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystemPS C:\>Get-PSDrive -provider FileSystemName Provider Root----
-------- ----C FileSystem C:\D FileSystem D:\X FileSystem X:\Y
FileSystem \\Server01\PublicZ FileSystem C:\Windows\System32PS C:\>net useNew connections will
be remembered.Status Local Remote
Network-------------------------------------------------------------------------------X: \\Server01\Public
Microsoft Windows NetworkPS C:\>[System.IO.DriveInfo]::getdrives()Name : C:\DriveType
: FixedDriveFormat : NTFSIsReady : TrueAvailableFreeSpace : 39831498752TotalFreeSpace :
39831498752TotalSize : 79900368896RootDirectory : C:\VolumeLabel :Name :
D:\DriveType : CDRomDriveFormat :IsReady : FalseAvailableFreeSpace :TotalFreeSpace
:TotalSize :RootDirectory : D:\VolumeLabel :Name : X:\DriveType :
NetworkDriveFormat : NTFSIsReady : TrueAvailableFreeSpace : 36340559872TotalFreeSpace :
36340559872TotalSize : 36413280256RootDirectory : X:\VolumeLabel : D_DrivePS
C:\>get-wmiobject win32_logicaldiskDeviceID : C:DriveType : 3ProviderName :FreeSpace : 39831252992Size
: 79900368896VolumeName :DeviceID : D:DriveType : 5ProviderName :FreeSpace :Size
:VolumeName :DeviceID : X:DriveType : 4ProviderName : \\server01\publicFreeSpace : 36340559872Size
: 36413280256VolumeName : D_DrivePS C:\>get-wmiobject win32_networkconnectionLocalName
RemoteName-------------- ------------x: \\server01\public
This example compares the types of file system drives that are displayed by Get-PSDrive to those displayed by
using other methods. This example demonstrates different ways to display drives in Windows PowerShell, and it
shows that temporary, session-specific drives created by using the New-PSDrive cmdlet are accessible only in
Windows PowerShell.
The first command uses Get-PSDrive to get all of the file system drives in the session. This includes the fixed
drives (C: and D:), a mapped network drive (X:) that was created by using the Persist parameter of New-PSDrive ,
and two temporary Windows PowerShell drives (Y: and Z:) that were created by using New-PSDrive without the Persist
parameter.
A net use command, which displays Windows mapped network drives, displays only the X drive. It does not display
the Y: and Z: drives that were created by New-PSDrive . It shows that the X: drive is also mapped to
\\Server01\Public.
The third command uses the GetDrives method of the Microsoft .NET Framework System.IO.DriveInfo class. This
command gets the Windows file system drives, including drive X:, but it does not get the temporary drives created
by New-PSDrive .
The fourth command uses the Get-WmiObject cmdlet to get the instances of the Win32_LogicalDisk class. It returns
the C:, D:, and X: drives, but not the temporary drives created by New-PSDrive .
The last command uses the Get-WmiObject cmdlet to display the instances of the Win32_NetworkConnection class. Like
net use, it returns only the persistent X: drive that was created by New-PSDrive .
RELATED LINKS
Online Version: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=821591
New-PSDrive
Remove-PSDrive
Get-WmiObject
Get-PSProvider