Get-EnvironmentVariable

SYNOPSIS

Retrieves the value of an environment variable.

SYNTAX

LookupByName (Default)

Get-EnvironmentVariable [[-Name] <String>] [-Target <EnvironmentVariableTarget[]>] [-All]
 [<CommonParameters>]

LookupByRegexPattern

Get-EnvironmentVariable [[-Pattern] <String>] [-Target <EnvironmentVariableTarget[]>] [-All]
 [<CommonParameters>]

DESCRIPTION

The Get-EnvironmentVariable function retrieves the value of the specified environment variable or displays all environment variables. It is capable of finding variables by an exact name match or by using a regex pattern match. It can retrieve environment variables from the process, machine, and user targets. If no parameters are specified, all environment variables are returned from all targets.

EXAMPLES

EXAMPLE 1

Get-EnvironmentVariable -Name 'UserName' -Target 'User'

Retrieves the value of the "UserName" environment variable from the process target.

EXAMPLE 2

Get-EnvironmentVariable -Name 'Path' -Target 'Machine'

Retrieves the value of the PATH environment variable from the machine target.

EXAMPLE 3

Get-EnvironmentVariable -Pattern '^u'

Get environment variables with names that begin with the letter "u" in any target.

PARAMETERS

-Name

The name of the environment variable to retrieve.

Type: String
Parameter Sets: LookupByName
Aliases:

Required: False
Position: 1
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

-Pattern

A regex pattern to find matching environment variable names.

Type: String
Parameter Sets: LookupByRegexPattern
Aliases:

Required: False
Position: 1
Default value: None
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

-Target

The target (Process, Machine, User) to pull environment variables from. Multiple targets may be specified.

Type: EnvironmentVariableTarget[]
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases:
Accepted values: Process, User, Machine

Required: False
Position: Named
Default value: [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget].GetEnumValues()
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

-All

Optionally get all environment variables from all targets or all environment variables from one specified target. Process ID and process name will be included for process environment variables.

Type: SwitchParameter
Parameter Sets: (All)
Aliases:

Required: False
Position: Named
Default value: False
Accept pipeline input: False
Accept wildcard characters: False

CommonParameters

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutBuffer, -OutVariable, -PipelineVariable, -Verbose, -WarningAction, -WarningVariable, and -ProgressAction. For more information, see about_CommonParameters (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113216).

INPUTS

OUTPUTS

System.Object[]

NOTES

Author: Sam Erde Version: 1.0.0 Modified: 2025/03/05

About Environment Variables:

Variable names are case-sensitive on Linux and macOS, but not on Windows. PowerShell is case-insensitive by default and compensates for case-sensitivity on Linux and macOS. To make PowerShell case-sensitive, use the -CaseSensitive parameter when starting PowerShell.

Why is 'Target' used by .NET instead of the familiar 'Scope' parameter name? @IISResetMe (Mathias R. Jessen) explains: "Scope" would imply some sort of integrated hierarchy of env variables - that's not really the case. Target=Process translates to kernel32!GetEnvironmentVariable (which then in turn reads the PEB from the calling process), whereas Target={User,Machine} causes a registry lookup against environment data in either HKCU or HKLM.

The relevant sources for the User and Machine targets are in the registry at: - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment

See more at \<https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_environment_variables>.

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