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>]

ALIASES¶

This cmdlet has the following aliases, {{Insert list of aliases}}

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¶

-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: System.Management.Automation.SwitchParameter
DefaultValue: False
SupportsWildcards: false
Aliases: []
ParameterSets:
- Name: LookupByRegexPattern
  Position: Named
  IsRequired: false
  ValueFromPipeline: false
  ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName: false
  ValueFromRemainingArguments: false
- Name: LookupByName
  Position: Named
  IsRequired: false
  ValueFromPipeline: false
  ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName: false
  ValueFromRemainingArguments: false
DontShow: false
AcceptedValues: []
HelpMessage: ''

-Name¶

The name of the environment variable to retrieve.

Type: System.String
DefaultValue: ''
SupportsWildcards: false
Aliases: []
ParameterSets:
- Name: LookupByName
  Position: 0
  IsRequired: false
  ValueFromPipeline: false
  ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName: false
  ValueFromRemainingArguments: false
DontShow: false
AcceptedValues: []
HelpMessage: ''

-Pattern¶

A regex pattern to find matching environment variable names.

Type: System.String
DefaultValue: ''
SupportsWildcards: false
Aliases: []
ParameterSets:
- Name: LookupByRegexPattern
  Position: 0
  IsRequired: false
  ValueFromPipeline: false
  ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName: false
  ValueFromRemainingArguments: false
DontShow: false
AcceptedValues: []
HelpMessage: ''

-Target¶

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

Type: System.EnvironmentVariableTarget[]
DefaultValue: '[System.EnvironmentVariableTarget].GetEnumValues()'
SupportsWildcards: false
Aliases: []
ParameterSets:
- Name: LookupByRegexPattern
  Position: Named
  IsRequired: false
  ValueFromPipeline: false
  ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName: false
  ValueFromRemainingArguments: false
- Name: LookupByName
  Position: Named
  IsRequired: false
  ValueFromPipeline: false
  ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName: false
  ValueFromRemainingArguments: false
DontShow: false
AcceptedValues: []
HelpMessage: ''

CommonParameters¶

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutBuffer, -OutVariable, -PipelineVariable, -ProgressAction, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

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.