Working with providers

Each of the providers shares a common set of commands, such as Set-Location, Get-Item, and New-Item.

Navigating

Set-Location, which has the alias cd, is used to navigate around a provider's hierarchy; for example:

Set-Location \   # The root of the current drive 
Set-Location Windows # A child container named Windows 
Set-Location .. # Navigate up one level 
Set-Location ..\.. # Navigate up two levels 
Set-Location Cert: # Change to a different drive 
Set-Location HKLM:\Software # Change to a specific child container under a drive

Set-Location may only be used to switch to a container object.

The print working directory (pwd) variable shows the current location across all providers:

PS> $pwd

Path 
---- 
HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Note

pwd and .NET: .NET classes and methods are oblivious to PowerShell's current directory. When the following command is executed, the file will be created in the Start in path (if a shortcut started PowerShell):[System...