In PowerShell, how can I list all environmental variables without using Get-ChildItem or Get_Item?

Question

I'm writing a simple PowerShell script and want to dump all environmental variables/values. Something simple like

gci env:* | sort-object name

seemed liked a good start. But this didn't work for me.

Where things seem to get wacky is that my script is called from a job run by scheduler, both of which set environmental variables configured by other developers.

So, when I use Get-ChildItem as shown above, I get:

gci : An item with the same key has already been added.

Finally, my question: How can I get the environmental variables, ideally both names and values, to see which one(s) have been added incorrectly?

Try this from PowerShell see if it works for you cmd /c SET | ConvertFrom-String -Delimiter '=' — Santiago Squarzon
– Santiago Squarzon, Commented Jun 2, 2021 at 4:20
Thanks Santiago - this worked for me and revealed the problem! If you submit an answer, I'll accept it. Thanks! — marc
– marc, Commented Jun 2, 2021 at 5:46

Luis Rita · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-09 16:21:59Z

11

A simple-to-remember command is:

dir Env:

answered Nov 9, 2021 at 16:21

Luis Rita

3923 silver badges7 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

soulia Over a year ago

That was easy...

Sam Erde Over a year ago

It's worth noting that dir, gci, and ls are all aliases for Get-ChildItem in PowerShell and PowerShell Core.

filimonic · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-02 06:04:02Z

There are 3 scopes of what is called Environment Variables:

[System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine
[System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User
[System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Process

To get list of variables, you can use

[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables($scope)
[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables() # This will mix all scopes in one output

To set variable, you can use

[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable($varName, $varValue, $scope)

If $scope is Machine or User, it will try to store data, otherwise it will trow an exception.

$Env: is actually a virtual PowerShell drive and environment variables are items on it. There is a special provider Get-PSProvider -PSProvider Environment that implements this method of accessing to environment in powershell.

You can run Get-ChildItem -Path 'Env:\' and this is exactly the same as [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables() without specifying scope.

Vega · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-02 10:47:32Z

0

For Powershell version 5.1.19041.906, below commands works fine.

gci env:* | sort-object name

Alternatively you can use below command for your requirement.

[System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables()

edited Jun 2, 2021 at 10:47

Vega

28.8k28 gold badges121 silver badges151 bronze badges

answered Jun 2, 2021 at 4:24

Himanshu Tripathi

91 bronze badge

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

In PowerShell, how can I list all environmental variables without using Get-ChildItem or Get_Item?

3 Answers 3

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related