Get-Item

Syntax

Get-Item
   [-Path] <String[]>
   [-Filter <String>]
   [-Include <String[]>]
   [-Exclude <String[]>]
   [-Force]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-UseTransaction]
   [-Stream <String[]>]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Get-Item
   -LiteralPath <String[]>
   [-Filter <String>]
   [-Include <String[]>]
   [-Exclude <String[]>]
   [-Force]
   [-Credential <PSCredential>]
   [-UseTransaction]
   [-Stream <String[]>]
   [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Get-Item cmdlet gets the item at the specified location. It does not get the contents of the item at the location unless you use a wildcard character (*) to request all the contents of the item.

This cmdlet is used by Windows PowerShell providers to navigate through different types of data stores.

Examples

Example 1: Get the current directory

PS C:\> Get-Item .



Directory: C:\



Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name

----                -------------     ------ ----

d----         7/26/2006  10:01 AM            ps-test

This command gets the current directory. The dot (.) represents the item at the current location (not its contents).

Example 2: Get all the items in the current directory

PS C:\> Get-Item *



Directory: C:\ps-test



Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name

----                -------------     ------ ----

d----         7/26/2006   9:29 AM            Logs

d----         7/26/2006   9:26 AM            Recs

-a---         7/26/2006   9:28 AM         80 date.csv

-a---         7/26/2006  10:01 AM         30 filenoext

-a---         7/26/2006   9:30 AM      11472 process.doc

-a---         7/14/2006  10:47 AM         30 test.txt

This command gets all the items in the current directory. The wildcard character (*) represents all the contents of the current item.

Example 3: Get the current directory of a drive

PS C:\> Get-Item C:\

This command gets the current directory of the C: drive. The object that is retrieved represents only the directory, not its contents.

Example 4: Get items in the specified drive

PS C:\> Get-Item C:\*

This command gets the items in the C: drive. The wildcard character (*) represents all the items in the container, not just the container.

In Windows PowerShell, use a single asterisk ( ) to get contents, instead of the traditional *. . The format is interpreted literally, so . would not retrieve directories or file names without a dot.

Example 5: Get a property in the specified directory

PS C:\> (Get-Item C:\Windows).LastAccessTime

This command gets the LastAccessTime property of the C:\Windows directory. LastAccessTime is just one property of file system directories. To see all of the properties of a directory, type (Get-Item \<directory-name\>) | Get-Member .

Example 6: Show the contents of a registry key

PS C:\> Get-Item hklm:\software\microsoft\powershell\1\shellids\microsoft.powershell\*

This command shows the contents of the Microsoft.PowerShell registry key. You can use this cmdlet with the Windows PowerShell Registry provider to get registry keys and subkeys, but you must use the Get-ItemProperty cmdlet to get the registry values and data.

Example 7: Get items in a directory that have an exclusion

PS C:\> Get-Item c:\Windows\*.* -exclude "w*"

This command gets items in the Windows directory with names that include a dot (.), but do not begin with w . This command works only when the path includes a wildcard character ( ) to specify the contents of the item.

Required Parameters

Optional Parameters

Inputs

System.String

You can pipe a string that contains a path to this cmdlet.

Outputs

System.Object

This cmdlet returns the objects that it gets. The type is determined by the type of objects in the path.

Notes

• You can also refer to this cmdlet by its built-in alias, "gi". For more information, see about_Aliases.

  This cmdlet does not have a Recurse parameter, because it gets only an item, not its contents. To get the contents of an item recursively, use Get-ChildItem.

  To navigate through the registry, use this cmdlet to get registry keys and the Get-ItemProperty to get registry values and data. The registry values are considered to be properties of the registry key.

  This cmdlet is designed to work with the data exposed by any provider. To list the providers available in your session, type Get-PsProvider . For more information, see about_Providers.

Related Links

• Clear-Item
• Copy-Item
• Invoke-Item
• Move-Item
• New-Item
• Remove-Item
• Rename-Item
• Set-Item
• Get-ChildItem
• Get-ItemProperty
• Get-PSProvider