With the provider you use the same command(s) to get access the registry, access files and folders, etc. The second option was to use an intermediate layer, the provider, which converted the data store into something resembling the file store. The first option was to create a huge number unique cmdlets for each data store This would be a lot of work and would be almost certain to introduce inconsistencies. The developers of PowerShell, when faced with the challenge of enabling IT Pros to access all this information had two main options. These data stores include the registry, as well as the file store, the certificate store, and more. Windows contains a number of data stores that are critical to the operation of Windows and Windows applications. You can also use the WMI to access WMI, as shown in this excerpt from Richard Siddaway’s book PowerShell and WMI.įor IT Pros using PowerShell, the Windows PowerShell team, created a very simple way through the use of the Registry provider which is the focus of this article. Windows NT also had the reg.exe command that allowed you to manage the registry programatically and you can still usew it today. For more details about registry hives see the Registry Hives on-line help text.Įver since Windows NT 3.1, it is easy to edit the registry using the built in registry editor – regedit.exe. Each hive has a set of supporting files that Windows loads into memory when the operating system starts up or a user logs in. A hive is a logical group of keys, sub-keys, and values in the registry. The registry is implemented in Windows as a set of registry hives. The registry allows you to create any key and to put pretty much any kind of data into a value entry. Any registry key can have values of any data type. Each value entry has a data type and a data value.

Each key or sub-key can have zero or more value entries. The registry is a set of hierarchical keys – a registry key can have zero, or more sub-keys, and so on. Using the registry editor can be dangerous, so be careful! The registry is critical to the operation of Windows – I learned that long ago (and got practice reinstalling Windows NT). In Windows the Registry is a database of configurations information used by Windows and Windows applications.

You probably already know this but I start with a look at the Registry and how PowerShell providers relate to the query. The Registryīefore answering the query, let me cover some of the background basics. Help me, please?Ī: Let’s look at how you can use PowerShell to add or update any registry key value. Is there something I am not doing? I include my script so you can see what is going on. The error message says that it cannot find the path because it does not exist. I added the –Force parameter, but it still does not create the registry key. I am using the New-ItemProperty cmdlet, but it fails if the registry key does not exist. Q: I am having a problem trying to update the registry.

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