The Easy Way to Use PowerShell to Work with Special Folders

re: The Easy Way to Use PowerShell to Work with Special Folders

TanMan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:26:43 GMT

@Klaus, Thanks so much for the explanation and especially the link. I guess I wasn't searching on the right keywords. Down the rabbit hole for me!!!

re: The Easy Way to Use PowerShell to Work with Special Folders

K_Schulte — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:29:19 GMT

Hi Ed,

I think you showed that it is no more complicated to get to special folders in PS than it has been (and is) in VB Script! That's pretty cool!

@jrv: you're perfectly right!

@TanMan: I can't really help you much with this, but this special construct is due to the underlying .Net framework, which is accessed by Reflection methods to get at the enum values of a nested class in this case!

In the blog entry

blogs.msdn.com/.../plus-in-net-class-names.aspx

you'll find the essential statement:

To Get : A parent class and a nested class

Use : Type.GetType("MyParentClass+MyNestedClass")

This is a rare case, and you are not supposed to know that the underlying type is defined in a nested class. Of course, you just have to learn that that's the way you have to go ...

Klaus (Schulte)

re: The Easy Way to Use PowerShell to Work with Special Folders

TanMan — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:26:10 GMT

Sorry for the newb question, but I don't understand the + operator in the context [Environment+SpecialFolder]. I've tried [Environment]::SpecialFolders, but that doesn't seem to work. Can someone please explain to me what the + means in this context and why this works? Thanks!

re: The Easy Way to Use PowerShell to Work with Special Folders

ed wilson — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:51:57 GMT

@JRV that is absolutely correct. Using the GetNames method from the system.enum class is a great way to find out what special folders are available. Thank you for pointing that out.

re: The Easy Way to Use PowerShell to Work with Special Folders

jrv — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:49:41 GMT

You forgot the best part. We can know what folders are available on a per OS basis using this:

[enum]::GetNames([System.Environment+SpecialFolder])

This will list all special folders available on the current OS.