Get list of environment variables from Powershell

We can get the list of environment variables using the .NET class [Environment]::. The following command list all the local environment variables.

[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables()

You can list machine specific environment variables or user specific environment variables using this function. The below command lists only computer specific environment variables

[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables("Machine")

Likewise, the below command lists only user specific environment variables

[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables("User")

Find specific (single) environment variable

Instead of listing all the environment variables, we can use the function “[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable” to get the value of specific environment variable.

[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("ComputerName")

The below command gets the current user’s “Temp” directory path.

[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Temp","User")

Likewise, the below command gets the current computer’s “Temp” directory path.

[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Temp","Machine")

Get environment variable from Remote machine

We can get an environment variable from remote machine by running the above command using Invoke-Command. Before proceed, we should enable powershell remoting to run remote commands. Check this article : How to enable Powershell Remoting

Syntax of remote powershell command:

Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Target -ScriptBlock { $COMMAND } -Credential $USERNAME

$Target – The name of the computer to connect.
$COMMAND – The powershell command to run in remote computer.
$USERNAME – The user account to run the command as on the remote computer. You will be prompted to enter a password for the username. The Credential parameter is optional one.

The following command gets the name of the remote machine.

Invoke-Command -ComputerName "ESVR1" -ScriptBlock {[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(“ComputerName”)}

The below command gets the “Temp” directory path of the remote computer “ESVR1”.

Invoke-Command -ComputerName "ESVR1" -ScriptBlock {[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(“Temp”,”Machine”)}

The below command gets the “Temp” directory path for the user “Morgan” in the remote machine “ESVR1”.

Invoke-Command -ComputerName "ESVR1" -ScriptBlock {[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(“Temp”,”User”)} -Credential Morgan
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