Problem
You want to determine the current location.
Solution
To determine the current location, use the GetLocation cmdlet: PS >GetLocation
Path
C:\temp PS >$currentLocation = (GetLocation).Path PS >$currentLocation C:\temp
Discussion
One problem that sometimes impacts scripts that work with the .NET Framework is that PowerShell’s concept of “current location” isn’t always the same as the PowerShell.exe process’s “current directory.” Take, for example:
PS >GetLocation
Path
C:\temp
PS >GetProcess | ExportCliXml processes.xml PS >$reader = NewObject Xml.XmlTextReader processes.xml PS >$reader.BaseURI file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Lee/processes.xml
PowerShell keeps these concepts separate because it supports multiple pipelines of execution. The processwide current directory affects the entire process, so you would risk corrupting the environment of all background tasks as you navigate around the shell if that changed the process’s current directory.
When you use filenames in most .NET methods, the best practice is to use fully qualified pathnames. The ResolvePath cmdlet makes this easy:
PS >GetLocation
Path
C:\temp
PS >GetProcess | ExportCliXml processes.xml PS >$reader = NewObject Xml.XmlTextReader (ResolvePath processes.xml) PS >$reader.BaseURI file:///C:/temp/processes.xml
If you want to access a path that doesn’t already exist, use the JoinPath in combination with the GetLocation cmdlet: PS >JoinPath (GetLocation) newfile.txt
C:\temp\newfile.txt
If you need dedicated infrastructure for retrieving the current location with Windows PowerShell, consider a Dedicated Server for greater control over PowerShell commands, system administration, automation, server configuration, and Windows-based application workloads.