PowerShell to find and copy a file with wildcard

Question

Hi,

I need to copy a file which is located under a dynamically created subdirectory.

Directory: C:\Users\StandardUser\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\dynamically-created-directory\myDesiredFile

$SourceDir ="C:\Users\StandardUser\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles"
$DestinationDir = "C:\FireFox\"

Wildecard for filter

$FileNameAndExtension = "places.sqlite"

Copy File

Copy-Item $SourceDir $DestinationDir -Filter $FileNameAndExtension -Recurse

Problem: using the above PS settings, I am getting whole PROFILE ddirectory but I want to copy only file as defined in FileNameAndExtension variable ... possible?

Answer 1

Maybe this will work for you (not tested!):

$SourceDir ="C:\Users\StandardUser\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles"
$DestinationDir = "C:\FireFox\"
$FileNameAndExtension = "places.sqlite"
Get-Childitem –Path "$SourceDir"  -Include "$FileNameAndExtension" -File -Recurse | Copy-Item  -Destination "$DestinationDir"

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(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten

Answer 2

Hello again,

Can I use environment variables such as %UserName%? When I used, the following I am getting error message.

$SourceDir ="C:\Users\'%UserName%'\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles"

Error > Cannot find path 'C:\Users\'%UserName%'\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles' because it does not exist.

Answer 3

It's possible.

Please try $env:USERNAME instead of a %username%. This way you get the username of the user that is running the PowerShell script.

Hope this helps.

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(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten