Define Windows PowerShell providers
A PowerShell provider, or just provider, is an adapter that makes some data stores resemble hard drives within Windows PowerShell. Because most administrators are already familiar with managing hard drives using command-line commands, PowerShell providers help those administrators manage other forms of data storage using the same familiar commands.
A provider presents data as a hierarchical store. For example, items such as folders can have sub-items that appear as subfolders. Items can also have properties, and providers let you manipulate both items and their properties by using a specific set of commands.
Managing a technology by using a provider is more difficult than managing it by using technology-specific commands. Individual commands perform specific actions, and the command name describes what the command does. For example, in Internet Information Services (IIS), the Get-WebSite command retrieves IIS sites. When you use the IIS provider, you run the Get-ChildItem IIS:\Sites command instead.
The advantage of a PowerShell provider is that it's dynamic, which makes it suitable for technologies that are subject to frequent changes. For example, when managing IIS, its provider can accommodate newly introduced Microsoft and third-party IIS add-ins. Even though using a provider to manage dynamic and extensible technologies tends to be more complex, it offers a more consistent approach due to its extensibility.
Some common providers include:
- Registry. Provides access to the registry keys and values.
- Alias. Provides access to aliases for Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
- Environment. Provides access to Windows environment variables and their values.
- FileSystem. Provides access to the files and folders in the file system.
- Function. Provides access to Windows PowerShell functions loaded into memory.
- Variable. Provides access to Windows PowerShell variables and their values loaded into memory.