My PowerShell $profile path has no $HOME prepended

Question

I have PowerShell installed on two different Server 2008 R2 systems. On one system, $HOME is prepended to $profile, but on the other nothing is prepended:

Server 1 (PowerShell 2)

PS C:\> echo $HOME
C:\Users\sysnetdom

PS C:\> $profile | format-list -force
CurrentUserAllHosts    : C:\Users\sysnetdom\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1
CurrentUserCurrentHost : C:\Users\sysnetdom\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

�

Server 2 (PowerShell 3)

PS C:\> echo $HOME
C:\Users\sysnetdom

PS C:\> $profile | format-list -force
CurrentUserAllHosts    : WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1
CurrentUserCurrentHost : WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

(I snipped the AllUsers paths because those are normal.)

This is a domain account with no assigned home directory. As I understand it, that should cause Windows to assign a default local home. It does, but on Server 2 it doesn't seem to be picked up by PowerShell 3.0.

Is there something I can do about this?

Answer 1

What I believe you're looking for is the Start in Property of the shortcut you're launching PowerShell from.

If you simply launch the executable, it will start in the path it is located in. C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0, for example. If you launch the executable from a shortcut, it will start wherever the Start in field tells it to, which can be a an absolute path, a relative path, or a path that combines both literal and relative elements.

The PowerShell shortcut on one of my employer's systems, for example:

Personally, I prefer to have it start elsewhere, in my logging folder, to make it easier to find the logs on the command I just ran when I need to, but you can put whatever you want in there... which is what you'd do about this, on "Server 2". Edit that value to what you want it to be.