Accessing remote server paths with Powershell environment variables

Question

How do you do the equivalent of using a remote server's $env namespace without hardcoding network paths for cmdlets like Set-Location? I have a script that loops through remote servers and I'm trying to access their equivalent of $env:programfiles from a single script, but these servers have the variable set in different locations.

Basically getting a loop that navigates

c:\program files
\\server1\c$\program files
\\server2\c$\programs
\\server3\d$\apps

Using something familiar and simple like

Set-Location "${env:programfiles}"

And have the remote server's $env return a network path instead of a drive letter. The current way I'm doing it is grabbing the paths using Invoke-Command and building the path manually (replace : with $, append \\server in front of the path, turning "c:\program files" to "\\server\c$\program files")

Answer 1

This might be a little less complicated, and can easily be thrown into a foreach loop to work through your list of servers.

$RemoteServer = "KRINGER"
#The credential is required if you are working in a Workgroup 
#environment or your domain account does not have permissions
$value = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $RemoteServer -ScriptBlock {$Env:ProgramFiles} -Credential (Get-Credential) | % {$_ -replace ":","$"}

$RemoteWorkingPath = "\\" + $RemoteServer + "\" + $value + "\"
Write-Host "My remote path to use is: $RemoteWorkingPath"

Here is screenshot of the output:

Answer 2

Try this:

function Get-RemoteProgramFilePaths {
    param ([string] $ComputerName)

    try {
        $hive = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryHive]::LocalMachine
        $remoteRoot = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey($hive, $ComputerName)
        $key = $remoteRoot.OpenSubKey('SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion')
        $key.GetValueNames() | ? {$_.StartsWith('ProgramFilesDir')} | % {
            return New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{
                Name = $_
                Value = $key.GetValue($_)
            }
        }
    } catch {
        throw 'Failed to get remote program file paths. The error was: "{0}".' -f $_
    }
}

Get-RemoteProgramFilePaths studio