How to Create a Windows PowerShell Provider

This section describes how to build a Windows PowerShell provider. A Windows PowerShell provider can be considered in two ways. To the user, the provider represents a set of stored data. For example, the stored data can be the Internet Information Services (IIS) Metabase, the Microsoft Windows Registry, the Windows file system, Active Directory, and the variable and alias data stored by Windows PowerShell.

To the developer, the Windows PowerShell provider is the interface between the user and the data that the user needs to access. From this perspective, each type of provider described in this section supports a set of specific base classes and interfaces that allow the Windows PowerShell runtime to expose certain cmdlets to the user in a common way.

Providers Provided by Windows PowerShell

Windows PowerShell provides several providers (such as the FileSystem provider, Registry provider, and Alias provider) that are used to access known data stores. For more information about the providers supplied by Windows PowerShell, use the following command to access online Help:

PS>get-help about_providers

Accessing the Stored Data Using Windows PowerShell Paths

Windows PowerShell providers are accessible to the Windows PowerShell runtime and to commands programmatically through the use of Windows PowerShell paths. Most of the time, these paths are used to directly access the data through the provider. However, some paths can be resolved to provider-internal paths that allow a cmdlet to use non-Windows PowerShell application programming interfaces (APIs) to access the data. For more information about how Windows PowerShell providers operate within Windows PowerShell, see How Windows PowerShell Works.

Exposing Provider Cmdlets Using Windows PowerShell Drives

A Windows PowerShell provider exposes its supported cmdlets using virtual Windows PowerShell drives. Windows PowerShell applies the following rules for a Windows PowerShell drive:

• The name of a drive can be any alphanumeric sequence.
• A drive can be specified at any valid point on a path, called a "root".
• A drive can be implemented for any stored data, not just the file system.
• Each drive keeps its own current working location, allowing the user to retain context when shifting between drives.

In This Section

The following table lists topics that include code examples that build on each other. Starting with the second topic, the basic Windows PowerShell provider can be initialized and uninitialized by the Windows PowerShell runtime, the next topic adds functionality for accessing the data, the next topic adds functionality for manipulating the data (the items in the stored data), and so on.

Topic	Definition
Designing Your Windows PowerShell Provider	This topic discusses things you should consider before implementing a Windows PowerShell provider. It summarizes the Windows PowerShell provider base classes and interfaces that are used.
Creating a Basic Windows PowerShell Provider	This topic shows how to create a Windows PowerShell provider that allows the Windows PowerShell runtime to initialize and uninitialize the provider.
Creating a Windows PowerShell Drive Provider	This topic shows how to create a Windows PowerShell provider that allows the user to access a data store through a Windows PowerShell drive.
Creating a Windows PowerShell Item Provider	This topic shows how to create a Windows PowerShell provider that allows the user to manipulate the items in a data store.
Creating a Windows PowerShell Container Provider	This topic shows how to create a Windows PowerShell provider that allows the user to work on multilayer data stores.
Creating a Windows PowerShell Navigation Provider	This topic shows how to create a Windows PowerShell provider that allows the user to navigate the items of a data store in a hierarchical manner.
Creating a Windows PowerShell Content Provider	This topic shows how to create a Windows PowerShell provider that allows the user to manipulate the content of items in a data store.
Creating a Windows PowerShell Property Provider	This topic shows how to create a Windows PowerShell provider that allows the user to manipulate the properties of items in a data store.

See Also

How Windows PowerShell Works

Windows PowerShell SDK

Windows PowerShell Programmer's Guide