More succinct way of getting a registry value as a string than (Get-ItemProperty $key $valueName)._VALUENAME_?

Question

The method for getting a value in a registry key from PowerShell is:

Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion CommonFilesDir

However, that command returns some extra properties I don't usually want:

CommonFilesDir : C:\Program Files\Common Files
PSPath         : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
PSParentPath   : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
PSChildName    : CurrentVersion
PSDrive        : HKLM
PSProvider     : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry

I just want the actual value, a string in this case. To do that I have to use the more verbose:

$commonFilesDir = (Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion CommonFilesDir).CommonFilesDir

Other than writing my own alias, is there a way of not writing the property name twice and getting a string?

I could run the following command, but it returns a PSObject:

Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion | Select CommonFilesDir

Answer 1

I'm new to PowerShell, but it seems to work in PowerShell 2 and 3 if you leave out the registry value name in Get-ItemProperty, using the value name only as a property:

(Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion).CommonFilesDir

or even shorter with the alias:

(gp HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion).CommonFilesDir

No repetition of the value name, clean, and it can't get much more succinct.

Answer 2

This is no less clunky, but there's no repetition if that's an itch you need to scratch:

(gi HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion).GetValue("CommonFilesDir")

(personally I'd use $env:commonprogramfiles but that's besides the point.)