How do I reference the current logged in user when a script is running?

Question

So, I'm using Desktop Central to run some scripts on a bunch of machines. The script is supposed to open a zip file in the c:\users%USERNAME%\ folder, and decompress it to a folder of my choosing. The idea is to use a single script for many machines, that can leverage the c:\users\LOGGEDONUSER\downloads folder (Default TEAMS download dir). The idea is that each user will download the archive from teams, and a script will decompress and install from each users DOWNLOADS folder.

The issue is that I don't seem to know how to write a script uses a variable representing the username of the logged in user for the -path in my argument.

For instance;

Extract file
Expand-archive -path $home\Downloads\SWANDPDM_SP5.1.zip -DestinationPath C:\temp\swpdminstaller\extracted\ -Force

#Define registry values to modify to allow for no UAC
$RegistryPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System'
$Name         = 'ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin'
$Value        = '0'

#Run reg change
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryPath -Name $Name -Value $Value -PropertyType DWORD -Force

#Run installer
Invoke-Item C:\temp\swpdminstaller\extracted\SOLIDWORKS_AND_PDM_2021_SP5.1\startswinstall.exe

#Define reg values to change back to default
$RegistryPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System'
$Name         = 'ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin'
$Value        = '5'

#Run reg change
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryPath -Name $Name -Value $Value -PropertyType DWORD -Force

This works great if I copy the script to the machine manually, and launch the script as a user. It looks at $home and figures out the correct directory based on whomever is logged in.

However, when it runs as Desktop Central, $home doesn't mean the same location. It comes back with this;

Expand-archive : The path 'C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Downloads\SWANDPDM_SP5.1.zip' either does not
exist or is not a valid file system path.
At C:\Program Files (x86)\DesktopCentral_Agent\Computer\startup\76507\SWandPDMdecomInstall.ps1:2 char:1
+ Expand-archive -path $home\Downloads\SWANDPDM_SP5.1.zip -DestinationP ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (C:\Windows\syst...NDPDM_SP5.1.zip:String) [Expand-Archive], InvalidOpe
rationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ArchiveCmdletPathNotFound,Expand-Archive

I tried using various env variables with no luck. It seems like because it's a "Desktop central" account that's running the script remotely, I can't get it to point to the correct folder in c:\users\NAMEOFLOGGEDINUSER\

So, it thinks $home = 'C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\ instead of c:\users\NAMEOFLOGGEDINUSER\

Is there a way that I can get the username of the current logged on user, assign it to a variable, and then use that variable instead of $home? Keep in mind, it needs to find the logged in user while running the script as the Desktop Central service account. I've tried running the script as various domain admins\system accounts with no luck.

I thought about doing a whoami, writing to a text file, then omitting the domain portion of the output and assigning it to a variable, but there's got to be a better way.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

EDIT: Thought I was on to something, but it didn't work. I tried;

Expand-archive -path $env:HOMEPATH\Downloads\SWANDPDM_SP5.1.zip -DestinationPath C:\temp\swpdminstaller\extracted\ -Force

Answer 1

I see from the comments that you found a workaround. But to answer your original question, you can't get the logged in username from the usual Powershell techniques ( $env:USERNAME , whoami , etc.) when you're running the script under a different security context.

But you can check who owns the Explorer.exe process:

$User = (Get-CimInstance Win32_Process -Filter "name = 'explorer.exe'" | 
 Invoke-CimMethod -MethodName GetOwner).User

The "Desktop central" user will probably not have Explorer running. However, if there are multiple users logged in via RDP sessions this will return an array.