Get-ChildItem is not showing all files in a folder

Question

When I call Get-ChildItem in PowerShell it is only returning a few of the files that exist in the directory. This is the driver folder, so I tried using the -Force parameter in case they were hidden, but with no luck.

It's interesting though because it works perfect on my Windows 7 32 bit, but not 64 bit. Any ideas?

Answer 1

I believe PowerShell is showing you everything however the folder you're looking at in the x86 PowerShell prompt isn't what you think. The directory you're actually looking at is under C:\\Windows\\SysWow64\\Drivers and not actually C:\\Windows\\System32\\Drivers. This is due to a Windows feature (Vista and higher) for 32-bit processes running on 64-bit OS called virtualization (specifically the File System Redirector ). When you run a 64-bit PowerShell prompt virtualization is not used so you see the real C:\\Windows\\System32\\Drives dir.

From a 32-bit PowerShell prompt, you can see the "real" C:\\windows\\system32\\drivers dir by using this path:

Get-ChildItem C:\\Windows\\SysNative\\Drivers

Answer 2

I ran across this while searching for a similar issue. I want to list user folder usage, but run into issues with folder ownership/permissions. Even though I am a local admin, I need to explicitly give myself access. Not ideal. Below gives accurate usage, despite permissions. (Of course, if you want to know more detailed usage, you need to use a for loop or something.)

Get-ChildItem "C:\Users" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Measure-Object Length -Sum

As for what files are included, hidden and system files are not shown by default: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/get-childitem?view=powershell-6

• Hidden parameter: Hidden files only
• System parameter: System files only
• Force parameter: Include hidden and system files, with regular files

To confirm, I granted myself permission to one of the user directories. I compared size reported from PowerShell (before granting permission) and that reported in File Explorer (after granting permission). Size and count was the same.