If $env:USERPROFILE doesn't work, is this because the software you're using is running using either SYSTEM or a service account? Also, give this a read . Enumerating the HKEY_USERS registry hive might be the way to go.

You can retrieve the root (parent) directory of all user profile directories from the registry as follows:

$profilesRootDir = 
  Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList' ProfilesDirectory

To get a specific user's profile directory, say jdoe, you can then use:

# See more robust alternative below.
Join-Path $profilesRootDir jdoe

However, the ultimate source of truth is the ProfileImagePath value in the subkeys of the above registry key path, named for each user's SID (security identifier), which Get-LocalUser does provide (the output objects have a .SID property).

Thus, it is better to use:

Get-ItemPropertyValue "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\$((Get-LocalUser jdoe).SID)" ProfileImagePath

To reliably get the profile directories of all enabled local users, use the following:

Get-LocalUser | 
  Where-Object Enabled |
  ForEach-Object {
    # Note the use of ...\ProfileList\_.SID) and value name ProfileImagePath
    Get-ItemPropertyValue "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\_.SID)" ProfileImagePath
  }

On Windows 7:

[PS]> echo $ENV:UserProfile
C:\Users\arco444

This returns the path to the profile directory. Therefore I'd expect looking only for the username to fail the condition. I'd do a simple match instead:

if ($env:userprofile -imatch "rmullins")
{
    Remove-Item $env:userprofile\Desktop\ITFILES -Recurse -Force
}

In powershell, use the Win32_UserProfile WMI Object to find profiles remotely:

gwmi -ComputerName <computername> Win32_UserProfile

To find user profiles not on a server (or that are, either way), you could do something like:

gwmi -ComputerName <computername> Win32_UserProfile | ? {"C:\Users\<username>" -contains $_.LocalPath}

If the path exists, it will give results if not then it won't. You can do fancier stuff than this, but basically this should accomplish what you need without using regular expressions.

Not in front of a computer but something close to this run as administrator iirc. Get-Item "C:\Users\*\Desktop\Name Of Shortcut.lnk" | Remove-Item

$ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue"$Path = "C:\Users"$UserFolders = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Directory$currentDate = Get-Date$ageLimit = 60# Set the execution policy to bypass (use with caution in production)Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Force# Loop through each user profile folderForEach ($UserFolder in $UserFolders) {    $UserName = $UserFolder.Name    # Only process profiles that have an NTUser.dat file    $NTUserPath = "$Path\$UserName\NTUSER.DAT"    If (Test-Path $NTUserPath) {        $Dat = Get-Item $NTUserPath -Force        $DatTime = $Dat.LastWriteTime        # Reset NTUSER.DAT's LastWriteTime to match the folder's LastWriteTime        If ($UserFolder.Name -ne "default") {            $Dat.LastWriteTime = $UserFolder.LastWriteTime        }    }    # Calculate profile age and delete if older than $ageLimit    $profileAge = ($currentDate - $UserFolder.LastWriteTime).Days    If ($profileAge -ge $ageLimit) {        # Remove user profile and any content inside it (use with caution)        Try {            Remove-Item -Path $UserFolder.FullName -Recurse -Force            Write-Host "Deleted profile: $UserName"        } Catch {            Write-Host "Error deleting profile: $UserName - $_"        }    }}# Optional: Clean up empty folders (if necessary)$EmptyFolders = Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Directory | Where-Object { $_.GetFileSystemInfos().Count -eq 0 }ForEach ($EmptyFolder in $EmptyFolders) {    Try {        Remove-Item -Path $EmptyFolder.FullName -Force        Write-Host "Deleted empty folder: EmptyFolder.Name)"    } Catch {        Write-Host "Error deleting empty folder: EmptyFolder.Name) - $_"    }}Write-Host "Profile cleanup complete."

Windows can create a user-profile on-demand, using the CreateProfile API

However, if don't want to create an executable to perform this operation, you can call the API in PowerShell. Others have already done it: example on github.

Relevant part of the code:

$methodName = 'UserEnvCP'
$script:nativeMethods = @();

Register-NativeMethod "userenv.dll" "int CreateProfile([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string pszUserSid,`
  [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string pszUserName,`
  [Out][MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] StringBuilder pszProfilePath, uint cchProfilePath)";

Add-NativeMethods -typeName $MethodName;

$localUser = New-Object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount("$UserName");
$userSID = $localUser.Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]);
$sb = new-object System.Text.StringBuilder(260);
$pathLen = $sb.Capacity;

Write-Verbose "Creating user profile for $Username";
try
{
    [UserEnvCP]::CreateProfile($userSID.Value, $Username, $sb, $pathLen) | Out-Null;
}
catch
{
    Write-Error $_.Exception.Message;
    break;
}

In powershell you need to use $env:UserProfile:

copy "$($env:USERPROFILE)\AppData\Local\Thing" "$($env:USERPROFILE)\AppData\Local\Thing.backup"

• And to concatenate strings with variable you need to use the self-expression operator $().
• Actually copy is an alias of powershell Cmdlet Copy-Item.

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Sidenote: If you need to use literal '%USERPOFILE%' then use -LiteralPath or use single quotes.