PowerShell: The automatic variable $PROFILE

The value of the automatic variable $profile is the file name of a PowerShell profile for the current user and the current host application. This profile is executed automatically when PowerShell is started (unless PowerShell is invoked with the command line option -noProfile).

Type of $profile

The type of $profile seems to be a string:

PS C:\Users\Rene> $profile.getType().fullName
System.String

Four profile locations (Windows)

It turns out, though, that $profile is not a exactly a string as this variable actually stores four profile locations by means of the Extended Type System:

PS C:\Users\Rene> write-output $profile
C:\Users\Rene\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

PS C:\Users\Rene> write-output $profile.currentUserCurrentHost
C:\Users\Rene\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

PS C:\Users\Rene> write-output $profile.currentUserAllHosts
C:\Users\Rene\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1

PS C:\Users\Rene> write-output $profile.allUsersCurrentHost
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

PS C:\Users\Rene> write-output $profile.allUsersAllHosts
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\profile.ps1

Note: host in this context does not refer to a computer or server, but rather to the program that is hosting PowerShell, compare with the cmdLet noun host.

The four profile location values can also be shown by piping the $profile «object» into format-list with the -force option or by explicitly asking for the psExtended member:

C:\> $profile | format-list -force
C:\> $profile.psExtended

PowerShell Core

Windows

In PowerShell core, on Windows, the directory name WindowsPowerShell is replaced with simply PowerShell, for example C:\Users\Rene\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

Linux

The values of $profile in Linux are:

/home/<username>/.config/powershell/Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
/home/<username>/.config/powershell/profile.ps1
/opt/microsoft/powershell/7/Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
/opt/microsoft/powershell/7/profile.ps1