The output from Get-PSProvider shows that each provider has one or more drives associated with it.

You can, alternatively, see the list of drives (and the associated provider) using Get-PSDrive, as shown in the following code:

PS> Get-PSDrive

Name     Used (GB) Free (GB) Provider       Root
----     --------- --------- --------       ----
Alias                        Alias  
C 89.13      89.13    111.64 FileSystem     C:
Cert                         Certificate      
D             0.45     21.86 FileSystem     D: 
Env                          Environment 
Function                     Function 
HKCU                         Registry       HKEY_CURRENT_USER
HKLM                         Registry       HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Variable                     Variable 
WSManWSMan

As providers are presented as a filesystem, accessing a provider is similar to working with a drive. Let's look at the following example:

PS C:> Set-Location Cert:LocalMachineRoot

PS Cert:LocalMachineRoot> Get-ChildItem

    Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.SecurityCertificate::LocalMachineRoot


Thumbprint                               Subject 
----------                               ------- 
CDD4EEAE6000AC7F40C3802C171E30148030C072 CN=Microsoft Root Certif...
BE36A4562FB2EE05DBB3D32323ADF445084ED656 CN=Thawte Timestamping C... 
A43489159A520F0D93D032CCAF37E7FE20A8B419 CN=Microsoft Root Author... 

A similar approach may be taken to access the registry. By default, drives are available for the current user (HKCU) and local machine (HKLM) hives. Accessing HKEY_USERS is possible by adding a new drive with the following command:

New-PSDrive HKU -PSProvider Registry -Root HKEY_USERS 

After running the command, a new drive may be used:

PS C:> Get-ChildItem HKU:


    Hive: HKEY_USERS


Name                          Property 
----                          -------- 
.DEFAULT 
S-1-5-19 
S-1-5-20