How to get path to active SQL Server - sql

Question

How do you get ask PowerShell for the following path:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER
If I open PowerShell and execute the following command:
Set-Location SQLSERVER:\SQL
PowerShell will change my location to SQLServer. I want the physical path to that SQLServer
I want to script the SQL server management studio's db restore command.
The above is SQL code is auto-generated from SQL server Management Restore db dialog:

Answer 1

This is all stored in the registry for the directory paths, and you can retrieve it with Get-ItemPropertyValue. First you have to find the instance name that is running on your server.
$InstanceName=Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\Instance Names\SQL' -Name 'MSSQLServer'
Once you have that you can get the rest easily enough from the Setup key for that instance:
$BackupDir = Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\$InstanceName\MSSQLServer" -Name 'BackupDirectory'
$RootDataDir = Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\$InstanceName\Setup" -Name 'SQLDataRoot'
$MasterDataDir = Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\$InstanceName\MSSQLServer\Parameters" -Name 'SQLArg0' | ForEach-Object {$_.Substring(2)}
$MasterLogsDir = Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\$InstanceName\MSSQLServer\Parameters" -Name 'SQLArg2' | ForEach-Object {$_.Substring(2)}
The last two values have some extra characters before the path so I trimmed those, you may want to double check that yours are correct once you get the values. If you want other paths just poke around the MSSQLServer and Setup keys in the registry to find what you're looking for.