Access to \\?GlobalRoot paths?

It seems that PowerShell does not allow access to \\?\GlobalRoot\Device
paths. This is really useful if you are trying to use the Volume Shadow copy
service on Windows XP, especially with the vshadow.exe from the VSS SDK. On
anything other that Server 2003 you can only create temporary shadow copies
and the only way to access them is via \\?\GlobalRoot paths.

As an example, this fails in PowerShell:
get-childitem \\?\globalroot\device\harddisk0\partition1\

It seems that these paths are just being blocked internally and returning
this msg:

"Get-ChildItem : Paths that begin with \\?\GlobalRoot are internal to the
kernel and should not be opened by managed applications."

That seems a little too restrictive, especially for a tool that is meant for
system admin tasks. Are there any plans to address this?

thanks,
david

This is a feature of the .NET Framework, which we use to open files:

[C:\temp]
PS:26 > new-object System.IO.FileInfo "\\?\GlobalRoot"
New-Object : Exception calling ".ctor" with "1" argument(s): "Paths that
begin with \\?\GlobalRoot are internal to the
kernel and should not be opened by managed applications."
At line:1 char:11
+ new-object <<<< System.IO.FileInfo "\\?\GlobalRoot"
--
Lee Holmes [MSFT]
Windows PowerShell Development
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"david.jade" <davidjade@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1F2976AF-10F9-4395-9607-5CBD28088964@microsoft.com...
> It seems that PowerShell does not allow access to \\?\GlobalRoot\Device
> paths. This is really useful if you are trying to use the Volume Shadow
> copy
> service on Windows XP, especially with the vshadow.exe from the VSS SDK.
> On
> anything other that Server 2003 you can only create temporary shadow
> copies
> and the only way to access them is via \\?\GlobalRoot paths.
>
> As an example, this fails in PowerShell:
> get-childitem \\?\globalroot\device\harddisk0\partition1\
>
> It seems that these paths are just being blocked internally and returning
> this msg:
>
> "Get-ChildItem : Paths that begin with \\?\GlobalRoot are internal to the
> kernel and should not be opened by managed applications."
>
> That seems a little too restrictive, especially for a tool that is meant
> for
> system admin tasks. Are there any plans to address this?
>
> thanks,
> david