PowerShell Desktop Variable
You can use the Environment.GetFolderPath() method to get the full path to special folders:
$DesktopPath = [System.Environment]::GetFolderPath([System.Environment+SpecialFolder]::Desktop)This can be shortened to:
$DesktopPath = [Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop")You can also get the "AllUsers" shared desktop folder (if the shortcut file is shared among all users):
[Environment]::GetFolderPath("CommonDesktopDirectory")Check out the full list of values for the SpecialFolder Enum.
If you need $Desktop\a.txt, use this
echo ([Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop")+"\a.txt")
What you are looking for is known as the $home variable. It's one of PowerShell's built-in automatic variables.
It defaults to the user-profile path, so drill down to the desktop like this:
If (Test-Path "$home\Desktop\Google Chrome.lnk") { Remove-Item "$home\Desktop\Google Chrome.lnk"}