I need help understanding PowerShell security and file access issues - powershell

Question

I'm working with PowerShell, running a script (from my console) that includes this line:
$inpath = "C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo\bar"
and I keep getting this error:
Get-Content : Access to the path 'C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo\bar' is denied.
At C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo\testscript.ps1:53 char:12
+ Get-Content <<<< $txtfile | Get-WordCount -Exclude (Get-Content c:\temp\exclude.txt) | select -First 15
+ CategoryInfo : PermissionDenied: (C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo\bar:String) [Get-Content], UnauthorizedAcc
essException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : GetContentReaderUnauthorizedAccessError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetContentCommand
The scripts and target files are all located on my local drive. I can access the files in Explorer, view/edit/save them using NotePad, and do not have any permissions restrictions set. When I'm on the command line, I can run the get-content cmdlet successfully on files in my path. I can change directories PS C:> cd C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo\bar and successfully list what's there. Even more interesting, I can duplicate the line that's erroring in the script, and NOT receive an error on the command line.
PS C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo> $inpath = "C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo\bar"
PS C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo>
This makes me suspect that the 'Permission Denied' error is actually something else, or something vague enough that I've got no clue how to proceed with troubleshooting. Is it possible for PS to have different permissions than the user under which it's running? Has anyone seen this behavior before, and how did you solve the problem? I'm sure there's a simple solution that I don't know.

Answer 1

Get-Content : Access to the path 'C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo\bar' is denied.
At C:\users\xxxxx\path\foo\testscript.ps1:53 char:12
That path doesn't look like it is a file but a folder.
Are you sure you are appending the file name to the folder and passing that to Get-Content?
Windows gives Access Denied when you try and open a directory as if it were a file without passing extra flags; and .NET does not pass those flags (there are a few specific circumstances for opening a folder, but they do not apply here).

Answer 2

Get-Content read contents of file not folder. Please add . after your your folder path like below.
Get-Content "D:\Logs\*.*" | ?{($_|Select-String "test")}
If you want to go through all folders way under it then add -recurse like below:
Get-Content "D:\Logs\*.*" -Recurse | ?{($_|Select-String "test")}

Answer 3

Instead of this: (as per your comment)
foreach ($doc in $inpath) { do-function }
try this:
foreach ($doc in (gci $inpath)) { do-function }
You are doing a foreach on a string object instead of your folder items.