How do I get the value of a registry key and ONLY the value using powershell

$key = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion'
(Get-ItemProperty -Path $key -Name ProgramFilesDir).ProgramFilesDir

I’ve never liked how this was provider was implemented like this : /

Basically, it makes every registry value a PSCustomObject object with PsPath, PsParentPath, PsChildname, PSDrive and PSProvider properties and then a property for its actual value. So even though you asked for the item by name, to get its value you have to use the name once more.