Archive for the ‘CommandLine’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2019/11/12
On some systems, Get-HotFix has many entries with an empty InstalledOn column.
This at least shows there is a date-format difference, but now the Source column is empty.:
Get-HotFix | Select-Object Source,Description,HotfixID,InstalledBy,InstalledOn,@{Name="InstalledOnValue";Expression={$_.psbase.properties["InstalledOn"].Value}} | Out-GridView

I contemplated using Microsoft.Update.Session in the scripts below, but it requires WinRM, the server side implementation of WS-Management – Wikipedia:
[ERROR] [DevMachine] Connecting to remote server DevMachine failed with the following
[ERROR] error message : The client cannot connect to the destination specified in the
[ERROR] request. Verify that the service on the destination is running and is accepting
[ERROR] requests. Consult the logs and documentation for the WS-Management service run
[ERROR] ning on the destination, most commonly IIS or WinRM. If the destination is the
[ERROR] WinRM service, run the following command on the destination to analyze and conf
[ERROR] igure the WinRM service: "winrm quickconfig". For more information, see the abo
[ERROR] ut_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.
[ERROR] + CategoryInfo : OpenError: (DevMachine:String) [], PSRemotingTr
[ERROR] ansportException
[ERROR] + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CannotConnect,PSSessionStateBroken
This is a reminder to find and document a proper fix for this.
This at least works:
Get-HotFix | Select-Object Source,Description,HotfixID,InstalledBy,InstalledOn,@{Name="InstalledOnDateTime";Expression={[System.DateTime]::Parse($_.PSBase.Properties["InstalledOn"].Value,[System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfo("en-US"))}} | Out-GridView
Some links that hopefully help with proper documenting it:
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2019/09/26
TL;DR from [WayBack] Automating the world one-liner at a time… Boolean Values and Operators:
In PowerShell use the built-in constants $false and $true, as strings will be converted to booleans with results you don’t like
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2019/09/25
In production, somehow an application started to misbehave, so would spit out a lot of Windows EventLog entries for Applications you can see in the EventViewer. This small script helped counting it (it takes about 10 seconds on a log having a total of 77k entries):
$tenMinutes = New-TimeSpan -Minutes 10
$now = Get-Date
$tenMinutesAgo = $now - $tenMinutes
$eventLogEntries = Get-EventLog -After $tenMinutesAgo -LogName "Application"
$count = ($eventLogEntries | Measure-Object).Count
Write-Host $count
Related:
–jeroen
Posted in CommandLine, Development, PowerShell, PowerShell, Scripting, Software Development | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2019/09/03
A very concise way for [WayBack] how to filter name/value pairs under a registry key by name and value in PowerShell?:
$path = 'hkcu:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Extensions'
(Get-ItemProperty $path).PSObject.Properties |
Where-Object { $_.Name -match '^xls' ` -or $_.Value -match 'msaccess.exe$' } |
Select-Object Name, Value
Thanks montonero for getting me on that path and pointing me to the hidden PSObject property which by itself has Properties, and making me find these links with background information:
More in-depth information:
- [WayBack] Get-Member (Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility)
- The
Get-Member cmdlet gets the members, the properties and methods, of objects. To specify the object, use the InputObject parameter or pipe an object to Get-Member. To get information about static members, the members of the class, not of the instance, use the Static parameter. To get only certain types of members, such as NoteProperties, use the MemberType parameter.
-
-Force
Adds the intrinsic members (PSBase, PSAdapted, PSObject, PSTypeNames) and the compiler-generated get_ and set_ methods to the display. By default, Get-Member gets these properties in all views other than Base and Adapted, but it does not display them.
The following list describes the properties that are added when you use the Force parameter:
- PSBase: The original properties of the .NET Framework object without extension or adaptation. These are the properties defined for the object class and listed in MSDN.
- PSAdapted. The properties and methods defined in the Windows PowerShell extended type system.
- PSExtended. The properties and methods that were added in the Types.ps1xml files or by using the Add-Member cmdlet.
- PSObject. The adapter that converts the base object to a Windows PowerShell PSObject object.
- PSTypeNames. A list of object types that describe the object, in order of specificity. When formatting the object, Windows PowerShell searches for the types in the Format.ps1xml files in the Windows PowerShell installation directory ($pshome). It uses the formatting definition for the first type that it finds.
- [WayBack] PSObject Class (System.Management.Automation)
- Wraps an object providing alternate views of the available members and ways to extend them. Members can be methods, properties, parameterized properties, etc.
- [WayBack] PSObject.Properties Property (System.Management.Automation)
- Gets the
Property collection, or the members that are actually properties.
Is of type PSMemberInfoCollection<PSPropertyInfo>
- [WayBack] PSMemberInfoCollection<T> Class
- Serves as the collection of members in an
PSObject or MemberSet
- [WayBack] PSPropertyInfo Class (System.Management.Automation)
- Serves as a base class for all members that behave like properties.
- [WayBack] Difference between PSObject, Hashtable and PSCustomObject
- [WayBack] Combining Objects Efficiently – Use a Hash Table to Index a Collection of Objects
- With objects objects everywhere it may not seem apparent, but hash tables are still needed. When the PowerShell mind sets to work it can be very easy to use where and selects everywhere to get you…
- [Archive.is] Custom objects default display in PowerShell 3.0
- [WayBack] Using PSObject to store data in PowerShell | 9to5IT
- PowerShell’s PSObject is a powerful tool which is used to store, retrieve, sort and export data. Here is how to use PSObject to store data in PowerShell.
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2019/08/15
The function or command was called as if it were a method.
Parameters should be separated by spaces. For information about
parameters, see the about_Parameters Help topic.
Every now and then I bump into the above error. The reason is this:
- Functions are defined with commas between parameters and parentheses around them
- One-parameter functions can be called with one parameter surrounded by parentheses
- Multi-parameter functions need to be called with spaces between parameters and no parentheses surrounding them
Confused? #MeToo
The problem: [WayBack] about_Parameters_Default_Values | Microsoft Docs
Based on [WayBack] Powershell function won’t work.
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2019/08/14
I learned this the hard way: [WayBack] Different result when using -ReadCount with Get-Content: because -ReadCount delivers data in chunks, the filter after [WayBack] Get-Content (Microsoft.PowerShell.Management) it will only filter on those chunks. If the filter isn’t prepared for that, it might only filter the last chunk.
So do not use for instance [WayBack] Select-String (Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility) on it, but perform your own [WayBack] ForEach-Object (Microsoft.PowerShell.Core) aliased as foreach like in [WayBack] Get all lines containing a string in a huge text file – as fast as possible?:
Get-Content myfile.txt -ReadCount 1000 |
foreach { $_ -match "my_string" }
A more elaborate example is at [WayBack] How can I make this PowerShell script parse large files faster?.
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2019/08/13
[WayBack] In Powershell, what kind of data type is [string[]] and when would you use it? (thanks cignul9 and arco444!): basically it forces an array of string.
It defines an array of strings. Consider the following ways of initialising an array:
[PS] > [string[]]$s1 = "foo","bar","one","two",3,4
[PS] > $s2 = "foo","bar","one","two",3,4
[PS] > $s1.gettype()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True String[] System.Array
[PS] > $s2.gettype()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True Object[] System.Array
By default, a powershell array is an array of objects that it will cast to a particular type if necessary. Look at how it’s decided what types the 5th element of each of these are:
[PS] > $s1[4].gettype()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True String System.Object
[PS] > $s2[4].gettype()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True Int32 System.ValueType
[PS] > $s1[4]
3
[PS] > $s2[4]
3
The use of [string[]] when creating $s1 has meant that a raw 3 passed to the array has been converted to a String type in contrast to an Int32 when stored in an Object array.
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2019/08/01
I’ve learned the hard way that both .NET and PowerShell version information isn’t always accurate or usable for two reasons which I later found in various other blog and forum posts:
The easiest is to use these numbers to create a [WayBack] Version Class (System) instance using the [WayBack] Version Constructor (Int32, Int32, Int32, Int32) constructor. This has the added benefit that you directly compare versions with each other.
Sometimes it makes even sense to take the highest version from Product and File.
In PowerShell, this is the way to do that, assuming $imagePath points to a [WayBack] Portable Executable:
try {
$VersionInfo = (Get-Item $imagePath).VersionInfo
$FileVersion = [version]("{0}.{1}.{2}.{3}" -f $VersionInfo.FileMajorPart, $VersionInfo.FileMinorPart, $VersionInfo.FileBuildPart, $VersionInfo.FilePrivatePart)
$ProductVersion = [version]("{0}.{1}.{2}.{3}" -f $VersionInfo.ProductMajorPart, $VersionInfo.ProductMinorPart, $VersionInfo.ProductBuildPart, $VersionInfo.ProductPrivatePart)
$ActualVersion = $(if ($ProductVersion -gt $FileVersion) { $ProductVersion } else { $FileVersion })
}
catch {
$ActualVersion = [version]("0.0.0.0")
}
Background information:
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/31
I like this built-in construct by fbehrens most:
$result = If ($condition) {"true"} Else {"false"}
Everything else is incidental complexity and thus to be avoided.
For use in or as an expression, not just an assignment, wrap it in $(), thus:
write-host $(If ($condition) {"true"} Else {"false"})
There are even more elegant constructs, but those require setting up an alias before using them.
Source: [WayBack] Ternary operator in PowerShell – Stack Overflow
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2019/07/30
Cool tip by mjolinor to execute the scripts 1.ps1, 2.ps1 and 3.ps1 from a master.ps1 script in the same directory:
&"$PSScriptroot\1.ps1"
&"$PSScriptroot\2.ps1"
&"$PSScriptroot\3.ps1"
Source: [WayBack] scripting – Run Multiple Powershell Scripts Sequentially – on a Folder – Combine Scripts into a Master Script – Stack Overflow.
It uses $PSScriptroot which got introduced in PowerShell 2 in modules and extended in PowerShell 3 to be available in all scripts. More information in [WayBack] about_Automatic_Variables | Microsoft Docs
–jeroen
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