April, 2009

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am trying to get ready for the Summer Scripting Games. I understand they are coming up fairly soon. So I am thinking I want to compete in the beginner division this year for Windows PowerShell. I am trying to get my head around looping...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I frequently work with arrays in my scripts. The way I write scripts, I end up using Do…While…Loop frequently. I know that you like using the For…Each…Next for arrays, but to me Do…While…Loop seemed easier and more flexible. I looked...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have been using VBScript for a long time. One of my favorite language statements in VBScript is the While…Wend loop. It is easy to use and easy to understand. Is there an equivalent command in Windows PowerShell? - HS Hi HS, ...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I appreciate the command-line stuff you are showing, but to be honest, I am not interested in returning to the DOS days to administer my network. I am not a UNIX administrator-I am a Windows guy. If I wanted to do UNIX kinds of things...

In This Post How Can I Script the Download of Large Binary Files? How Do I Take Ownership of a File? How Do I Get the Time on a Computer? How Do I Increment a Number and Retain Its Format? How Can I Get...

Hey, Scripting Guy! This may not sound too exciting, but I do a lot of work with files and folders. I constantly have to create folders and files, move files, and move folders. This was easy to do by using VBScript, but nevertheless it always required...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I want to do a query for a process, and if the process is running, I want to delete that process. I know I could write a script by using WMI, but is there something native to Windows PowerShell that I can use to find and to delete...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have seen you refer to this term pipeline many times since you started writing Windows PowerShell articles. What is up with that? Why don't you just store things in a variable and then walk through the contents of the variable when...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Your Windows PowerShell articles have been real interesting, and I have been fascinated by the things you can do. But I need you to start at the beginning. It all looks real confusing to me. How about it? - TD Hi TD, You know things...

Troubleshooting a VBScript Hey, Scripting Guy! Maybe you can help me out. I have been using a script to schedule tasks to execute VBScripts on remote machines within my domain at work. I usually use this to send messages to specific users or to...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I would like to parse the firewall log on my computer and find out the kinds of packets that are going out. You know, how many Web page packets, how many DNS lookups, how many pings. That kind of stuff. I figure that I can look at...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I love the Windows Firewall. I think it is really cool. The fact that it is a low-maintenance tool is sweet, but every once in a while, I would like to look over the log files and see what is going on. In particularly, I want to know...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have this tab-delimited file that was produced by a report from an old database application. All it knows how to do is make a tab-delimited file. I hate this format, and our other applications do too. I have been opening the thing...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a folder full of text files that have user contact information. I think these files were produced by an old database backup. I have to create a phone directory from these files; I thought about trying to read each file and copy...

Troubleshooting a Script for Setting “Managed By” and “Managers Can Update Members List” Fields Hey, Scripting Guy! I have been working for a few weeks on creating a Windows PowerShell script for setting the "Managed By" field and the "Managers...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am trying to chase down a problem I have on my computer. Every so often, it just quits responding. I think it may be trying to talk to Elvis or commune with E.T. Perhaps if I point my finger and say, "E.T. gone home" in a raspy drone...

Hey, Scripting Guy! We have recently enabled additional security auditing on our network, and I do not want to increase the size of those logs due to the fact that they are already huge. I do not want to turn on circular logging because I need to keep...

Hey, Scripting Guy! We have this problem at work. I keep finding groups in Active Directory, and I do not know why they were created or by whom. I am wondering if there is some way to search Active Directory to see who created a group. Is there an owner...

Hey, Scripting Guy! When I received my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification several years ago, I remember the instructor jumping up and down and telling us that we were not doing our job if we do not check the event logs on a daily...

Troubleshooting the Application of Two WMI Classes Hey, Scripting Guy! The examples produced from the "Scriptomatic Version 2.0 by The Microsoft Scripting Guys" for the entries Win32_ServiceSpecification and Win32_ServiceControl both return error...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to be able to run a script when my computer is idle. But only when it is idle. I have looked in WMI and everywhere else and cannot find anything that will detect when the computer is idle. Can you tell me how to do it? - NM...

Hey, Scripting Guy! We are really looking at reducing our IT costs as a group and as a result are seeking out anything that is already built into the operating system that will allow us to automate things. Our company recently had some cutbacks and we...