May, 2009

A long time ago, even before any of the Scripting Guys were born, people used to walk from one place to another. Not for exercise or recreation, but because they had to get somewhere. Those who were fortunate enough to have other forms of transportation...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have several items I have to check daily on my SQL 2008 servers. I currently have some VBScripts that do many of my tasks, but there are some new things I want to do. I figure that Windows PowerShell would be easier. Do you have...

Hey, Scripting Guy! One thing I do not understand is why the SQL Server team wrote its own version of Windows PowerShell. I thought Windows PowerShell was supposed to standardize things. But the SQL Server team has one version of Windows PowerShell, the...

It is time once again for the annual Scripting Games. This year, we are implementing some changes. The first change, which will be immediately obvious to even the most casual observer, is that we are doing the Summer Scripting Games instead of having...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am a SQL database administrator, and in the past I have enjoyed using VBScript for many tasks related to my computers that are running SQL Server. What capabilities does Windows PowerShell provide to make working with SQL Server...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I recently saw that SQL Server 2008 has Windows PowerShell built into it. I looked at, but I am not really impressed. Why should I be interested in using Windows PowerShell with SQL Server 2008? - JJ Hi JJ, For some unknown...

How Can I Determine if a Particular Windows Feature Is Installed? Hey, Scripting Guy! I am new to Windows PowerShell scripting and have a little experience with WMI thanks to your Windows PowerShell Scriptomatic tool. I'm trying to determine whether...

Hey, Scripting Guy! The Win32_Printer WMI class has several methods that are listed in it. But I am not sure how to best use these methods from inside a Windows PowerShell script. I do not want to create four different scripts to send a test page, clean...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Well it finally happened. Our budget request for new printers was approved. We have gotten them unboxed, distributed, and hooked up to the LAN. We have even downloaded the latest drivers from the Internet, and updated the firmware...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am trying to determine how to use WMI to add a printer connection by using Windows PowerShell. I have found this script , but it uses VBScript and not WMI. This means that it is not very close at all, I am afraid. Do you have a WMI...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am tasked with the problem of documenting printer use on our client workstations. I must be able to determine whether someone prints directly to a printer, or if they are printing through our print servers. This is important because...

Troubleshooting a Script Written in VBScript Hey, Scripting Guy! I am writing a Visual Basic script which runs a command-line installation of Exchange 2007. However as soon as the installation starts in a separate DOS window, the script goes to the next...

Hey, Scripting Guy! The week of April 17, 2009 , you did a weeklong series of “Hey, Scripting Guy!” articles on regular expressions. I tried to change one of your scripts to open an office Word document that uses Windows PowerShell to look for a particular...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I was looking through the Office Space Archive and came across a nice article that talks about how to create a table in Office Word . The article is interesting, but I am more interested in how to do this by using Windows PowerShell...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I enjoyed talking to you yesterday at TechEd. Unfortunately, I did not think about this until I came back to my hotel room and read your "Hey, Scripting Guy!" column. It seems to me that you spent much time saying there was not much...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am trying to learn Windows PowerShell. I have a script that creates a Word document that has a series of hyperlinks in it. I want to be able to write that script in Windows PowerShell, but I am not sure where I should begin. As far...

How Can I List All Servers in a Domain That Have DHCP Installed? Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I quickly produce a list of all servers in the domain that have the DHCP Service installed? - SC Hi SC, On Windows Server 2008 and ater, use the WIN32_ServerFeature...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I want to evaluate a condition and select from several different options. I know I could use the If…Then…ElseI f to do this, but it is somewhat cumbersome and yesterday you said there was a better way to do these kinds of things. What...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a problem with a script I am trying to write. I have to evaluate between several conditions as they come into the script, but I do not understand the way the If statement in Windows PowerShell works. I even tried to use the...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Your article yesterday was fairly interesting. The problem is that every time that you looped through something, you needed to basically know how many times that you would loop because you needed to be able to count it. Also your analogy...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a number of tasks that I always have to do. These tasks are somewhat repetitive, and I want to be able to write a Windows PowerShell script to eliminate the repetition. Is there something I can use to help with the mind-numbing...

How Can I Get Help with Scripts I’m Writing? Hey, Scripting Guy! I am a novice scripter but am being diligent about learning more specifically around VBScript. I am following the Microsoft Press book, Windows Scripting Self-Paced Learning Guide...