July, 2009

Hey Scripting Guy! I am having a problem trying to create a CSV file from within Windows PowerShell. I thought at first I could use the Write-Host cmdlet to do this. I came up with this command: Write-Host "col1,col2,col3" >> "C:\fso\test.csv...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am not into all those fancy scripts you seem to write. I am just a basic, everyday network administrator, and I simply need to use scripts to make my job easier. Because of this, I am not interested in displaying progress bars, writing...

Hey Scripting Guy! I have several groups created in Active Directory whose membership has changed dramatically. Rather than go through a long list of users and try to manually clean up the list, I would like to just delete all the users from the group...

Hey Scripting Guy! It seems that I can never find what I need anymore. I am looking for a Windows PowerShell script that will add a user to multiple groups. The user and the group are in the same organizational unit, and I do not want to have to run the...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I would like to have my script prompt the user for information when it is run. But I would like the person running the script to be able to supply more than one piece of information when the script is run. For example, I would like...

Troubleshooting a Windows Powershell Script Hey Scripting Guy! I tried to use the script from the May 2009 TechNet Magazine article, Hey, Scripting Guy! Working with Access Databases in Windows PowerShell . But when I run it I get an error. This happens...

( Note Today’s response is taken from Ed Wilson’s book, Windows PowerShell Step by Step , which is available on Microsoft Press.) Hey, Scripting Guy! At my company, we are often called upon to create objects in Active Directory. I do not mind...

Hey Scripting Guy! I need to be able to move a group from one organizational unit to another. The problem is that our network has thousands of groups and organizational units. What I need is a way to easily find the group and the organizational unit....

Hey Scripting Guy! I am not sure why you are so excited about Windows PowerShell. It is much slower than VBScript. I am not talking about a little slow; I am talking about orders of magnitude slower. Sure it has some nice cmdlets, but the performance...

Troubleshooting a VBScript Script That Reports All Software Installed on a Computer Hey Scripting Guy! I am pretty new to use VBScript and seem to have hit a wall. I put together the script below to output a file containing all the software...

I am the script writer at my company, and I have really been enjoying your articles on Windows PowerShell. I have begun the process of converting some of our old VBScripts to Windows PowerShell, and all of my new scripts are written in Windows PowerShell...

How Can I Query a Registry Value Remotely? I have a simple question: What is the equivalent to querying the MicrosoftIE_Summary WMI class in Windows Vista? I just need to get the version of Internet Explorer. One small problem though: The Windows PowerShell...

Hey Scripting Guy! I have a script that requests user input for a computer name before connecting to a remote computer to perform a WMI query. The problem is that when our help desk people use the script, they invariably type the wrong name of the remote...

How Can I List Files and Folders with Special Characters in Their Names? Hey, Scripting Guy! First I would like to thank you for all the good humour you present me every time I need you. I’m trying to use one of your scripts to list the files and...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I would like to be able to use a named parameter when running my scripts. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that I think that it looks cool to use a named parameter. The second reason is probably just as important...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have been having problems with trying to understand functions in Windows PowerShell. I get that you use the Function keyword to create the function, but I do not know how to get information from the function back to the script. I...

I have a script that I wrote for the help desk people. It is actually a pretty cool script because it lets the user of the script type in a WMI class name, and it connects to the remote computer and retrieves all the information from the particular WMI...

Hey, Scripting Guy! You know the old commercial that goes, "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't"? Well, sometimes I want to save information from a script to a file, and sometimes I want to see it displayed to the screen. And at other times...

Hey Scripting Guy! When I used to write VBScripts, I liked the fact that I could use On Error Resume Next to handle any errors in my scripts. I have tried to find something like this in Windows PowerShell, but I have been unable to do so. Does Windows...

How Can I Migrate AutoText When I Upgrade from One Version of Microsoft Office to Another? Hey, Scripting Guy! We are in the process of converting from Office 2003 to Office 2007. Many people use AutoText and I am trying to automate the process...

Hey Scripting Guy! I have a question today that is not about writing a script so much as it is about testing the script after it is written. I know you have written the scripts for the Windows 7 Resource Kit , the Windows Server 2008 Resource Kit , and...

Script Center 101 (link takes you to the Microsoft Download Center) Scripting Guy Ed Wilson takes you on a guided tour of the new Script Center Web site, which was launched on June 11, 2009. Excuse our dust as we continue to improve the new site. ...

Hey Scripting Guy! At our company, we have a lot of Windows PowerShell scripts we use to gather information from various client computers distributed throughout the network. All of these scripts are in a single folder. Recently, several users have been...

Hey Scripting Guy! I have a script that I wrote, and I am interested in modifying it to try and make it run faster. I know I can use the Measure-Object Windows PowerShell cmdlet, but I want to run the script several times and get the average time it takes...