Articles from March 2013 on PowerShell.org - Welcome Automaters!

CIM cmdlets

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:04:00 +0000

The CIM cmdlets are found in the CIMcmdlets module.

Get-Command -Module CimCmdlets produces this list of names. I"™ve added some information on the tasks they perform

Get-CimAssociatedInstance is for working with WMI associated classes
Get-CimClass is for discovering the properties and methods of a WMI class
Get-CimInstance is analogous to Get-WmiObject
Get-CimSession
Invoke-CimMethod is analogous to Invoke-WMIMethod
New-CimInstance can be used for creating a new WMI instance in certain circumstances
New-CimSession
New-CimSessionOption
Register-CimIndicationEvent is analogous to Register-WMIEvent
Remove-CimInstance is analogous to Remove-WMIObject
Remove-CimSession
Set-CimInstance is analogous to Set-WMIInstance

The CIM session cmdlets are for working with the CIm sessions which are analogous to PowerShell remoting sessions but are used by the CIM cmdlets AND the new WMI based cmdlets in Windows 8/2012 such as the networking cmdlets

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WMI vs CIM

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:03:24 +0000

An email debate yesterday regarding the use of the CIM cmdlets (new in PowerShell 3) vs the WMI cmdlets made me realise that other people are probably wondering the same thing,

The question is really part of a the semi-philosophical debate about when you should adopt new technology.

In the case of the WMI/CIM cmdlets the resolution is fairly straightforward.

If you are using PowerShell v2 you have to use the WMI cmdlets.

If you are using PowerShell v3 ““ even if you are accessing legacy systems I would recommend the CIM cmdlets. There are a number of benefits to using the CIM cmdlets:

use of WSMAN for remote access ““ no more DCOM error. You can drop back to DCOM for accessing systems with WSMAN 2 installed
use of CIM sessions for accessing multiple machines
Get-CIMClass for investigating WMI classes
improved way of dealing with WMI associations

As far as I am aware the only thing the CIM cmdlets can”™t do is access amended qualifiers such as the class description. Seeing that many classes don”™t that set it"™s not a major hardship.

Now that I"™ve recommended you should use them I"™d better show you how ““ that will cover a mini-series of posts over the next few days

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UK PowerShell group session postponement

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:52:43 +0000

I"™m postponing the 26 March session on PowerShell and Hyper-V until 9 April. Invites will go out shortly

PowerShell 3 SDK samples

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:49:18 +0000

A sample pack for the SDK is now available - see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2013/03/17/windows-powershell-3-0-sample-pack.aspx

Network Adapters"“Disable/Enable

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:09:06 +0000

Last time we saw the Get-NetAdapter cmdlet from the NetAdapter module

PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a

Name InterfaceDescription Status —- ——————– —— Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Up

If you look in the module you also find Disable-NetAdapter & Enable-NetAdapter

PS> Disable-NetAdapter -Name Wifi -Confirm:$false
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a

Name InterfaceDescription Status —- ——————– —— Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Disabled

PS> Enable-NetAdapter -Name Wifi -Confirm:$false
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a

Name InterfaceDescription Status —- ——————– —— Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Up

You can also enable/disable based on an Input Object, the alias (-ifalias) or the description (-InterfaceDescription)

PS> Get-NetAdapter -Name Wifi | Disable-NetAdapter -Confirm:$false
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a

Name InterfaceDescription Status —- ——————– —— Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Disabled

PS> Get-NetAdapter -Name Wifi | Enable-NetAdapter -Confirm:$false
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a

Name InterfaceDescription Status —- ——————– —— Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Up

What"™s the alias?

PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, ifAlias, InterfaceAlias -a

Name InterfaceDescription ifAlias InterfaceAlias —- ——————– ——- ————– Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Ethernet Ethernet WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter WiFi WiFi

If you want to use these cmdlets against remote machines you can run them through a CIMsession

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PhillyPoSH 03/07/2013 meeting summary and presentation materials

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:06:50 +0000

John Mello gave a brief overview of the history of the Scripting Games and an overview of the beginner events from the 2013 Winter Scripting Camp. A copy of his presentation and 2013 Winter Scripting Camp submissions can be found here.
Lido Paglia gave an overview of the advanced events from the 2013 Winter Scripting Camp in addition to doing an in-depth review of Don Jones"™ Winter Scripting Camp Post Mortem. A copy of his 2013 Winter Scripting Camp submissions can be found here.
Various other information worth mentioning:
1. Group member Greg Martin presented a problem he ran into creating a COM object in PowerShell to hold an instance of Internet Explorer which he would then use to open a page. Stepping through the script worked fine, but running the script failed. The issue was that the object would more often than not be blank when he tried to reference it. The group offered some
  suggestions and ideas to work around the issue which later helped Greg find the root cause. A breakdown of the problem and final solution can be found on Greg"™s Blog
2. Need help making sure your script is not using aliases? Take a look at Jeff Hicks convert to Alias function!
3. Following up on Lido Paglia"™s discussion of Don Jones"™ Winter Scripting Camp Post Mortem, here is a list of approved verbs and naming conventions for PowerShell directly from Microsoft:
  1. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms714428(v=vs.85).aspx
  2. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms714395(v=vs.85).aspx
4. The PowerShell Mississippi User Group is offering a series of online meetings every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 8:30PM CST for the rest of 2013. The speaker line-up is an impressive who"™s who of PowerShell MVPs!
5. Check out the Windows 7 Resource Kit PowerShell Pack, which contains over 800 scripts in 10 different modules. For example :
  1. ISE shortcuts
  2. Task Scheduler
  3. PowerShell Image manipulation
  4. And many more!
Post Meeting announcement
1. Lido Paglia came in 2nd place in the 2013 Winter Scripting Camp! Give him a high five next time you see him!

Announcing Winter Scripting Camp Winners

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:57:07 +0000

I know, this took forever. Mea culpa. I’ve been working my shell off, and finally got around to pulling the info.

Beginner Track

Wouter Beens (4.667)
Laurel Raven (4.5)
Chris Davis (4.5)

Advanced Track

Alexander Kuzin (4.5)
Lido Paglia (4.5)
(anonymous) (4)

Those are the average scores from those entries, and in case of a tie we broke it by submission timestamp. Things will be working a bit differently in the actual Games, coming your way in April, so stay tuned. In fact, you can subscribe to a specific topic for Scripting Games announcements, if you like.

WMI Explorer

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:02:33 +0000

This is a PowerShell-based WMI Explorer tool created by Marc van Orsouw (aka //\O//). His Web site has been down for ages, but Thomas Lee was helpful enough to post a copy of this, and we’re hosting it here as a backup against further unavailability.
Download WMI Explorer

PowerShell Summit 2014 Planning Continues

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:09:16 +0000

In an effort to keep folks as fully informed as possible, I’ll periodically share information about the Summit for next year. In this update, I want to explain how we’re hoping to address some of the issues (all good ones, actually) that we’ve experienced with the 2013 event.

First, the 2013 event sold out fast. We have a fire code limit of about 100 people and we hit it quickly - and our wait list ballooned to almost as many people. The moral of that story is that (a) we need more space and (b) people gotta sign up quicker if they want a spot! This is like grabbing those U2 tickets - camp out overnight and snap ’em up. So we’re hoping to be in the Microsoft Conference Center (MSCC) on campus, which should allow us around 250 attendees in 2014. We can’t book that space until about a year out, we’re told, but once we can start booking we will announce it here. Our 2013 alumni will get first dibs, and we’ll have about 25 early bird tickets to sell. We expect pricing to be about $700 for those, and about $850 for full-price tickets, plus about $40-$50 in ticketing fees (which covers credit card merchant fees and the ticketing company fee).
Second, we will offer tickets as soon as we can do so. That may include an “I’m Feeling Lucky” ticket even before we know our dates (we’re still aiming for April 2014). However, due to changing regulations, we can only offer refunds for 30 days after you make your purchase, or (due to logistics) until February 1st, whichever comes first. That’s something you’ll have to take into account.
Third, we’re going to make the waitlist process a bit more automated, and give you the ability to use the waitlist to sell your ticket to someone else if you change your mind about attending. People will be able to waitlist on PowerShell.org, and prospective ticket-sellers will be able to offer tickets to that list. You’re on your own for completing the transaction (we suggest PayPal), and you simply notify us of the transfer once it’s complete.
Fourth, in case the question of recording the sessions comes up again, here’s the deal. It’s expensive. We’ve looked into it, and we’ll need about $8,000 in equipment, which is a one-time expense that will let us record sessions with a minimum of on-site labor. So we’re going to launch an IndieGoGo campaign in late 2013 to try and raise that money. Contributors will receive (depending on the amount they contribute) access to all future Summit recordings, a discount on Summit recordings for 2014, or full access to the 2014 recordings. If we don’t meet our goal, we won’t record, and everyone gets their money back. If we do meet our goal, only contributors will get access to the 2014 videos. However, in subsequent years we will sell (for a nominal fee) access to the videos to the public - that’ll happen after the Summit is over. In years where the Summit sells out, we’ll put the videos online for free (unless we need to recoup labor costs, in which case there might still be a nominal fee). This is the fair-est approach we could come up with that balances our need to have a successful on-site event (without the paying attendees, we can’t do this thing at all) and to accommodate the needs of folks who can’t possibly attend.
Fifth, we still have no word on any events outside the US, and probably will not. We are simply not pursuing it at this time. It gets very complicated when a US business starts doing events in other countries, and we don’t have the manpower or resources to tackle that right now. Several folks have expressed an interest in spearheading various non-US versions of the Summit, and most of those are going nowhere. One problem is that, in Europe, nobody appears interested in a “Euro Summit;” they all want one in their own country, which makes the whole endeavor financially risky and exponentially more complicated. There’s a huge concern that if we do one in (say) Barcelona, nobody from outside that area will even come. Another problem is that the Summit involves an insane amount of work - personally, I’ve spent hundreds of hours on this and I know Kirk has as well, along with Jason, Jeff, and Richard, the Scripting Wife, and a few more volunteers. It’s a lot of work, and thus far we haven’t seen anyone outside the US willing to take it on. Keep in mind that we all still need to have our full-time jobs to pay for silly things like groceries and electricity; we can’t afford to take out much more volunteer time.
Sixth, the 2014 Summit will look much like the 2013 Summit in terms of content: about three dozen sessions in one-hour blocks, with about 45 minutes per session (including Q&A time). We’ll feed you breakfast and lunch. We are going to book out a block of rooms at a nearby hotel, and will run a shuttle bus to and from that hotel (only!) and the Summit venue. That should help lower travel costs by reducing the need for a rental car. We are not going to be able to hold enough rooms for all 200-250 attendees (when you hold a room, you pay for it whether it gets used or not, so the financial risk there is huge). We are hoping to block about 60 rooms - so it’ll become important to book early. Once that block is sold, you’re on your own - although the same hotel may well have rooms at their normal rate, which is what we’re hoping will happen.
Seventh, communications with registered attendees has been a huge PITA, mainly because some providers - like ForeFront Online Protection (FOLP) have a global block against EventBrite, our ticket company. Yeah, awesome. So for 2014 we’re going to use THIS blog category and our [Twitter feed][2] to “push” communications. We’ll still attempt to use email, but it’s just not reliable in this age of ultra-spam-blocking. So if you register, it will be your responsibility to check for updated information. After all, you’re supposed to be the big, smart IT professional, so you should be able to figure out how to do that .
I’ll continue posting updates as information is available, and we hope you’ll start talking to the boss about the 2014 show. The 2013 show is sold out. As of right now, we are no longer to able process refunds for existing attendees, so we’re no longer processing the 2013 wait list. That means it’s time to start looking at the 2014 show.
Any questions, drop ’em in the comments!
Thanks!
Don

Network adapters

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:24:52 +0000

The WMI classes Win32_NetworkAdapter and Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration have seen a lot of use over the years. They can be a bit fiddly to use which is why the NetAdapter module in Windows 8/2012 is a so welcome.

Lets start by looking at basic information gathering

PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft -a

Name InterfaceDescription ifIndex Status MacAddress LinkSpeed —- ——————– ——- —— ———- ——— Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet 13 Up 00-1F-16-63-F5-DF 100 Mbps WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter 12 Up 00-24-2B-2F-9C-A5 54 Mbps

We get the Name & description, status, MAC address and link speed as the default display. Contrast with Win32_NetworkAdapter for the same two interfaces

ServiceName : athr MACAddress : 00:24:2B:2F:9C:A5 AdapterType : Ethernet 802.3 DeviceID : 10 Name : Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter NetworkAddresses : Speed : 54000000

ServiceName : NVNET MACAddress : 00:1F:16:63:F5:DF AdapterType : Ethernet 802.3 DeviceID : 11 Name : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet NetworkAddresses : Speed : 100000000

Notice the ifIndex from Get-NetAdapter & DeviceId from Win32_NetworkAdapter. Two different numbers to identify the device.

What else can Get-NetAdapter tell us:

PS> Get-NetAdapter -Name Ethernet | fl *

ifAlias : Ethernet InterfaceAlias : Ethernet ifIndex : 13 ifDesc : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet ifName : Ethernet_7 DriverVersion : 73.3.0.0 LinkLayerAddress : 00-1F-16-63-F5-DF MacAddress : 00-1F-16-63-F5-DF Status : Up **LinkSpeed : 100 Mbps MediaType : 802.3 PhysicalMediaType : 802.3 AdminStatus : Up MediaConnectionState : Connected **DriverInformation : Driver Date 2010-03-04 Version 73.3.0.0 NDIS 6.20 DriverFileName : nvmf6232.sys NdisVersion : 6.20 ifOperStatus : Up Caption : Description : ElementName : InstanceID : {188C370D-AD90-46F3-8AD2-0C10AFB6490C} CommunicationStatus : DetailedStatus : HealthState : InstallDate : Name : Ethernet OperatingStatus : OperationalStatus : PrimaryStatus : StatusDescriptions : AvailableRequestedStates : EnabledDefault : 2 EnabledState
: 5 OtherEnabledState : RequestedState : 12 TimeOfLastStateChange : TransitioningToState : 12 AdditionalAvailability : Availability : CreationClassName : MSFT_NetAdapter DeviceID : {188C370D-AD90-46F3-8AD2-0C10AFB6490C} ErrorCleared : ErrorDescription : IdentifyingDescriptions : LastErrorCode : MaxQuiesceTime : OtherIdentifyingInfo : PowerManagementCapabilities : PowerManagementSupported : PowerOnHours : StatusInfo : SystemCreationClassName : CIM_NetworkPort SystemName : RSLAPTOP01 TotalPowerOnHours : MaxSpeed : OtherPortType : PortType : RequestedSpeed : Speed : 100000000 UsageRestriction : ActiveMaximumTransmissionUnit : 1500 AutoSense : FullDuplex : True LinkTechnology : NetworkAddresses : {001F1663F5DF} OtherLinkTechnology : OtherNetworkPortType : PermanentAddress : 001F1663F5DF PortNumber : 0 Support edMaximumTransmissionUnit : AdminLocked : False ComponentID : pci\ven_10de&dev_0760 ConnectorPresent : True DeviceName : \Device{188C370D-AD90-46F3-8AD2-0C10AFB6490C} DeviceWakeUpEnable : False DriverDate : 2010-03-04 DriverDateData : 129121344000000000 DriverDescription : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet DriverMajorNdisVersion : 6 DriverMinorNdisVersion : 20 DriverName : \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvmf6232.sys DriverProvider : NVIDIA DriverVersionString : 73.3.0.0 EndPointInterface : False **HardwareInterface : True **Hidden : False HigherLayerInterfaceIndices : {26} IMFilter : False InterfaceAdminStatus : 1 InterfaceDescription : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet InterfaceGuid : {188C370D-AD90-46F3-8AD2-0C10AFB6490C} InterfaceIndex : 13 InterfaceName : Ethernet_7 InterfaceOperationalStatus : 1 InterfaceType : 6 iSCSIInterface : False LowerLayerInterfaceIndices : MajorDriverVersion : 73 MediaConnectState : 1 MediaDuplexState : 2 MinorDriverVersion : 30 **MtuSize : 1500 **NdisMedium : 0 NdisPhysicalMedium : 14 NetLuid &n bsp; : 1688849977704448 NetLuidIndex : 7 NotUserRemovable : False OperationalStatusDownDefaultPortNotAuthenticated : False OperationalStatusDownInterfacePaused : False OperationalStatusDownLowPowerState : False OperationalStatusDownMediaDisconnected : False PnPDeviceID : PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0760&SUBSYS_360A103C&REV_A2\3&2411E6FE&0&50 **PromiscuousMode : False **ReceiveLinkSpeed : 100000000 State : 2 TransmitLinkSpeed : 100000000 Virtual : False VlanID : WdmInterface : False PSComputerName : **CimClass : ROOT/StandardCimv2:MSFT_NetAdapter **CimInstanceProperties : {Caption, Description, ElementName, InstanceID…} CimSystemProperties : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties

Notice the CimClass property ROOT/StandardCimv2:MSFT_NetAdapter – this is one of the new WMI classes introduced in Windows 8. Does this class have any methods?

Get-CimClass -Namespace ROOT/StandardCimv2 -ClassName MSFT_NetAdapter | select -ExpandProperty CimClassMethods

Name
—-
RequestStateChange
SetPowerState
Reset
EnableDevice
OnlineDevice
QuiesceDevice
SaveProperties
RestoreProperties
Enable
Disable
Restart
Lock
Unlock
Rename

These will be investigated in other posts ““ maybe we get cmdlets to work with these as well

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Windows 8 Kindle app

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:22:50 +0000

Amazon have released an update for the Windows 8 Kindle app that appears to have resolved the corrupted display issue that occurred after every few pages of reading.

I would recommend updating the app immediately. The app now seems to be usable.