We're logging network drive mappings to a log file on our laptops. And I wanna make a script that takes these log files and maps the logged drives for the user.
Example log script:
K: -> \\server01\folder
Y: -> \\server02\publicfolder
I already have a partial script, but it looks like it doesn't work.
$logfile | foreach {
$log = $_ -split ' -> '
# Write-Host $log[0]
# Write-Host $log[1]
$Networkpath = $log[1]
$DriveLetter = $log[0] -replace ":*",""
New-PSDrive -Name `"$($DriveLetter)`" -PSProvider FileSystem -Root `"$($Networkpath)`" -Persist -Scope Global
}
When I run the above script, I'm getting errors "New-PSDrive : When you use the Persist parameter, the root must be a file system location on a remote computer.".
I'm assuming that this is because the quotes around the $DriveLetter and $Networkpath variables aren't handled correctly.
But I'm not sure how to do it properly. Been trying multiple solutions from Google, but none seem to work :(
Related
So, I'm using Desktop Central to run some scripts on a bunch of machines. The script is supposed to open a zip file in the c:\users%USERNAME%\ folder, and decompress it to a folder of my choosing. The idea is to use a single script for many machines, that can leverage the c:\users\LOGGEDONUSER\downloads folder (Default TEAMS download dir). The idea is that each user will download the archive from teams, and a script will decompress and install from each users DOWNLOADS folder.
The issue is that I don't seem to know how to write a script uses a variable representing the username of the logged in user for the -path in my argument.
For instance;
Extract file
Expand-archive -path $home\Downloads\SWANDPDM_SP5.1.zip -DestinationPath C:\temp\swpdminstaller\extracted\ -Force
#Define registry values to modify to allow for no UAC
$RegistryPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System'
$Name = 'ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin'
$Value = '0'
#Run reg change
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryPath -Name $Name -Value $Value -PropertyType DWORD -Force
#Run installer
Invoke-Item C:\temp\swpdminstaller\extracted\SOLIDWORKS_AND_PDM_2021_SP5.1\startswinstall.exe
#Define reg values to change back to default
$RegistryPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System'
$Name = 'ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin'
$Value = '5'
#Run reg change
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryPath -Name $Name -Value $Value -PropertyType DWORD -Force
This works great if I copy the script to the machine manually, and launch the script as a user. It looks at $home and figures out the correct directory based on whomever is logged in.
However, when it runs as Desktop Central, $home doesn't mean the same location. It comes back with this;
Expand-archive : The path 'C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Downloads\SWANDPDM_SP5.1.zip' either does not
exist or is not a valid file system path.
At C:\Program Files (x86)\DesktopCentral_Agent\Computer\startup\76507\SWandPDMdecomInstall.ps1:2 char:1
+ Expand-archive -path $home\Downloads\SWANDPDM_SP5.1.zip -DestinationP ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (C:\Windows\syst...NDPDM_SP5.1.zip:String) [Expand-Archive], InvalidOpe
rationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ArchiveCmdletPathNotFound,Expand-Archive
I tried using various env variables with no luck. It seems like because it's a "Desktop central" account that's running the script remotely, I can't get it to point to the correct folder in c:\users\NAMEOFLOGGEDINUSER\
So, it thinks $home = 'C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\ instead of c:\users\NAMEOFLOGGEDINUSER\
Is there a way that I can get the username of the current logged on user, assign it to a variable, and then use that variable instead of $home? Keep in mind, it needs to find the logged in user while running the script as the Desktop Central service account. I've tried running the script as various domain admins\system accounts with no luck.
I thought about doing a whoami, writing to a text file, then omitting the domain portion of the output and assigning it to a variable, but there's got to be a better way.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
EDIT: Thought I was on to something, but it didn't work. I tried;
Expand-archive -path $env:HOMEPATH\Downloads\SWANDPDM_SP5.1.zip -DestinationPath C:\temp\swpdminstaller\extracted\ -Force
I see from the comments that you found a workaround. But to answer your original question, you can't get the logged in username from the usual Powershell techniques ($env:USERNAME, whoami, etc.) when you're running the script under a different security context.
But you can check who owns the Explorer.exe process:
$User = (Get-CimInstance Win32_Process -Filter "name = 'explorer.exe'" |
Invoke-CimMethod -MethodName GetOwner).User
The "Desktop central" user will probably not have Explorer running. However, if there are multiple users logged in via RDP sessions this will return an array.
I have been given the task to write a PS script that will, from a list of machines in a text file:
Output the IP address of the machine
Get the version of the SCCM client on the machine
Produce a GPResult HTMl file
OR
Indicate that the machine is offline
With a final stipulation of running the script in the background (Job)
I have the scriptblock that will do all of these things, and even have the output formatted like I want. What I cannot seem to do, is get the scriptblock to call the source file from within the same directory as the script. I realize that I could simply hard-code the directories, but I want to be able to run this on any machine, in any directory, as I will need to use the script in multiple locations.
Any suggestions?
Code is as follows (Note: I am in the middle of trying stuff I gathered from other articles, so it has a fragment or two in it [most recent attempt was to specify working directory], but the core code is still there. I also had the idea to declare the scriptblock first, like you do with variables in other programming languages, but more for readability than anything else):
# List of commands to process in job
$ScrptBlk = {
param($wrkngdir)
Get-Content Hostnames.txt | ForEach-Object {
# Check to see if Host is online
IF ( Test-Connection $_ -count 1 -Quiet) {
# Get IP address, extracting only IP value
$addr = (test-connection $_ -count 1).IPV4Address
# Get SCCM version
$sccm = (Get-WmiObject -NameSpace Root\CCM -Class Sms_Client).ClientVersion
# Generate GPResult HTML file
Get-GPResultantSetOfPolicy -computer $_.name -reporttype HTML -path ".\GPRes\$_ GPResults.html"}
ELSE {
$addr = "Offline"
$sccm = " "}
$tbl = New-Object psobject -Property #{
Computername = $_
IPV4Address = $addr
SCCM_Version = $sccm}}}
# Create (or clear) output file
Echo "" > OnlineCheckResults.txt
# Create subdirectory, if it does not exist
IF (-Not (Get-Item .\GPRes)) { New-Item -ItemType dir ".\GPRes" }
# Get current working directory
$wrkngdir = $PSScriptRoot
# Execute script
Start-Job -name "OnlineCheck" -ScriptBlock $ScrptBlk -ArgumentList $wrkngdir
# Let job run
Wait-Job OnlineCheck
# Get results of job
$results = Receive-Job OnlineCheck
# Output results to file
$results >> OnlineCheckResults.txt | FT Computername,IPV4Address,SCCM_Version
I appreciate any help you may have to offer.
Cheers.
~DavidM~
EDIT
Thanks for all the help. Setting the working directory works, but I am now getting a new error. It has no line reference, so I am not sure where the problem might be. New code below. I have moved the sriptblock to the bottom, so it is separate from the rest of the code. I thought that might be a bit tidier. I do apologize for my earlier code formatting. I will attempt to do better with the new example.
# Store working directory
$getwkdir = $PWD.Path
# Create (or clear) output file
Write-Output "" > OnlineCheckResults.txt
# Create subdirectory, if it does not exist. Delete and recreate if it does
IF (Get-Item .\GPRes) {
Remove-Item -ItemType dir "GPRes"
New-Item -ItemType dir "GPRes"}
ELSE{
New-Item -ItemType dir "GPRes"}
# Start the job
Start-Job -name "OnlineCheck" -ScriptBlock $ScrptBlk -ArgumentList $getwkdir
# Let job run
Wait-Job OnlineCheck
# Get results of job
$results = Receive-Job OnlineCheck
# Output results to file
$results >> OnlineCheckResults.txt | FT Computername,IPV4Address,SCCM_Version
$ScrptBlk = {
param($wrkngdir)
Set-Location $wrkngdir
Get-Content Hostnames.txt | ForEach-Object {
IF ( Test-Connection $_ -count 1 -Quiet) {
# Get IP address, extracting only IP value
$addr = (test-connection $_ -count 1).IPV4Address
# Get SCCM version
$sccm = (Get-WmiObject -NameSpace Root\CCM -Class Sms_Client).ClientVersion
Get-GPResultantSetOfPolicy -computer $_.name -reporttype HTML -path ".\GPRes\$_ GPResults.html"}
ELSE {
$addr = "Offline"
$sccm = " "}
$tbl = New-Object psobject -Property #{
Computername = $_
IPV4Address = $addr
SCCM_Version = $sccm}}}
Error text:
Cannot validate argument on parameter 'ComputerName'. The argument is null or empty. Provide an argument that
is not null or empty, and then try the command again.
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Test-Connection], ParameterBindingValidationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.TestConnectionCommand
+ PSComputerName : localhost
As Theo observes, you're on the right track by trying to pass the desired working directory to the script block via -ArgumentList $wrkngdir, but you're then not using that argument inside your script block.
All it takes is to use Set-Location at the start of your script block to switch to the working directory that was passed:
$ScrptBlk = {
param($wrkngdir)
# Change to the specified working dir.
Set-Location $wrkngdir
# ... Get-Content Hostnames.txt | ...
}
# Start the job and pass the directory in which this script is located as the working dir.
Start-Job -name "OnlineCheck" -ScriptBlock $ScrptBlk -ArgumentList $PSScriptRoot
In PSv3+, you can simplify the solution by using the $using: scope, which allows you to reference variables in the caller's scope directly; here's a simplified example, which you can run directly from the prompt (I'm using $PWD as the desired working dir., because $PSScriptRoot isn't defined at the prompt (in the global scope)):
Start-Job -ScriptBlock { Set-Location $using:PWD; Get-Location } |
Receive-Job -Wait -AutoRemove
If you invoke the above command from, say, C:\tmp, the output will reflect that path too, proving that the background job ran in the same working directory as the caller.
Working directories in PowerShell background jobs:
Before PowerShell 7.0, starting background jobs with Start-Job uses the directory returned by [environment]::GetFolderPath('MyDocuments') as the initial working directory, which on Windows is typically $HOME\Documents, whereas it is just $HOME on Unix-like platforms (in PowerShell Core).
Setting the working dir. for the background job via Start-Job's -InitializationScript script-block argument via a $using: reference - e.g., Start-Job -InitializationScript { $using:PWD } { ... } should work, but doesn't in Windows PowerShell v5.1 / PowerShell [Core] 6.x, due to a bug (the bug is still present in PowerShell 7.0, but there you can use -WorkingDirectory).
In PowerShell (Core) 7+, Start-Job now sensibly defaults to the caller's working directory and also supports a -WorkingDirectory parameter to simplify specifying a working directory.
In PowerShell (Core) 6+ you can alternatively start background jobs with a post-positional & - the same way that POSIX-like shells such as bash do - in which case the caller's working directory is inherited; e.g.:
# PS Core only:
# Outputs the caller's working dir., proving that the background job
# inherited the caller's working dir.
(Get-Location &) | Receive-Job -Wait -AutoRemove
If I understand correctly, I think that the issue you are having is because the working directory path is different inside the execution of the Script Block. This commonly happens when you execute scripts from Scheduled tasks or pass scripts to powershell.exe
To prove this, let's do a simple PowerShell code:
#Change current directory to the root of C: illustrate what's going on
cd C:\
Get-Location
Path
----
C:\
#Execute Script Block
$ScriptBlock = { Get-Location }
$Job = Start-Job -ScriptBlock $ScriptBlock
Receive-Job $Job
Path
----
C:\Users\HAL9256\Documents
As you can see the current path inside the execution of the script block is different than where you executed it. I have also seen inside of Scheduled tasks, paths like C:\Windows\System32 .
Since you are trying to reference everything by relative paths inside the script block, it won't find anything. One solution is to use the passed parameter to change your working directory to something known first.
Also, I would use $PWD.Path to get the current working directory instead of $PSScriptRoot as $PSScriptRoot is empty if you run the code from the console.
Hoping this will be an easy one for somebody, but I just don't have the experience. I'm pulling the mapped network drive info from a PC. I'm testing the path to make sure it's active and that the person still has access. The test works fine. Here's my issue...
If the test is $true, I want it to output a line of code to a new .ps1 file for remapping the drive. I think I'm just about there, but I can't wrap my head around outputting a line of code and not the output of the line. Thanks for any help!
foreach ($Drive IN $Drives)
{
$MND = $Network.OpenSubKey("$Drive")
$Share = $MND.GetValue("RemotePath")
$Path = Test-Path "$Share\*"
IF ($Path -eq $true)
{
$ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue"
Stop-Transcript | out-null
$ErrorActionPreference = "Continue"
Start-Transcript -path C:\output.ps1 -append
"New-PSDrive -Name "$Drive" -PSProvider FileSystem -Root "$Share" -Persist"
Stop-Transcript
}
}
Per your comment, you probably don't want to be using Start-Transcript (as you'd get a lot of header content that you don't want), but rather something that outputs to a file like Out-File -Append or Add-Content.
You also need to remove the internal double quotes which are likely unnecessary (or you could replace them with single quotes):
"New-PSDrive -Name $Drive -PSProvider FileSystem -Root $Share -Persist" | Add-Content c:\output.ps1
It's worth also checking you have rights to write files to the root of C:\, this is blocked by default for non-admins in later versions of Windows.
I'm interested in adding a property to my files under a certain scope that contains their current locations in my file system, in order to track file movement. I would think that this could be done with New-ItemProperty, with a command similar to the following:
Get-ChildItem -recurse | foreach { New-ItemProperty -Path $.FullName -Name "OriginalLocation" -PropertyType string -Value $.FullName }
However, when I try this, I'm spammed with the following error:
New-ItemProperty : Cannot use interface. The IDynamicPropertyCmdletProvider interface is not implemented by this provider.
After some searching, it appears that New-ItemProperty is all but useless except for working with the registry. Fine. Windows has myriad other file properties I should be able to hijack in order to get this done. "Label" and "Tags" come to mind. So let's try setting those via Set-ItemProperty instead.
Set-ItemProperty : Property System.String Label=D:\test\file.txt does not exist.
It appears I need to create these properties after all. Is this a shortcoming of New-ItemProperty? Maybe setting properties such as this on arbitrary items is some WMI thing I don't know about?
Here is my solution using the redirections ('<' & '>') that allow to manipulate alternate data stream in CMD.EXE. It works in Powershell without any extentions
# AlternateDataStream.ps1
$scriptBlockSetStream = {cmd /C `"echo $($Args[0])`>$($Args[1]):$($Args[2])`"}
$scriptBlockGetStream = {cmd /C `"more `<$($Args[0]):$($Args[1])`"}
$streamName = "NativeFilePath"
$File = "C:\Temp\ADSTest\toto.txt"
$streamContent = Split-Path -Path $File -Parent
# Set the data stream
Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock $scriptBlockSetStream -ArgumentList $streamContent,$File,$streamName
# Get the Data Stream
$res = Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock $scriptBlockGetStream -ArgumentList $File,$streamName
$res
Another option might be to use alternate data streams to store your path. If you are running PowerShell 3.0, you can manipulate them quite easily. Based on the first article, you would have something resembling:
"echo test" | out-file c:\powershell\test.ps1
$fs = new NTFS.FileStreams('c:\powershell\test.ps1')
$fs.add('OriginalPath')
$stream = $fs.Item('OriginalPath').open()
$sw = [System.IO.streamwriter]$stream
$sw.writeline('<path>')
$sw.close()
$stream.close()
I would like to open a txt.File from a sharedFolder with Powershell. The problem is, that it has to run whether an user is logged on or not. I'm looking for something like net-use.
The Program should also check, whether the psDrive exists or not.
Is it possible if I do that like this?
new-psdrive -name Z -psprovider FileSystem -root \\vcs.view
It works like that:
I map and then I check whether the file exists:
#mapping
try
{
new-psdrive -name Z -psprovider FileSystem -root $ShareFolder
}
catch
{
echo "WriteMessageTOAdmin ERROR!!"
exit
}
$folderPath = "Z:\users.txt"
if(!(test-Path -path $folderPath))
{
echo "WriteMessageTOAdmin ERROR!!"
exit
}
You don't need to map a network share to open a file on a network share:
Get-Content \\server\sharename\foo.txt
Works just fine as does using Test-Path on a UNC path e.g.
Test-Path \\server\sharename\foo.txt
Is there a reason you need to map the share to a local drive?