i'm trying to use text that is inside the clipboard inside a powershell script. So what the purpose for the script, i want to be able to copy a file directory and then run the script so it uses the copied directory as a automatic destination. So my idea was to do something like this:
Copy-Item C:\Users\gif.gif -Destination "Copied Directory"
I'm very new to powershell scripting, so an explenation of what is going on would be nice but not needed. I origionlly thought that this could work but nope XD, this should have been a simple project but yeah it wasn't meant to be easy.
Copy-Item C:\Users\J.J\Documents\TouchPortal/Make_30fps_gif.bat -Destination | Get-Clipboard
Would love to get some help with this, and thank you in advance!
To complement Steven's helpful answer:
In Windows PowerShell only, you can use Get-Clipboard's -Format parameter to request clipboard data other than text.
In PowerShell [Core, v6+], this is no longer supported, and text is indeed the only data type supported by Get-Clipboard.
In Windows PowerShell, if you've used File Explorer to copy a directory to the clipboard (using the regular Copy shortcut-menu command or the Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut), you can access it as System.IO.DirectoryInfo instance by passing -Format FileDropList to Get-Clipboard.
Note: -Format FileDropList returns a collection of file-system-info objects, so as to also support multiple files/directories having been copied to the clipboard; thanks to member-access enumeration, however, you can treat this collection like a single object - assuming truly only one file or directory was copied.
# Note: Windows PowerShell only.
# The .FullName property returns the full directory path.
Copy-Item C:\Users\gif.gif -Destination (Get-Clipboard -Format FileDropList).FullName
In PowerShell [Core, v6+] you'll indeed have to use the Shift+right-click method and select Copy as path from the shortcut menu, in order to ensure that a file/directory is copied as a (double-quoted, full) path string, as shown in Steven's answer.
In PowerShell core including versions 6 & 7 Get-Clipboard only works with text. If you use it after copying a folder it will return null.
In PowerShell 5.1 (Windows PowerShell) you can use the -Format parameter with Get-Clipboard
See mklement0's answer for a better description and example using -Format.
If you need to use the newer versions, you can use the shift + context menu choice > Copy as Path to get the folder's string path on to the clipboard, but that will quote the path. The quoted path will then be rejected by Copy-Item.
However, you could quickly replace the quotes like below.
Copy-Item 'C:\temp\BaseFile.txt' -Destination (Get-Clipboard).Replace('"',"")
Caution though, this seems hazardous and I wouldn't advise it. I use Get-Clipboard all the time to get data into a console session and can attest that it's too easy to make mistakes. The clipboard is so transient and it's use so ubiquitous that even if you make this work it's bound to burn you at some point.
Maybe you can elaborate on what you're trying to do and why. Then we can brainstorm the best approach.
Related
I have this function:
function traced()
{
write-host "$args"
invoke-expression -Command "$args"
}
and I use it in several places like traced cp "$($_.FullName)" (join-path $directory $newfile) so that I have a log of all of the places that get copied (or removed, or whatever)
But when the directory contains spaces and dashes, it results in invoke-expression throwing.
I guess I could just define traced-cp and traced-rm, but if I have a lot of functions I want to trace, what's the generic answer? I just want a function that prints, then evaluates, the exact command its given. From what I understand, the & operator isn't what I want here-- It won't work for shell builtins.
[...] so that I have a log of all of the places that get copied (or removed, or whatever)
I'd strongly recommend you use transcript logging for this!
You can start a transcript interactively with the Start-Transcript cmdlet, but if you want to keep a transcript of every single instance of PowerShell you launch by default, I'd suggest turning it on by default!
Open the local policy editor (gpedit.msc) on your Windows box and navigate to:
Computer Configuration
> Administrative Templates
> Windows Components
> Windows PowerShell
Select the policy setting named "Turn on PowerShell Transcription", set it to Enabled, and optionally configure your preferred output directory (defaults to your home folder).
This way, you'll always have a full transcript of your interactions in PowerShell :)
Consider using argument splatting to build your command instead of building a string-based command with Invoke-Expression. I also don't know where you heard that & doesn't work with shell built-ins but it works with both commands and cmdlets.
Here is the official Microsoft documentation on splatting in Powershell.
This approach also eliminates the difficulty in crafting a command string correctly, having to escape characters, and dealing with path spaces - using splatting with named or positional arguments takes care of most of this for you.
I would suggest using -verbose with copy-item or remove-item, and also -passthru with copy-item.
I am having trouble with a seemingly simple script I have which essentially copies an item from the user's PC and places it on another computer; however, the destination file path contains a space in it. I have tried multiple methods of correcting this issue (some I don't completely understand) from using double quotation marks around the string to forcing it to run powershell.
To give a very brief precursor to this situation, I must add that I initially created this script using Powershell on Windows 10 and I should also add that it works completely fine in Powershell, just not as a .bat. I understand there may be some differences in the languages or what is interpreted through the programs.
Here is the string in the question:
Copy-Item $ENV:USERPROFILE\Desktop\VAST.accdb -destination "\\PRECDP19670\C$\Users\WAKE\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" -Force -PassThru -Verbose
The destination contains the space in the filepath.
Any help is appreciated!
As Bill mentioned, your BAT file needs to call PowerShell as an executable.
PowerShell.exe -command 'Copy-Item $ENV:USERPROFILE\Desktop\VAST.accdb -destination "\\PRECDP19670\C$\Users\WAKE\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" -Force -PassThru -Verbose
I am not a scripter at all. Someone else had created this script for me and it has previously worked. The only thing that has changed is the drive letter (which I did change in the script - it is currently drive E). But it is not working now. All it is supposed to do is pull back a list of files in a specified folder and save it as a text file in that directory; in this case, it's my karaoke song collection.
When I run the script now, I get:
Get-Process : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument Get-ChildItem.
Here is the original script:
PS C:\Users\Tina> Get-ChildItem "F:\My Music\Karaoke\*.*" | Set-Content "F:\My Music\Karaoke\test.txt"
I'd like to make it so that it just pulls back all .mp3's, if that's possible, too. Thanks in advance for your help!
Since you appear to be copying and pasting this to the command line I will assume there was a typo that caused this issue. After a couple of quick tests to try and guess what the accident was I was unable to replicate exactly. Not being a scripter might make this harder but I recommend saving this code to a ps1 file so that you can just double click on it.
Get-ChildItem "F:\My Music\Karaoke\*.mp3" | Set-Content "F:\My Music\Karaoke\test.txt"
Warning
In order for the this file to work for you you have to allow PowerShell to execute it. If you run the shell as administrator once and run this code
Set-ExecutionPolicy remotesigned
It will allow your script to run. Keep in mind this is a site for scripters to get help. You should expect answers like this.
When you use a .NET object from PowerShell, and it takes a filename, it always seems to be relative to C:\Windows\System32.
For example:
[IO.File]::WriteAllText('hello.txt', 'Hello World')
...will write C:\Windows\System32\hello.txt, rather than C:\Current\Directory\hello.txt
Why does PowerShell do this? Can this behaviour be changed? If it can't be changed, how do I work around it?
I've tried Resolve-Path, but that only works with files that already exist, and it's far too verbose to be doing all the time.
You can change .net working dir to powershell working dir: [Environment]::CurrentDirectory = (Get-Location -PSProvider FileSystem).ProviderPath
After this line all .net methods like [io.path]::GetFullPath and [IO.File]::WriteAllText will work without problems
The reasons PowerShell doesn't keep the .NET notion of current working directory in sync with PowerShell's notion of the working dir are:
PowerShell working dirs can be in a provider that isn't even file system
based e.g. HKLM:\Software
A single PowerShell process can have
multiple runspaces. Each runspace can be cd`d into a different file
system location. However the .NET/process "working directory" is
essentially a global for the process and wouldn't work for a
scenario where there can be multiple working dirs (one per runspace).
For convenience, I added the following to my prompt function, so that it runs whenever a command finishes:
# Make .NET's current directory follow PowerShell's
# current directory, if possible.
if ($PWD.Provider.Name -eq 'FileSystem') {
[System.IO.Directory]::SetCurrentDirectory($PWD)
}
This is not necessarily a great idea, because it means that some scripts (that assume that the Win32 working directory tracks the PowerShell working directory) will work on my machine, but not necessarily on others.
When you use filenames in .Net methods, the best practice is to use fully-qualified path names. Or use
$pwd\foo.cer
If you do in powershell console from:
C:\> [Environment]::CurrentDirectory
C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
you can see what folder .net use.
That's probably because PowerShell is running in System32. When you cd to a directory in PowerShell, it doesn't actually change the working directory of powershell.exe.
See:
PowerTip article on syncing the two directories
Channel9 forum thread
I ran into the same problem a long time ago and now I add the following to the beginning of my profile:
# Setup user environment when running session under alternate credentials and
# logged in as a normal user.
if ((Get-PSProvider FileSystem).Home -eq "")
{
Set-Variable HOME $env:USERPROFILE -Force
$env:HOMEDRIVE = Split-Path $HOME -Qualifier
$env:HOMEPATH = Split-Path $HOME -NoQualifier
(Get-PSProvider FileSystem).Home = $HOME
Set-Location $HOME
}
Powershell is great for scripting. But when it comes to everyday use, certain things can be a huge PITA!!
so i thought it would be great if i could do something like this in my profile.ps1:
$env:path = "$($env:path);c:\cygwin\bin"
to get access to utilities like tar, zip, etc... but this doesn't work. The variable looks right when i do:
PS > $env:path
but when i try to do, say,
PS > unzip foo.zip
i get a command not found type error.
WTF PowerShell!?
edit: great answers! I looked at it with fresh eyes this morning and realized that I just needed to spell 'cygwin' correctly! now I don't have to switch back and forth between two consoles. It should be noted for anyone who uses this tip that your path in powershell is evaluated in order - if you put c:\cygwin\bin at the end of the $env:path variable, it will be searched last, so it won't interfere with existing powershell aliases / cmdlets.
It worked for me:
To set your profile:
$command = '$env:path = $env:path + ";C:\Program Files\Notepad++"'
$command | Out-File -FilePath $PROFILE -Append -Encoding UTF8
Or just the current shell:
$env:path = $env:path + ";C:\Program Files\Notepad++"
Using $env:path to add the cygwin bin to PATH should work as long as you are trying to use it in the same Powershell session. If you open a new console or if you close and open Powershell, it will not be persisted. Otherwise, what you are doing should work. Make sure you are indeed adding the correct path. If you want to persist the changes, add the line to your $profile.
Also, try using the Mingw / Msys / Msysgit utils. I find Mingw to be more lightweight than cygwin ( if you are using cygwin just to get some of these utils.)
PowerShell by default is only going to modify its local copy of PATH. When you run an external command, they aren't going to see the local environment variables.
Per this TechNet article, you can fall back to the .NET static method SetEnvironmentVariable to do this at the user level if you want this to be a permanent change:
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("TestVariable", "Test value.", "User")