Using powershell to change attribute - powershell

Question

First:
I am complete new to Powershell-Scripting.
Want to change the attribute "preferredLanguage" from some Users via powershell.
The users are written in txt-file
testUser000
testUser001 and so on
My first try was to become a list with users and some attributes:
$users = ForEach ($user in $(Get-Content C:\Temp\users.txt)) {
Get-AdUser $user -Properties Department, Mail, preferredLanguage
}
$users |
Select-Object SamAccountName,Department,Mail, preferredLanguage |
Export-CSV -Path C:\temp\outputUsers.csv -NoTypeInformation
That worked so far:
"SamAccountName","Department","Mail","preferredLanguage"
"tesUser000","dept1","testUser000#domain.com","DE"
"testUser0001","dept2","testUser001#domain.com",
testUser000 has an entry in preferredLanguage
testUser0001 has no entry
That's ok. When I have completed the users.txt, there are more than 100 users without an entry in 'preferredLanguage'
Now I want to change the preferredLanguage and with some investigation in the Internet I made this:
$users = ForEach ($user in $(Get-Content C:\Temp\users.txt)) {
Get-AdUser $user -Properties Department, Mail, preferredLanguage
}
$users |
Set-AdUser $users -Replace #preferredLanguage="DE" |
Select-Object SamAccountName,Department,Mail, preferredLanguage |
Export-CSV -Path C:\temp\outputUsers.csv -NoTypeInformation
When I understand this script right, then it get from my txt-File every user in it with the given attributes then it changes the attribute 'preferredLanguage' from the users in the txt-file and then it select it again then it will save the output in a csv-file.
Maybe someone can look over the script and would be so kind and give me feedback about it or a better way, because Iam too scary to use this script on the AD-Server.

Answer 1

Just a few things:
Get-AdUser $user means you must be sure the user with that identity exists or an exception will be thrown
the syntax for the -Replace operator should be #{preferredLanguage="DE"}
Set-ADUser does not generate any output unless the -PassThru parameter is used.
if you use ForEach-Object, you can do all this in one loop
Try changing the code with this:
(Get-Content C:\Temp\users.txt) | ForEach-Object {
$account = Get-AdUser -Filter "SamAccountName -eq '$_'" -Properties Department, Mail, preferredLanguage -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($account) {
$account | Set-AdUser -Replace #{preferredLanguage="DE"} -PassThru |
Select-Object SamAccountName,Department,Mail, preferredLanguage
}
else {
Write-Warning "User '$_' does not exist"
}
} | Export-CSV -Path C:\temp\outputUsers.csv -NoTypeInformation
Hope that helps