Get local profile list with powershell - powershell

Question

I'm on a Windows server 2008 R2 and I need an extract of the local profile list, so I use Powershell to look into the registry and get what I want :
$path = 'Registry::HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\*'
$items = Get-ItemProperty -path $path
Foreach ($item in $items) {
$objUser = New-Object
System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier($item.PSChildName)
$objName = $objUser.Translate([System.Security.Principal.NTAccount])
$item.PSChildName = $objName.value
}
echo $items | Select-Object -Property PSChildName | Export-Csv
C:\scripts\PSScripts\UserProfile.csv -Encoding UTF8
It worked with another machine using Windows Server 2012 R2 but here I got a lot of errors, but always the same one :
Exception calling "Translate" with "1" argument(s): "Some or all
identity references could not be translated." At
C:\scripts\PSScripts\users_profile.ps1:5 char:34
+ $objName = $objUser.Translate <<<< ([System.Security.Principal.NTAccount])
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException
The .csv file is created but with issues, like a profile shown more than one time, like this :
DOMAIN\User1
DOMAIN\User2
DOMAIN\User3
DOMAIN\User3
DOMAIN\User4
DOMAIN\User5
DOMAIN\User5
DOMAIN\User5
DOMAIN\User6
Is there a difference between WS2008 and WS2012 which can cause this problem? Or is it something else?

Answer 1

I'd suggest using WMI to be consistent across platforms plus some error handling:
$path = 'C:\scripts\PSScripts\UserProfile.csv'
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_UserProfile -Filter Special=FALSE -PipelineVariable user |
ForEach-Object -Begin {$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'} {
try
{
$id = [System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier]::new($user.SID)
$id.Translate([System.Security.Principal.NTAccount]).Value
}
catch
{
Write-Warning -Message "Failed to translate $($user.SID)! $PSItem"
}
} |
Select-Object -Property #{Label='PSChildName'; Expression={$PSItem}} |
Export-Csv -Path $path -Encoding ascii -NoTypeInformation
PSv2 solution:
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_UserProfile -Filter Special=FALSE |
ForEach-Object -Begin {$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'} {
try
{
$sid = $_.SID
$id = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier -ArgumentList $sid
$id.Translate([System.Security.Principal.NTAccount]).Value
}
catch
{
Write-Host "Failed to translate $sid! $_" -ForegroundColor Red
}
} |
Select-Object -Property #{Label='PSChildName'; Expression={$_}} |
Export-Csv -Path $path -Encoding ascii -NoTypeInformation