Remote Powershell popup message - powershell

I'm attempting to create a remote powershell popup window to any users logged into a target computer.
I have found a simple script that does create a popup window:
(New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell).popup("THIS IS A TEST MESSAGE")
However, I cannot run this script on remote devices. We have powershell remoting restricted in our environment so I cannot use the invoke-command cmdlet in powershell.
I have bypassed this restriction in the past by using the Invoke-WmiMethod cmdlet and creating a new process remotely to achieve the desired results, like such:
Invoke-WmiMethod -Class Win32_Process -ComputerName $computer -Name Create -ArgumentList "C:\Program Files\Test\Test.exe -argument"
However, I cannot seem to find a way to generate a remote popup window using this method.
Does anybody have any great ideas on how I can accomplish my goal?

I figured this out. I used the msg.exe application to display my message and used powershell Invoke-WmiMethod to execute the command locally on the PC as we have remote messaging disabled:
Invoke-WmiMethod -Class Win32_Process -ComputerName HostPC -Name Create -ArgumentList "C:\Windows\System32\msg.exe * This is a test message."

I edited the script samples above with Powershell to make it easier to run with variables so you don't have to edit the file every time.
$server = read-host -prompt 'Input server name';
$message = read-host -prompt 'add text string';
Invoke-WmiMethod -Class win32_process -ComputerName $server -Name create -ArgumentList "c:\windows\system32\msg.exe * $message"
Thanks to Maumee River for the original answer

Related

How to run PowerShell script on a remote computer?

I'm aiming to run the script for Google Chrome installation on a remote computer.
The script for local installation has been saved on my PC (\localhost\c$\Chrome\Chrome Installer.ps1").
I was thinking to copy the script first to the remote machine and then run the script remotely. Could you please suggest the best way to run that script remotely?
Thank you in advance
Best Regards,
Stan
You can find the script below:
$Installer = "$env:temp\chrome_installer.exe"
$url = 'http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/375.126/chrome_installer.exe'
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $Installer -UseBasicParsing
Start-Process -FilePath $Installer -Args '/silent /install' -Wait
Remove-Item -Path $Installer
$login = Read-Host "Please enter login id"
$comp = Read-Host "Please enter computer name or IPV4 adress"
Copy-Item -Path "\\localhost\c$\Chrome\Chrome Installer.ps1" -Dest "\\$($comp)\c$\temp"
I was thinking to copy the script first to the remote machine and then run the script remotely.
You don't actually need to copy it to the remote host first - you can have Invoke-Command run a script from your local file system on a remote computer like so:
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $comp -FilePath "C:\Chrome\Chrome Installer.ps1"
To pass credentials for the remote machine, specify the account name as an argument to the -Credential parameter and PowerShell will prompt you for the password:
$login = Read-Host "Enter the user name for the remote host"
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $comp -FilePath "C:\Chrome\Chrome Installer.ps1" -Credential .\$login
You can do enter-pssession to get a local prompt and paste in your script using your credentials. You can also checkout invoke-commdand and specify a script file and tagret.
Run: update-help
then run:
help invoke-command -examples
You should see something that works for your situation.

Run Get-ClusterGroup on remote server using Central server

I have a centralized server from which i can run the following PowerShell command to get the clustergroup of cluster servers.
Enter-pssession -computername (ip-address) -credential (domain user)
And it prompts me to enter password then i get the session and execute
get-clustergroup
Okay till this it is fine.
Now i wanted to make this fully automated by converting in to a PowerShell script
The following commands works well when i run it in Powershell ISE and gets me the output of get-clustergroup
$password = ConvertTo-SecureString "password" -AsPlainText -Force
$user = "domain\user"
$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ($user,$password)
Enter-PSSession -ComputerName IP.Add.RE.SS -Credential $cred
get-clustergroup
but when i save the about script and run with PowerShell i get the following error.
get-clustergroup: the cluster service is not running
I want to automate the process by writing script to get get-clustergroup output of four cluster servers.
i am new to PowerShell scripting. how can i save the output?
Instead of creating a session to the other server, you can run the following which will run the command on the remote computer and return the output to your console:
Invoke-Command -ComputerName <IPAddress> -ScriptBlock { Get-ClusterGroup } -Credential $cred
You can store that output into a variable if you wish for future retrieval.
Since -ComputerName can accept an array object, you can modify your command to include all four of your servers. Below shows how to use all of your computer names and store the output in the variable $Output:
$Output = Invoke-Command -ComputerName "Server1","Server2","Server3","Server4" `
-ScriptBlock {Get-ClusterGroup} -Credential $cred
$Output
Your computer names could also be stored in a variable as an array. Then that variable can be used in your -ComputerName parameter:
$Computers = "Server1","Server2","Server3","Server4"
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Computers -ScriptBlock { Get-ClusterGroup } -Credential $cred
See Invoke-Command for more information.

Determine PowerShell version remotely via WMI

I have searched here and elsewhere and could not find an answer, so here is my question.
What is the best way to determine PowerShell version on a remote computer using WMI?
Background
My task is to audit and update some 1000 servers to recent version of PowerShell. Some of them have PowerShell v1 and some do not have WinRM configured, so Invoke-command is not an option. PSExec is also not an option in this environment. This is why I need to use WMI for this task.
Any help would be appreciated.
EDIT:
After much research I'm still leaning towards WMI. In particular retrieving the file version of "powershell.exe". This seems to me to be the only way to cover all versions.
Code I have so far is here:
$path = "C:\\Windows\\system32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe"
$query = "SELECT Version FROM CIM_DataFile WHERE Name = '$path'"
$PSFileVer = Get-WmiObject -Query $query -ComputerName $servername -Credential $creds
$BuildVer = [version]$PSFileVer.Version.Split()[0]
All I need now is a comprehensive list, mapping file version (build number) to powershell version. Any Ideas?
The solution from here is
$command = "ipconfig/all > C:\temp\result.txt"
$cmd = "cmd /c $command"
Invoke-WmiMethod -class Win32_process -name Create -ArgumentList $cmd -ComputerName "remotepc"
sleep 1
Get-Content \\remotepc\C$\temp\result.txt
You can also do similar via this method. If you do so, you can't get the return value directly, u must redirect to a file.
You could setup share for the results instead of putting result on local machine
If it helps here is the command :
$command = "powershell -command "+'"$PSVersionTable.PsVersion.Major | out-file c:\temp\version.txt"'

Powershell (Version 2.0) remote execution of services with credentials

I want to start/stop apache and mysql services on remote machine by using powershell version 2.0 (Windows Server 2008). I found syntax for remote execution as follow:
(Get-WmiObject -Computer myCompName Win32_Service -Filter "Name='myServiceName'").InvokeMethod("Stop-Service",$null)
But I have to provide credentials (DOMAIN_NAME\USERNANE and PASSWORD) also for this exceution. I am new to powershell and need help for correct syntax (example will be easy to understand and implement).
Get-WMIObject accepts the -Credential parameter. You shouldn't be keeping your credentials in plain text in your script, so you'll want to prompt for them.
$creds = get-credential;
(Get-WmiObject -Computer myCompName Win32_Service -Filter "Name='myServiceName'" -credential $creds).InvokeMethod("Stop-Service",$null)
If you have PSRemoting enabled on the remote system, you can do this without WMI.
$creds = get-credential;
Invoke-Command -computername myCompName -credential $creds -scriptblock {(get-service -name myServiceName).Stop()};
Update based on comments
Since you're running this as a scheduled job, you should not be storing or prompting for credentials at all. Configured the scheduled job itself (via Scheduled Tasks) to run under the required user account, then either of the following should work:
# Your original code
(Get-WmiObject -Computer myCompName Win32_Service -Filter "Name='myServiceName'").InvokeMethod("Stop-Service",$null)
# If you have remoting enabled
Invoke-Command -computername myCompName -scriptblock {(get-service -name myServiceName).Stop()};

Powershell remote application(.cmd) deployment

I am beginner with PowerShell and struggling to get this around with the help from different sites, My requirement and scenario is
I have a windows server 2008(rktdepy) with PowerShell installed and I have packaged application with a .cmd file. When I click this .cmd file the application will be deployed.
The server name is rktdepy and I want to create a PowerShell script which will connect to other servers in the network (the server names should be picked up from a txt files) and install the application accessing the file remotely from rktdepy server. The files are not supposed to be copied to any server and should not use psxec for security reason.
So far I have used invoke and mapping the network drive but still I have issues
$Comsession = Get-content c:\adminfiles\scripts\deploy.txt | new-pssession -throttlelimit 50
Invoke-command -computername RKTDEPLY54 -scriptblock { (new-object -comobject wscript.network).mapnetworkdrive("R:", "\\rktdepy\deploy", $true) }
Invoke-command -session $comsession -scriptblock {"CMD /C r:\QR_DEPLOY.CMD"}
The above script throws error,
I dont want to use any password in the script and it should fetch the current logged in user password from rktdepy server. I is ok if the scripts prompts for a user name and password which will have admin access to all servers.
It looks like you are dealing with a couple problems. One is that the session where you map the drive is gone when you run the next Invoke-Command that uses the mapped drive. You could move that into the same script block to fix a problem like that. The second one is a "second hop" issue. See a resource like Don Jones' Secrets of PowerShell Remoting free ebook on http://powershell.org/wp/books.
Steve
I have testing the following on my machine and it is working so far. There is also another method you can try out listed below.
Method1:
1. I have txt file with a list of computers named allcomputers.txt. It contains name of machines on each line.
Machine10
Machine20
Machine30
Machine40
The deployment script (mydeploytest.ps1) which accepts Computername, Username and Password as input and creates a new PSSession and then invokes command.
param(
[string]$ComputerName,
[string]$User,
[string]$pass
)
Get-PSSEssion | Remove-PSSession
$session = New-PSSession -ComputerName $ComputerName
Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock {
param(
[string]$ComputerName,
[string]$Username,
[string]$Password
)
$net = new-object -ComObject WScript.Network
$net.MapNetworkDrive("U:", "\\RKTDEPY\deploy", $false, $Username, $Password)
Invoke-Expression "CMD /C U:\deploy.cmd"
$net.RemoveNetworkDrive("U:")
} -args $ComputerName,$User,$pass
Get-PSSEssion | Remove-PSSession
Powershell commandline oneline to accomplish deployment task.
PS C:> Get-Content C:\scripts\allcomputers.txt | Foreach { C:\scripts\mydeploytest.ps1 $_ "yourserviceaccount" "password"}
Method2:
The help method for Invoke-Command has an example on how to solve the doublehop issue stevals is mentioning in the answer.
PS C:\> Enable-WSManCredSSP -Delegate Server02
PS C:\>Connect-WSMan Server02
PS C:\>Set-Item WSMan:\Server02*\Service\Auth\CredSSP -Value $true
PS C:\>$s = New-PSSession Server02
PS C:\>Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock {Get-Item \\Net03\Scripts\LogFiles.ps1} -Authentication CredSSP
-Credential Domain01\Admin01
I think with little modification to method 2 you can achieve what you want.