Renaming .msg files using Powershell - powershell

Question

We tend to drag and drop messages from outlook into Windows Explorer so I need to rename the default message filename so that the files are searchable/readable from Explorer.
I have managed to put together the following code that almost renames an outlook file on a network folder from the default "Subject.msg" to "To - Subject - ReceivedDate - hhmmss.msg". The only problem is that the rename step does not work as I believe the Outlook process is locking the file. I would appreciate help to avoid the locking and rename the files? Also, I am not sure what happens if there are multiple people in the To list, I would be happy to take the first name in the To list? Here is my effort:
$olMailItemPath = "W:\Marketing\Prospects\Emails\*"
Write-Host $olMailItemPath
$SourceFiles = Get-Item -path $olMailItemPath -include *.msg
$outlook = New-Object -comobject outlook.application
$namespace = $outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI")
function cleanName($aname)
{
$aname = $aname -replace "'"
$aname = $aname -replace ":"
$aname = $aname -replace "#"
$aname = $aname -replace "-"
return ($aname.trim())
}
function cleanSubject($subject)
{
$subject = $subject -replace 'Re:'
$subject = $subject
return (' - ' + $subject.trim() + ' - ')
}
foreach ($msg in $SourceFiles){
$olMailItem = $NameSpace.OpenSharedItem($msg)
$EmailTo = $olMailItem.To
$EmailSubject = $olMailItem.Subject
$DateRecieved = $olMailItem.ReceivedTime
$newfilename = (cleanName($EmailTo)) + (cleanSubject($EmailSubject)) + $DateRecieved.ToString("yyyyMMdd - hhmmss") + ".msg"
# Write-Host "Email Sent To: $EmailTo "
# Write-Host "Subject: $EmailSubject "
# Write-Host "Date Recieved: $DateRecieved"
Write-Host $msg
Write-Host $newfilename
Rename-Item $msg $newfilename
}
p.s. [Inserted # 18 Jun 2013] In answer to Athom, I know Outlook is locking the file as I get the following error:
Rename-Item : The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
At C:\Users\Bertie\Dropbox\Programming\Powershell\Rename Outlook Messages.ps1:41 char:16
+ Rename-Item <<<< -path $msg -newname $newFileName
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: W:\Marketing\Prospects\Emails\new.msg:String) [Rename-Item], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RenameItemIOError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RenameItemCommand
However, when I close outlook (which is initiated by the powershell script), I can then run the Rename-Item command and it run's successfully.

Answer 1

How's this?
Essentially the changes I have mades are:
Your renaming loop now throws its output to a hashtable.
Stop-Process kills Outlook.
Another loop then does the renaming.
# Declare the hastable to store the names, then generate the names.
$nameHash = #{}; Foreach ($msg in $SourceFiles){
# Do the Outlook thing
$olMailItem = $NameSpace.OpenSharedItem($msg)
$EmailTo = $olMailItem.To
$EmailSubject = $olMailItem.Subject
$DateRecieved = $olMailItem.ReceivedTime
$newfilename = (cleanName($EmailTo)) + (cleanSubject($EmailSubject)) + $DateRecieved.ToString("yyyyMMdd - hhmmss") + ".msg"
# Write-Host "Email Sent To: $EmailTo "
# Write-Host "Subject: $EmailSubject "
# Write-Host "Date Recieved: $DateRecieved"
# Store the names
$nameHash.Add("$msg","$newfilename")
}
# Kill Outlook.. Then wait....
Stop-Process -Name Outlook -Force
Start-Sleep -m 500 # You might be able to remove this - depends how beefy your CPU is.
# Rename
ForEach ($item in $nameHash.GetEnumerator()) {
# Testing >>-->
echo $item.Name
echo $item.Value
# <--<< Testing
Rename-Item $item.Name $item.Value
}