While judging entries in this year's Scripting Games I realized there were some common properties that were repeatedly used. This got me thinking about a simple way to retrieve that information with a single command Then you could access the data values from within your script. I've put together a relatively simply function called Get-Common that you might find helpful.<\/p>\n
There's nothing fancy about this function.<\/p>\n
Function Get-Common {\r\n\r\n[cmdletbinding()]\r\n\r\nParam()\r\n\r\nSet-StrictMode -Version Latest\r\n\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Starting $($myinvocation.mycommand)\"\r\n\r\n#test if user is an administrator\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Testing for admin rights\"\r\n$currentUser = [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()\r\n$IsAdmin=(New-Object Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal $currentUser).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltinRole]::Administrator)\r\n\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Get Username\"\r\n#get username from the environmental variable\r\n$username=$env:username\r\n\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Get Computername\"\r\n#get computername from the environmental variable\r\n$computername=$env:computername\r\n\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Get Domain name\"\r\n#get domain name from the environmental variable\r\n$domain=$env:userdomain\r\n\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Get DNS Domain name\"\r\n#get domain DNS name from the environmental variable\r\n#this may not be found on older computers\r\nif ($env:userDNSDomain)\r\n{\r\n$dnsDomain=$env:userdnsdomain\r\n}\r\nelse\r\n{\r\n$dnsDomain=$Null\r\n}\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Get Operating System\"\r\n#get operating system from WMI\r\n$os=Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem\r\n\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Get last boot up time\"\r\n#use the WMI ConvertToDateTime method\r\n$boot=$os.ConvertToDateTime($os.LastBootUpTime)\r\n\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Write object\"\r\n#write custom object to the pipeline\r\nNew-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{\r\nUsername=$username\r\nComputername=$computername\r\nIsAdmin=$IsAdmin\r\nDomain=$domain\r\nDNSDomain=$DNSDomain\r\nOperatingSystem=$os.caption\r\nLastBoot=$boot\r\nPSHost=$host.name\r\nPSVersion=$host.version\r\n}\r\n\r\nWrite-Verbose \"Ending $($myinvocation.mycommand)\"\r\n\r\n} #end function<\/pre>\nI gathers a number of what I think of as common values such as username, computername, PowerShell host and whether the user is running as an administrator. The function writes a custom object to the pipeline, using New-Object.<\/p>\n
PS S:\\> get-common\r\n\r\nComputername : SERENITY\r\nUsername : Jeff\r\nLastBoot : 4\/15\/2011 2:34:19 PM\r\nIsAdmin : True\r\nDNSDomain :\r\nOperatingSystem : Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate\r\nPSHost : ConsoleHost\r\nDomain : SERENITY\r\nPSVersion : 2.0<\/pre>\nAssuming you have dot sourced the function, you could use it in your script like this:<\/p>\n
$data=Get-Common\r\n\r\nif ($data.IsAdmin)\r\n{\r\n$wsmanPort=(dir WSMan:\\localhost\\Listener -rec | where {$_.name -eq \"Port\"}).value\r\n\r\n$uptime=(Get-Date) - $data.lastBoot\r\nif ($data.OperatingSystem -match \"Windows 7\")\r\n{\r\n$Win7=$True\r\n}\r\nelse\r\n{\r\n$Win7=$False\r\n}\r\nNew-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{\r\nComputername=$data.computername\r\nUptime=$uptime\r\nIsWin7=$Win7\r\nWSManPort=$wsmanPort\r\n}\r\n\r\n}\r\nelse\r\n{\r\nWrite-Warning \"You must be an administrator\"\r\n}<\/pre>\nMaybe this will help simplify your scripts or maybe it won't. Of course you can easily extend it to include other core or common data you use frequently in your scripts. If there's something you add, I'm curious to learn what it is.<\/p>\n