Useful PowerShell Scriptlets for Files and Folders

  • Scripting
  • Published Sep 15, 2009 Updated Oct 27, 2010

What is the best way to learn PowerShell? Never use cmd.exe again!

With PowerShell 2.0 on my Windows 7 machine I decided it finally is time to polish my rusty knowledge of the language dating back to the days when PowerShell was still called Monad. In my attempt to re-familiarize myself with PoSh I consciously use it for tasks that would take me mere seconds with other tools like cmd.exe, or even old friends like Perl. But, hey, learning takes time, and there is nothing better than practice! Here are a couple of things I have learned en route.

Searching for a Particular File

Long version:

Get-ChildItem c:\ -Include advapi32.dll -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object FullName

Short version:

gci c:\ advapi32.dll -r -fo -ea silentlycontinue | select fullname

This recursively scans drive C: for the file advapi32.dll, looks at hidden and system files (-Force) and ignores errors that might be caused by insufficient permissions. For each file found, the full path is displayed.

Sample Output:

FullName
--------
C:\Windows\System32\advapi32.dll
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\advapi32.dll
C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-advapi32_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_3f3d4351a032bf57\advapi32.dll
C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-advapi32_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_e31ea7cde7d54e21\advapi32.dll

Cmd.exe equivalent:

dir /a /s /b c:\advapi32.dll

Listing Encrypted Files and Folders

Long version:

Get-ChildItem c:\ -Include * -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object {$_.Attributes -ge "Encrypted"} | Select-Object FullName

Short version:

gci c:\ * -r -fo -ea silentlycontinue | ? {$_.attributes -ge "encrypted"} | select fullname

This iterates over all objects on drive C: and displays the full path of those that have the encrypted attribute set.

Cmd.exe equivalent:

None (without resorting to external tools, which would be possible with PowerShell, too).

Improvements?

Is there a more elegant way of doing this? If so, please let me know by posting a comment.

Update 1: Thanks to Shay Levy I replaced -gt with -ge in the search for encrypted files. Now the scriptlet also finds files that only have the encrypted attribute set.

EFSPowerShellScript

Comments

Related Posts

Syntax Highlighting PowerShell Code in HTML - With a PowerShell Script

When you are publishing PowerShell code on the web, you soon discover that it looks much nicer with syntax highlighting - as did I. There are several ways to add syntax highlighting to your blog or web site, most of which rely on external (Wordpress) plugins or JavaScript on the page. I do not like that approach too much. I prefer to have the syntax highlighting embedded in the HTML code. That way I have full control over the appearance (and the highlighting also works in the RSS feed). The logical solution is to use a script that embeds HTML coloring tags directly into the script.
Scripting

Creating Realistic Test User Accounts in Active Directory

Creating Realistic Test User Accounts in Active Directory
When you need to simulate a real Active Directory with thousands of users you quickly find that creating realistic test accounts is not trivial. Sure enough, you can whip up a quick PowerShell one-liner that creates any number of accounts, but what if you need real first and last names? Real (existing) addresses? Postal codes matching phone area codes? I could go on. The point is that you need two things: input files with names, addresses etc. And script logic that creates user accounts from that data. This blog post provides both.
Scripting

Latest Posts