Scripting Blog

A place to learn about PowerShell and share stories of automation

January 2005 - Scripting Blog

How Can I Make Changes to and Then Re-Save an Existing Excel Spreadsheet?

January 31, 2005 Jan 31, 2005 01/31/05
ScriptingGuy1
Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I open an existing Excel spreadsheet, add some additional information to that spreadsheet, and then save my changes? Every time I call the SaveAs method a dialog box pops up asking me if I want to save my changes.-- RW Hey, RW. Generally speaking, you can avoid that dialog box by using the Save method rather than...

How Can I Show Users a Dialog Box for Selecting Files?

January 28, 2005 Jan 28, 2005 01/28/05
ScriptingGuy1
Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there any way I can use a script to present a user with a dialog box and let him or her select a file?-- BF Hey, BF. If you’re using Windows 2000, we don’t know of a way to do this, at least not a way that’s built into the operating system. That’s not the case with Windows XP, however. On Windows XP, you can ...

How Can I Determine the System Time on a Computer?

January 27, 2005 Jan 27, 2005 01/27/05
ScriptingGuy1
Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there any way to retrieve the system time as configured on a remote computer?-- JJ Hey, JJ. There are at least two ways to do this, both using WMI. If you’re running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you can use the WMI class Win32_LocalTime. As you can see, that makes it pretty easy to get the system time: you ...

How Can I Retrieve Information From My Event Logs Regarding Unsuccessful Logons?

January 26, 2005 Jan 26, 2005 01/26/05
ScriptingGuy1
Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I scan the event logs of my servers and return only information about unsuccessful logons?-- LC Hey, LC. We’ll assume that you have enabled security auditing on your servers. If you haven’t, that’s step one. What you’ll want to do is - at a minimum - audit for logon event failures. That way every time ...

How Can I Read Just a Single, Specified Line from a Text File?

January 25, 2005 Jan 25, 2005 01/25/05
ScriptingGuy1
Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I read only a specific line in a text file? For example, how can I write a script that reads only line 16 in a text file and then stores the value of that line in a variable?-- DL Hey, DL. You know we haven’t answered a question about text files in awhile, and that’s not something we should brag about; after ...