The “Hey, Scripting Guys!” blog has been retired. There are many useful posts in this blog, so we keep the blog here for historical reference. However, some information might be very outdated and many of the links might not work anymore.

New PowerShell content is being posted to the PowerShell Community blog where members of the community can create posts by submitting content in the GitHub repository.

Scripting Blog [archived]

Formerly known as the "Hey, Scripting Guy!" blog

How Can I Tell Which Account a Service is Running Under?

September 10, 2004 Sep 10, 2004 09/10/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) We have services that run under a particular user account. Each time we change the password for that user account, we need to change the password for any services that run under that account as well. But how can we tell which account a service is running under?-- SA(image) (image) (image) Hey, SA. By and large WMI is a pretty ...

How Can I Read in IP Addresses and Use Them in a Script?

September 9, 2004 Sep 9, 2004 09/9/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a text file that contains a bunch of IP addresses. I’d like to be able to read these addresses from a script, and then use them to connect to those computers. Is that possible?-- RL (image) (image) (image) Hey, RL. You bet you can do this, and here’s how. First, make sure your text file looks ...

How Can I Determine the Version Number of an Executable File?

September 8, 2004 Sep 8, 2004 09/8/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine the version number of an executable file?-- TW(image) (image) (image) Hey, TW. Well, that depends. If the file is located on the local computer, the easiest way is to use the FileSystemObject. Have a burning desire to know which version of Regedit.exe is installed on your computer? All it takes...

How Can I Tell if a Server has Rebooted?

September 7, 2004 Sep 7, 2004 09/7/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there any way to tell whether or not a server has rebooted?-- MvdM(image) (image) (image) Hey, MvdM. We’re assuming that you’re performing a task and, at the end of the task, the computer is supposed to reboot. Needless to say, you want to know, “Well, did the server reboot?” How can you tell whether ...

How Can I Be Notified Any Time a Service Goes Down?

September 3, 2004 Sep 3, 2004 09/3/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I be notified any time a service goes down?-- RN(image) (image) (image) Hey, RN. As usual, there are a couple different ways you can do this, but perhaps the simplest approach is to create a script that monitors WMI events. We don’t have time to do a detailed explanation of WMI events in this column, but...