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 There are many useful posts in this blog, so we keep the blog here for historical reference. However, some information might be very outdated and many of the links might not work anymore.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

Can I Get a List of All My User Accounts?

August 11, 2004 Aug 11, 2004 08/11/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there any way to get a list of all the user accounts in Active Directory?-- CB, Fremont, CA(image) (image) (image) Hey, CB. By far the quickest and easiest way to do this is to search Active Directory for all your user accounts. Here’s a sample script that searches the fabrikam.com domain; to search your own ...

How Can I Call the Dir Command?

August 10, 2004 Aug 10, 2004 08/10/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! I’m trying to do something that seems pretty simple: call the dir command from a script. It doesn’t seem to work, though. How come?-- CR, Mexico City, Mexico(image) (image) (image) Hey, CR. It appears from your mail that you’re trying to do a simple thing like this: However, instead of getting a list of ...

Can I Enable the Caps Lock Key?

August 9, 2004 Aug 9, 2004 08/9/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a script where users enter some information in an Input box. The information needs to be entered in all-capital letters, so my instructions say, “Please make sure the Caps Lock key is on before entering the information.” They don’t always do that, however. Is there a way to turn the Caps Lock key on ...

How Can I Use Long File Names as Parameters?

August 6, 2004 Aug 6, 2004 08/6/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! I’m trying to run a command-line tool from a script, but I need to pass it a long file name like C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\logfile.txt. No matter how I try to pass that file name, however, my script blows up on me. Help!-- WK, Birmingham, Great Britain(image) (image) (image) Hey, WK. Ah, yes: ...

How Can I Determine if a User is a Local Administrator?

August 5, 2004 Aug 5, 2004 08/5/04

ScriptingGuy1

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! Some of the things we do in our logon scripts require the user to be a local administrator. How can the script tell if the user is a local admin or not?-- GM, Denver, CO Hey, GM. The best way to do that is to check the membership of the local Administrator’s group and see if the user is in there. To do that, ...