Scripting Blog

A place to learn about PowerShell and share stories of automation

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Perform More Than One Action with the Win32_Printer WMI Class?

Hey, Scripting Guy! The Win32_Printer WMI class has several methods that are listed in it. But I am not sure how to best use these methods from inside a Windows PowerShell script. I do not want to create four different scripts to send a test page, clean out print jobs, and to cycle the print queue. Do you have an example of how I might do ...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Use Windows PowerShell to Remove Old Printer Connections, List Printers, and Set New Default Printers?

Hey, Scripting Guy! Well it finally happened. Our budget request for new printers was approved. We have gotten them unboxed, distributed, and hooked up to the LAN. We have even downloaded the latest drivers from the Internet, and updated the firmware on several of the printers. The drivers are installed on the print servers, and the shares ...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Use WMI to Add a Printer Connection by Using Windows PowerShell?

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am trying to determine how to use WMI to add a printer connection by using Windows PowerShell. I have found this script, but it uses VBScript and not WMI. This means that it is not very close at all, I am afraid. Do you have a WMI script I can use?- CM Hi CM,Ed looked around, but he did not find anything. Therefore, he ...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Document Printer Usage on Client Workstations?

Hey, Scripting Guy! I am tasked with the problem of documenting printer use on our client workstations. I must be able to determine whether someone prints directly to a printer, or if they are printing through our print servers. This is important because we have purchased a print monitoring software package that is used to back-charge the ...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Quick-Hits Friday: The Scripting Guys Respond to a Bunch of Questions (03/20/09)

Troubleshooting an Active Directory HTA  Hey, Scripting Guy! I have created an HTML Application (HTA) to prompt a support person for their administrative ID and password and a computer name that they wish to delete from Active Directory. The script uses the alternate credentials to find the computer object alright, but does not use the ...