Summary<\/b>: Learn how to display easily consumed information about system services by using Windows PowerShell.<\/p>\n
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/q-for-powertip.jpg\")
Hey, Scripting Guy! I am still having trouble working with the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet. I sort of understood what you were talking about yesterday, but when I tried it, all I got was errors. What does it mean when it says that it does not accept the input?<\/p>\n
—RS<\/p>\n
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/a-for-powertip.jpg\")
Hello RS,<\/p>\n
Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Today the Scripting Wife and I are heading back from the Mark Minasi Conference. We do not have a lot of time to tarry because tonight the Charlotte PowerShell Users Group has their meeting. We have a really cool presentation by Brian Hitney. We are going to attempt to do a live meeting so we can share the experience with our fellow Windows PowerShell friends.<\/p>\n
RS, one thing to keep in mind when you use the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet is that you need to send it usable information. This means staying away from Format* cmdlets such as Format-Table<\/b>, Format-List<\/b>, or Format-Wide<\/b>. The reason for not using the Format* cmdlets is they change the object; therefore, the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet does not know what to do with the incoming properties.<\/p>\n
To provide the appropriate filtering information, the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet reads the incoming property types. If those incoming property types change (which is the case when you pipe through a Format* type of cmdlet), Out-GridView<\/b> does not know how to display the information. The following example illustrates this mutable property type situation. The results of the Get-Service<\/b> cmdlet returns a ServiceController<\/b> object. When the ServiceController<\/b> object pipes to the Format-Table<\/b> cmdlet, a series of formatting specific objects return instead.<\/p>\n
Get-Service | Format-Table name, status | Get-Member<\/p>\n
The command and its associated output appear in the image that follows.<\/p>\n
The Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet does not know what to do with all the different Format* types of objects. If you need to select specific properties to display in the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet, use the Select-Object<\/b> cmdlet instead of a Format* type of cmdlet (such as Format-Table<\/b>). In fact, the use of Format-Table<\/b> and Select-Object<\/b> are extremely similar. It is common to use Select-Object<\/b> prior to sending data to Format-Table—<\/b>especially if you want to limit the number of objects that are returned by a query. For example, the following command chooses the name and status properties from ServiceController<\/b> objects, but it only returns the first five services.<\/p>\n PS C:\\> Get-Service | sort name -Descending | Select-Object -First 5 -Property name,<\/p>\n status | Format-Table<\/p>\n If you leave the Format-Table cmdlet from the end of the command, you have the following command.<\/p>\n PS C:\\> Get-Service | sort name -Descending | Select-Object -First 5 -Property name,<\/p>\n Status<\/p>\n If you run both commands and compare the output, you will see the output is amazingly similar. This is shown here.<\/p>\n In general, you can leave the Format-Table<\/b> cmdlet out of such commands. This makes it easier for you to further process the information, such as sending the output to the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet. For example, RS, to go back to your original problem, sending the first command (with the Format-Table<\/b>) cmdlet in the command to the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet produces an error. The error, a FormatException<\/b>, is shown here.<\/p>\n Dropping the Format-Table<\/b> cmdlet from the end of the command permits the command to work properly. The revised command is shown here.<\/p>\n PS C:\\> Get-Service | sort name -Descending | Select-Object -First 5 -Property name,<\/p>\n status | Out-GridView<\/p>\n PS C:\\><\/p>\n The GridView<\/b> control that is produced by the previous command is shown here.<\/p>\n One thing to keep in mind, is that the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet accepts the format of the input object when creating the GridView<\/b> control. This means that because the default view from Get-Service<\/b> only displays three columns (the name, status, and display name), these are the only properties directly available to the GridView<\/b> control if you pipe the output without any further manipulation.<\/p>\n The easy way to ensure the availability of all properties involves using the Select-Object<\/b> cmdlet to pick up the additional properties, as shown here.<\/p>\n Get-Service | Select-Object -Property * | Out-GridView<\/p>\n If you do very much preprocessing prior to sending your data to the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet, you may want to create a custom title for the GridView <\/b>control. The reason for creating a custom title is that by default, the title is the query that creates the control. But if your query is very involved, complex, or confusing, the title will mimic this aspect of your code. A better way is to create a custom title that more directly answers the question, “Why did I create this control?” This technique is shown here.<\/p>\n PS C:\\> Get-Service | Select-Object -Property * | Out-GridView -Title “All Service Properties”<\/p>\n The GridView<\/b> control that displays all the service properties and has a custom title of All Service Properties <\/i>is shown here.<\/p>\n Although it is certainly possible to use Criteria <\/i>to filter out running from stopped services when you have produced the GridView<\/b> control, if you know you only want running services, filter prior to sending the output to the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet. This will make a cleaner way to deal with your data. This technique is shown here.<\/p>\n PS C:\\> Get-Service | where { $_.status -eq ‘running’} | select * | Out-GridView -Title ‘running services’<\/p>\n The custom GridView<\/b> control that displays all the properties of running services with the title of running services <\/i>is shown here.<\/p>\n RS, that is all there is to using the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet to display service information. Join me tomorrow when I will spend a bit more time talking about the Out-GridView<\/b> cmdlet.<\/p>\n I invite you to follow me on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com<\/a>, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/p>\n Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/b> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary: Learn how to display easily consumed information about system services by using Windows PowerShell. Hey, Scripting Guy! I am still having trouble working with the Out-GridView cmdlet. I sort of understood what you were talking about yesterday, but when I tried it, all I got was errors. What does it mean when it says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,3,4,45],"class_list":["post-9541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-getting-started","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":" Summary: Learn how to display easily consumed information about system services by using Windows PowerShell. Hey, Scripting Guy! I am still having trouble working with the Out-GridView cmdlet. I sort of understood what you were talking about yesterday, but when I tried it, all I got was errors. 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