WMF 5.0 – Clipboard cmdlets
Published April 30, 2015The April 2015 WMF 5.0 preview brings new functionality in the shape of cmdlets for working directly with the clipboard.
You use Set-Clipboard to put data onto the clipboard
£> get-command Set-Clipboard -Syntax
Set-Clipboard [-Append] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]
Set-Clipboard [-Value] <string[]> [-Append] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]
Set-Clipboard -Path <string[]> [-Append] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]
Set-Clipboard -LiteralPath <string[]> [-Append] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]
For instance:
Set-Clipboard -Value "test"
You can add text or files to the clipboard. Notice that you can use –Append to add to the clipboard content rather than overwriting any existing data.
The contents of the clipboard are retrieved using Get-Clipboard
£> Get-Clipboard -Raw
test
As well as raw data you can pull data in a number of formats.
£> Get-Command Get-Clipboard -Syntax
Get-Clipboard [-Format <ClipboardFormat>] [-TextFormatType <TextDataFormat>] [-Raw] [<CommonParameters>]
Format can be one of: Text, FileDropList, Image, Audio
TextFormat type can be one of: Text, UnicodeText, Rtf, Html, CommaSeparatedValue
These all produce the same result:
£> Get-Clipboard -Raw
test
£> Get-Clipboard -TextFormatType Text
£> Get-Clipboard -Raw
test
£> Get-Clipboard -Format Text
£> Get-Clipboard -Raw
test
Notice how use the TextFormatType Text or Format Text cause get-Clipboard to be called again with the –Raw parameter
One obvious and useful tasking for the clipboard cmdlets is copying commands between PowerShell sessions:
On the source machine
£> Get-History -Id 43
Id CommandLine
-- -----------
43 Find-Package -Name PSReadline -Source PSGallery | fl *
Set-Clipboard -Value (Get-History -Id 43 | select -ExpandProperty Commandline)
On the target machine:
Invoke-Expression -Command (Get-Clipboard -Raw)
This is one set of cmdlets that will generate many more uses as you experiment with them
WMF 5.0–New-TemporaryFile
Published April 30, 2015Creating a temporary file in PowerShell 4.0 and earlier has been possible using a number of techniques such as:
£> $file = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempFileName()
£> $file
C:\Users\Richard\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpEFAD.tmp
With the April 2015 WMF 5.0 preview this becomes much easier
£> $file2 = New-TemporaryFile
£> $file2
Directory: C:\Users\Richard\AppData\Local\Temp
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 4/30/2015 12:42 PM 0 tmp1FE1.tmp
Now you can create files simply and easily without having to remember the .NET syntax.
Notice that the temporary files are automatically created in your TEMP folder.
£> $env:TEMP
C:\Users\Richard\AppData\Local\Temp
WMF 5.0 April 2015 Preview is available
Published April 29, 2015The PowerShell team have released the April 2015 WMF 5.0 preview. Details from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2015/04/29/windows-management-framework-5-0-preview-april-2015-is-now-available.aspx
Blocksize missing?
Published April 28, 2015I recently had a question asking why the Bloacksize property on Win32_LogicalDisk is empty but is populated on Win32_Volume.
The thing is to remember the underlying thing that these 2 CIM classes represent.
A logical disk is a subdivision of an extended partition. An extended partition can hold one or more logical disks.
When you create a volume on a disk you use either a primary partition or a logical disk from an extended partition. Until you format the volume you can’t have a block size as that is determined by the parameters you use to perform the format.
The documentation for Win32_LogicalDisk states that block size is not populated for logical disks https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394173(v=vs.85).aspx.
OMI/CIM/WMI dictionary
Published April 28, 2015Don Jones provides a very good summary of the similarities and differences between WMI, CIM and OMI http://powershell.org/wp/2015/04/24/management-information-the-omicimwmimidmtf-dictionary/
Recommended reading if you’re using these technologies
PowerShell Summit NA 2015
Published April 22, 2015We’re into the last afternoon as I write this. We’ve had some amazing sessions with excellent presentations on DSC, security aspects of using PowerShell, using and manipulating data with PowerShell, PowerShellGet, Nano server, working with ACLs in PowerShell and PowerShell help.
This has been out third Summit and North America and probably the best. We’ve had a great audience and are planning hard for next year
PowerShell Summit NA 2015–announcements
Published April 21, 2015The PowerShell Team announced some things on Monday
OneGet is now PowerShell Package Maanger
Next WMF 5.0 preview will become available on 30 April
Pester – the testing module – will be included in Windows
Open Source projects on Github:
DSC Resource Kit
PowerShell Script Analayzer
Virtual Studio PowerShell Plug-in
PowerShell Summit NA 2015–recordings
Published April 21, 2015The recordings from PowerShell Summit NA 2015 are starting to become available on the powershell.org you tube channel.
This gives you an opportunity to watch the sessions you missed.
If you didn’t attend the Summit it gives you the opportunity to see what the Summit is like and why you should be there
PowerShell Summit NA 2015–Day 1
Published April 21, 2015The third PowerShell Summit kicked off Monday 20 April with breakfast and a welcome from Don Jones and the powershell.org board.
The PowerShell Summit is the premier PowerShell event in the world with 3 days of in depth PowerShell sessions delivered by the PowerShell Team, PowerShell MVPs and other acknowledged PowerShell experts.
The attendees are extremely knowledgeable asking probing questions to keep the speakers on their toes.
DSC is a major theme with the opening sessions covering this topic - Don Jones on resource design and Jason Helmick on using DSC to deploy IIS and PWA.
Other sessions included using DSC with Active Directory, and PowerShell for the reluctant DBA.
More esoteric topics included a look at PowerShell and Odata & Monitoring with PowerShell.
The day closed with the 140 attendees listening to Jeffrey Snover discussing the State of PowerShell – where its come from and where its going
PowerShell Summit NA 2015 speakers
Published April 9, 2015Want to learn a bit more about some of the speakers at the PowerShell Summit? Head over to the Scripting Guy blog - http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/ – to see a series of posts giving you some background, and pictures, of a number of speakers.