Resizing the PowerShell Console
Published 28 April, 2017Windows 10's support for high DPI displays is much better than previous iterations of Windows, but there are still some times it gets a bit confused. One such problem occurs when you have multiple high DPI displays or two displays of different sizes. If you move PowerShell console windows between displays or log back in after being logged out for a while, you can end up with a scrunched up PowerShell window. Nothing I had to deal with when all I had was a pair of standard FullHD monitors, but ever since I got my Surface Book, and connected it to a 28 inch 4k monitor, I've had periodic problems. Very annoying when your PowerShell window changes to 37 characters wide and 7 lines long!
The fix is to reset the window size. Now I can do this graphically (right click on the title bar, select Properties, and then the Layout tab), but that's a nuisance at best, and besides, the whole idea of using the GUI to fix a console just isn't right. The answer is to leverage the built-in $host variable:
$host | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHost
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
EnterNestedPrompt Method void EnterNestedPrompt()
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
ExitNestedPrompt Method void ExitNestedPrompt()
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
NotifyBeginApplication Method void NotifyBeginApplication()
NotifyEndApplication Method void NotifyEndApplication()
PopRunspace Method void PopRunspace(), void IHostSupportsInteractiveSession.PopRunspace()
PushRunspace Method void PushRunspace(runspace runspace), void IHostSupportsInteractiveSession.PushRunspace(runspace runspace)
SetShouldExit Method void SetShouldExit(int exitCode)
ToString Method string ToString()
CurrentCulture Property cultureinfo CurrentCulture {get;}
CurrentUICulture Property cultureinfo CurrentUICulture {get;}
DebuggerEnabled Property bool DebuggerEnabled {get;set;}
InstanceId Property guid InstanceId {get;}
IsRunspacePushed Property bool IsRunspacePushed {get;}
Name Property string Name {get;}
PrivateData Property psobject PrivateData {get;}
Runspace Property runspace Runspace {get;}
UI Property System.Management.Automation.Host.PSHostUserInterface UI {get;}
Version Property version Version {get;}
OK, there's some interesting bits there, but the one that looks most promising is UI. So:
$host.UI | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostUserInterface
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
Prompt Method System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,psobject] Prompt(string caption, string message, System.Collection...
PromptForChoice Method int PromptForChoice(string caption, string message, System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection[System.Management...
PromptForCredential Method pscredential PromptForCredential(string caption, string message, string userName, string targetName), pscredent...
ReadLine Method string ReadLine()
ReadLineAsSecureString Method securestring ReadLineAsSecureString()
ToString Method string ToString()
Write Method void Write(string value), void Write(System.ConsoleColor foregroundColor, System.ConsoleColor backgroundColor, ...
WriteDebugLine Method void WriteDebugLine(string message)
WriteErrorLine Method void WriteErrorLine(string value)
WriteInformation Method void WriteInformation(System.Management.Automation.InformationRecord record)
WriteLine Method void WriteLine(), void WriteLine(string value), void WriteLine(System.ConsoleColor foregroundColor, System.Cons...
WriteProgress Method void WriteProgress(long sourceId, System.Management.Automation.ProgressRecord record)
WriteVerboseLine Method void WriteVerboseLine(string message)
WriteWarningLine Method void WriteWarningLine(string message)
RawUI Property System.Management.Automation.Host.PSHostRawUserInterface RawUI {get;}
SupportsVirtualTerminal Property bool SupportsVirtualTerminal {get;}
Hmmm. Even more interesting stuff. I can tell I'm going to be doing some poking around in here! But, for our purposes, let's take a look at RawUI.
That looks the most promising:
$host.UI.RawUI | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostRawUserInterface
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
FlushInputBuffer Method void FlushInputBuffer()
GetBufferContents Method System.Management.Automation.Host.BufferCell[,] GetBufferContents(System.Management.Automation.Host.Rectangle r)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
LengthInBufferCells Method int LengthInBufferCells(string str), int LengthInBufferCells(string str, int offset), int LengthInBufferCells(cha...
NewBufferCellArray Method System.Management.Automation.Host.BufferCell[,] NewBufferCellArray(string[] contents, System.ConsoleColor foregro...
ReadKey Method System.Management.Automation.Host.KeyInfo ReadKey(System.Management.Automation.Host.ReadKeyOptions options), Syst...
ScrollBufferContents Method void ScrollBufferContents(System.Management.Automation.Host.Rectangle source, System.Management.Automation.Host.C...
SetBufferContents Method void SetBufferContents(System.Management.Automation.Host.Coordinates origin, System.Management.Automation.Host.Bu...
ToString Method string ToString()
BackgroundColor Property System.ConsoleColor BackgroundColor {get;set;}
BufferSize Property System.Management.Automation.Host.Size BufferSize {get;set;}
CursorPosition Property System.Management.Automation.Host.Coordinates CursorPosition {get;set;}
CursorSize Property int CursorSize {get;set;}
ForegroundColor Property System.ConsoleColor ForegroundColor {get;set;}
KeyAvailable Property bool KeyAvailable {get;}
MaxPhysicalWindowSize Property System.Management.Automation.Host.Size MaxPhysicalWindowSize {get;}
MaxWindowSize Property System.Management.Automation.Host.Size MaxWindowSize {get;}
WindowPosition Property System.Management.Automation.Host.Coordinates WindowPosition {get;set;}
WindowSize Property System.Management.Automation.Host.Size WindowSize {get;set;}
WindowTitle Property string WindowTitle {get;set;}
BINGO! I see BufferSize and WindowSize, and I know from the GUI Properties page that those are the relevant settings, but just to verify:
$host.UI.RawUI.BufferSize | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Management.Automation.Host.Size
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
ToString Method string ToString()
Height Property int Height {get;set;}
Width Property int Width {get;set;}
$host.UI.RawUI.WindowSize | Get-Member
TypeName: System.Management.Automation.Host.Size
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
ToString Method string ToString()
Height Property int Height {get;set;}
Width Property int Width {get;set;}
And there we have it. Both of them can be retrieved and set. So, I came up with a little script, Set-myConSize, that lets me restore the window to its default size, or set it to a new size if I'm doing something that needs a bit of window size tweaking.
<#
.Synopsis
Resets the size of the current console window
.Description
Set-myConSize resets the size of the current console window. By default, it
sets the windows to a height of 40 lines, with a 3000 line buffer, and sets the
the width and width buffer to 120 characters.
.Example
Set-myConSize
Restores the console window to 120x40
.Example
Set-myConSize -Height 30 -Width 180
Changes the current console to a height of 30 lines and a width of 180 characters.
.Parameter Height
The number of lines to which to set the current console. The default is 40 lines.
.Parameter Width
The number of characters to which to set the current console. Default is 120. Also sets the buffer to the same value
.Inputs
[int]
[int]
.Notes
Author: Charlie Russel
Copyright: 2017 by Charlie Russel
: Permission to use is granted but attribution is appreciated
Initial: 28 April, 2017 (cpr)
ModHist:
:
#>
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$False,Position=0)]
[int]
$Height = 40,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$False,Position=1)]
[int]
$Width = 120
)
$Console = $host.ui.rawui
$Buffer = $Console.BufferSize
$ConSize = $Console.WindowSize
# If the Buffer is wider than the new console setting, first reduce the buffer, then do the resize
If ($Buffer.Width -gt $Width ) {
$ConSize.Width = $Width
$Console.WindowSize = $ConSize
}
$Buffer.Width = $Width
$ConSize.Width = $Width
$Buffer.Height = 3000
$Console.BufferSize = $Buffer
$ConSize = $Console.WindowSize
$ConSize.Width = $Width
$ConSize.Height = $Height
$Console.WindowSize = $ConSize
One quick comment on this script -- you can't set the BufferSize to smaller than the current WindowSize. With a Height buffer set to 3,000, that's not likely to be a problem, but if you don't want scroll bars on the bottom of your console windows (and you do NOT, trust me!), then you need the console WindowSize.Width to be the same as the BufferSize.Width. So if your reducing, you need to change the WindowSize first, then you can reduce the BufferSize. If you're increasing width, you need to do the buffer first.
Finally, I set an alias in my $Profile:
Set-Alias -Name Resize -Value Set-myConSize
Posted in $Profile, Annoyances, Console, PowerShell | 
Buffer Size, Console, Display, HighDPI, PowerShell, Window Size | 
4 Comments
Getting the Free Disk Space of Remote Computers Revisited
Several years ago, I wrote a fairly simplistic script to get the free disk space of remote computers. It wasn't all that sophisticated, but it got the job that I needed done, so I shared it here on my blog, since I thought others might find it useful. Which, based on the number of hits here, and the comments, they did. However, based on some of those comments, it had a problem for some users.
The problem was that I used Write-Host in it. That was fine for me, because I only used it to write to my screen. But it's a bad practice to be using Write-Host unless you really need to manipulate screen colours. The reason it's a bad practice is that it prevents any sort of redirection! This meant that those users who wanted to capture the result of the script in a file were horked, because Write-Host will ALWAYS write to ( ... wait for it... )
The Host. You can't redirect it. The fix, of course, is easy -- use Write-Object instead, which is what I should have done in the first place.
While I was in the process of making that change, I thought it would be nice to add in a basic Get-Help page for it, which was trivial. But then it occurred to me that I really should let it handle pipeline input, allowing me to use other PowerShell commands to select the group of machines I wanted the free disk space on, and then pipe that result directly to Get-myFreeSpace.
Seemed like a good idea, but it turned out I had to almost completely rewrite the script to use the Begin{}/Process{}/End{} syntax. Accepting pipeline input is not as simple as just saying you do in the Parameter statement, you need to actually process that input. The result is the new, improved version of Get-myFreeSpace.ps1 shown below. (If you care about how I got to this script in the first place, do check out the original post, here. There's some useful information there about the whole process. )
<# .Synopsis Gets the disk utilization of one or more computers .Description Get-myFreeSpace queries an array of remote computers and returns a nicely formatted display of their current disk utilization and free space. The output can be redirected to a file or other output option using standard redirection. .Example Get-myFreeSpace Gets the disk utilization and free space of all drives on the local host. .Example Get-myFreeSpace -ComputerName Server1,Server2 Gets the disk utilization and free space of all drives on the Server1 and Server2 .Example (Get-VM -Name "*server*" | Where State -eq 'Running' ).Name | Get-myFreeSpace PS C:\>(Get-VM -Name "*server*" | Where-Object {$_.State -eq 'Running').Name | Get-myFreeSpace Gets a list of running VMs with Server in their name, and passes it to Get-myFreeSpace to process for their current disk utilization. The first version of this example uses PowerShell v5 syntax, while the second version uses the older syntax that works on earlier versions. .Parameter ComputerName An array of computer names from which you want the disk utilization .Inputs [string[]] .Notes Author: Charlie Russel Copyright: 2017 by Charlie Russel : Permission to use is granted but attribution is appreciated Initial: 26 Nov, 2014 (cpr) ModHist: 29 Sep, 2016 -- Changed default to array of localhost (cpr) : 18 Apr, 2017 -- Changed to use Write-Output,accept Pipeline,added man page, (cpr) : #> [CmdletBinding()] Param( [Parameter(Mandatory=$False,Position=0,` ValueFromPipeline=$True,` ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True,` ValueFromRemainingArguments=$True)] [alias("Name","Computer")] [string[]] $ComputerName = @("localhost") ) Begin { if ($Input) { $ComputerName = @($Input) } Write-Output "" # Save ErrorActionPreference so we can reset it when we're done $eap = $ErrorActionPreference } Process { $ErrorActionPreference = 'SilentlyContinue' ForEach ( $Computer in $ComputerName ) { Write-Output "Disk Utilization for Computer $Computer is: " Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $Computer -Class Win32_Volume ` | Format-Table -auto ` @{Label="Drive";` Expression={$_.DriveLetter};` Align="Right"},` @{Label="Free(GB)";` Expression={"{0:N0}" -f ($_.FreeSpace/1GB)};` Align="Right"},` @{Label="% Free";` Expression={"{0:P0}" -f ($_.FreeSpace / $_.Capacity)};` Align="Right"},` @{Label="Size(GB)";` Expression={"{0:N0}" -f ($_.Capacity / 1GB)};` Align="Right"},` @{Label="Volume Label";` Expression={$_.Label};` Width=25} } #EndForEach } #EndProcessBlock End { # Reset ErrorActionPreference to original value $ErrorActionPreference = $eap }And there you have it. A new and improved version of one of the most popular scripts I've ever posted here. You can use it to get the disk utilization on your current machine, or any list of remote computers to which you have the rights to run WMI against.
I hope you find this script useful, and I'd love to hear comments, suggestions for improvements, or bug reports as appropriate. As always, if you use this script as the basis for your own work, please respect my copyright and provide appropriate attribution.