Year: 2015

This PowerShell function will calculate how long it will take to transfer a given number of bytes at a given speed (in bits per second). Optionally, you can specify transfer overhead, which defaults to ten percent.

Example Usage

PS C:\> Get-TransferTime -FileSize 4.4gb -Speed 2mb


Days         : 0
Hours        : 5
Minutes      : 0
Seconds      : 22
TotalDays    : 0.208587962962963
TotalHours   : 5.00611111111111
TotalMinutes : 300.366666666667
TotalSeconds : 18022

The Function

<#
.Synopsis
Data transfer time calculation.
.DESCRIPTION
Calculate how long it would take to transfer a given number of bytes at a given speed.
.PARAMETER FileSize
File Size in bytes. Can specify with GB, MB, etc.
.PARAMETER Speed
Transfer speed in bits. Can specify with GB, MB, etc.
.PARAMETER OverheadPercent
Transfer overhead percent. Defaults to 10.
.EXAMPLE
Get-TransferTime -FileSize 4.4gb -Speed 2mb
.EXAMPLE
Get-TransferTime -FileSize 50mb -Speed 10mb -OverheadPercent 6
.NOTES
Ken Bradley, 2015-12-10
#>
function Get-TransferTime
{
    [CmdletBinding()]
    [Alias()]
    [OutputType([int])]
    Param
    (
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,
                   ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true,
                   Position=0)]
        [double]$FileSize, # bytes, can specify GB, MB, etc

        #Speed help!
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true,
                   ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true,
                   Position=1)]
        [double]$Speed, # bits, can specify GB, MB, etc

        [Parameter(Mandatory=$false,
                   ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true,
                   Position=2)]
        [double]$OverheadPercent=10
        )

    # Scale percent so 100% = 1.0
    $ScaledPercent = 1 + ($OverheadPercent / 100)
    # Calculate seconds
    $Result = ($FileSize * 8 * $ScaledPercent) / $Speed

    # Output the result nicely formated
    New-TimeSpan -Seconds $Result | Format-List -Property Days, Hours, Minutes, Seconds, TotalDays, TotalHours, TotalMinutes, TotalSeconds
    }

[EDIT: Previously, there was an error with OverheadPercent being excluded from the calculation. It has been added back. Thanks to JG for catching this.]

This example of PowerShell code shows how to output objects from your own functions. The basic tasks you do to accomplish this in your function are:

1. Assemble the values into a hash table
2. Create an object using that hash table
3. Output the object

Once you do this, then you can treat your output as you would any other object in PowerShell.

1. Assemble the values into a hash table
   • See my example below, it is the lines like $Properties =  @{…}
   • More info at about_Splatting
2. Create an object using that hash table
   • See my example, the line starting with $Object = New-Object…
3. Output the object
   • Simply Write-Output $Object

# Example Function
function Get-SystemInfo {

    # Prepare the info
    $OS = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem # for FreePhysicalMemory, Caption, PSComputerName, SystemDrive
    $LoadPercentage = (Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Processor).LoadPercentage
    $ProcessCount = (Get-Process).Count
    $SystemDrive = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_LogicalDisk -filter "Name = '$($OS.SystemDrive)'" 
    $ComputerSystem = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_ComputerSystem

    # Prepare the properties in a hash table
    $Properties = @{
        ComputerName = $ComputerSystem.DNSHostName;
        Domain = $ComputerSystem.Domain;
        FreePhysicalMemory = "{0:n0}" -f ($OS.FreePhysicalMemory /1KB) + " MB";
        OS = $OS.Caption;
        LastBootUpTime = $OS.LastBootUpTime;
        LoadPercentage = $LoadPercentage;
        ProcessCount = $ProcessCount;
        SysVolFree = "{0:n1}" -f ($SystemDrive.FreeSpace /1GB) + " GB"
        }
    
    # Create an object using the properties
    $Object = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $Properties

    # Output the object
    Write-Output $Object     
    }

# Example Usage

# Using the results, put them into an object "$Result"
$Result = Get-SystemInfo

# Access the values inside the object
$Result.LastBootUpTime

What is COM?

I hope to explain how to use COM object in PowerShell. A COM object is an interface into an application or Windows. For example the Excel COM object will allow you to work with an Excel spreadsheet, or the iTunes COM object will allow you to control iTunes via PowerShell. It’s not always pretty, or easy. If you have a built-in PowerShell command, use it. (For example Export-Csv is easier then using Excel to work with CSV.)

Getting Started

Maybe you don’t know the exact name of the COM object you want to use? Sometimes a quick web search will uncover it. If not, this bit of PowerShell code will list the COM objects available on your machine.

Get-ChildItem HKLM:\Software\Classes -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object { $_.PSChildName -match '^\w+\.\w+$' -and (Test-Path -Path "$($_.PSPath)\CLSID") } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PSChildName

(via PowerShell Magazine)

The list may take a few minutes. I see “iTunes.Application” in there. That’s what I want.

Using the COM Object

I tell PowerShell to create a new object:

$Itunes = New-Object  -ComObject iTunes.Application

To see what we can do with this object, execute the above then type this PowerShell command (gm is the alias for Get-Member):

$Itunes | gm

This tells me the methods and properties supported by this COM object. Browsing through this will reveal more details, if you need it. “$itunes.LibraryPlaylist.Tracks” is all the tracks. And

$itunes.LibraryPlaylist.Tracks[1] | gm

shows you the methods and properties relating to tracks. (I use the “[1]” to make the listing faster. Since tracks is an array of all the tracks in iTunes, this could take a long time to list all the methods and properties, if you have many tracks. Since all tracks have the same member names (like Artist, Year, Name, etc), I’ll just list the members from the first track.)

So for example, if you wanted iTunes to play, you could do:

$Itunes.play()

Or this little script goes through all your tracks and counts the artists in your collection:

$Itunes = New-Object  -ComObject iTunes.Application
# Get a list of artists from tracks
$Artist = @()
foreach ($Track in  $Itunes.LibraryPlaylist.Tracks)
    {
    $Artist += $Track.Artist
    }
# eliminate duplicates in the list
$artist = $artist | sort -Unique 
Write-Host "$($artist.count) artists found in your iTunes collection"

I recently discovered Rainmeter, a desktop customization tool that lets you use some really nice looking gadgets. I wanted a simple skin to show disk free space.

I have five volumes, I could have manually written a custom skin. (Rainmeter skins are INI files.) That would involve setting a measure section for each disk and a in another section define how the output looks. Or I could take the much more time consuming task of writing a PowerShell script to iterate through my disks and write the skin INI file.

Download RainmeterDisksSkin.ZIP

The body of the script:

# Stop on the first error
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

$RainmeterPath = [environment]::getfolderpath("mydocuments") + "\Rainmeter\Skins\"
$SkinName = "Kenward"
$FileName = "disks.ini"

If (-Not (Test-Path $($RainmeterPath + $SkinName))) {
    Set-Location $RainmeterPath
    mkdir $SkinName
    }

$OutFile = $RainmeterPath + $SkinName + "\" + $FileName
$Disks = Get-Volume | where {$_.DriveType -eq "Fixed"} | sort -Property DriveLetter
$Disks

$Header = @"
[Rainmeter]
Update=1000

[Variables]
vFontName=Segoe UI Light
vFontColor=255,255,255,255
vSolidColor=0,0,0,128
vFontSize=14
vStringCase=Lower
"@

$MeterCommon = @"
`n[MeterDriveInfo]
NumOfDecimals=0
FontFace=#vFontName#
FontSize=#vFontSize#
Meter=String
X=0
Y=0
FontColor=#vFontColor#
SolidColor=#vSolidColor#
AntiAlias=1
AutoScale=1
StringCase=#vStringCase#
"@

Out-File -FilePath $Outfile -InputObject $Header

foreach ($Disk in $Disks) {
    Out-File -FilePath $Outfile -Append -InputObject "`n[MeasureFreeDiskSpace$($Disk.DriveLetter)]"
    Out-File -FilePath $Outfile -Append -InputObject "Measure=FreeDiskSpace"
    Out-File -FilePath $Outfile -Append -InputObject "Drive=$($Disk.DriveLetter):"
    Out-File -FilePath $Outfile -Append -InputObject "UpdateDivider=5"
    }

Out-File -FilePath $Outfile -Append -InputObject $MeterCommon

for ($i = 0; $i -le $Disks.count - 1; $i++)
    { 
    if ($i -eq 0) {
        $Output = "MeasureName=MeasureFreeDiskSpace$($Disks[$i].DriveLetter)"
        $TextValue = "text = ""$($Disks[$i].DriveLetter) drive %1B free"
        }
        else {
            $Output = "MeasureName$($i+1)=MeasureFreeDiskSpace$($Disks[$i].DriveLetter)"
            $TextValue += "#crlf#$($Disks[$i].DriveLetter) drive %$($i + 1)B free"
        }
    Out-File -FilePath $Outfile -Append -InputObject $Output
    }

Out-File -FilePath $Outfile -Append -InputObject $($TextValue + '"')

It’s very easy to access the registry in PowerShell. Usually you will want to read or write to the registry. These examples show how.

The registry key in these examples is “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyAwesomeKey“.

Suppose I wanted to read the data from a value called “Kenward”, into a variable. I would use this command:

$myvalue = (Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyAwesomeKey).Kenward

Easy huh?

If you want to write to the registry, it’s also very easy, for example:

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyAwesomeKey -Name "Kenward" -Value "somevalue"

PowerShell is smart enough to know that you are writing a string to the registry, so that it automatically makes the value type a string (“REG_SZ”) in the registry.

If you write a number to the registry, like this:

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\MyAwesomeKey -Name "Meaning" -Value 42

It will make the value of type “REG_DWORD”, a 32 bit number.

If for some reason you need to force the value type to be a certain type, you can use the -type parameter of Set-ItemProperty to specify Binary, Dword, ExpandStrind, MultiString, None, Qword (64 bit number), String, or Unknown.

That’s it! Let me know if you have any questions.