Quick Tip: Complex Powershell in Run Commandline Step of ConfigMgr TS

I am using this more and more now, maybe just because i think it’s kinda cool. I wanted to use some Powershell in a Run Commandline Step in a TS, which used a couple of lines of code, had some double-quote characters, and i didn’t want (or was too lazy) to create a script in a package, update the DPs and use that. I just wanted to test the script, demo what it did, before i went down the package route.

Also, using double-quotes in the Commandline step annoys me , escape characters and so on; so i found this neat little trick.

Take the code you want to use, e.g.

$tsenv=new-object microsoft.sms.tsenvironment;$tsenv.Value(“SMSTSErrorDialogTimeout”)=0

and parse this to a string variable using something like a Here-String

$script = {$tsenv=new-object microsoft.sms.tsenvironment;$tsenv.Value(“SMSTSErrorDialogTimeout”)}.ToString()

then use the System Convert and Text Encoding classes to create a Base64String

$encCmd = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes($script))

which gives

JAB0AHMAZQBuAHYAPQBuAGUAdwAtAG8AYgBqAGUAYwB0ACAAbQBpAGMAcgBvAHMAbwBmAHQALgBzAG0AcwAuAHQAcwBlAG4AdgBpAHIAbwBuAG0AZQBuAHQAOwAkAHQAcwBlAG4AdgAuAFYAYQBsAHUAZQAoACIAUwBNAFMAVABTAEUAcgByAG8AcgBEAGkAYQBsAG8AZwBUAGkAbQBlA
G8AdQB0ACIAKQA=

Now use that with Powershell in a Commandline step like this

powershell.exe -EncodedCommand JAB0AHMAZQBuAHYAPQBuAGUAdwAtAG8AYgBqAGUAYwB0ACAAbQBpAGMAcgBvAHMAbwBmAHQALgBzAG0AcwAuAHQAcwBlAG4AdgBpAHIAbwBuAG0AZQBuAHQAOwAkAHQAcwBlAG4AdgAuAFYAYQBsAHUAZQAoACIAUwBNAFMAVABTAEUAcgByAG8AcgBEAGkAYQBsAG8AZwBUAGkAbQBlAG8AdQB0ACIAKQA=

 

Watch for line breaks when you copy the Base64String. Otherwise, it works, and if you find it useful or just cool then i’m glad.

Incidentally, to Change the Base64String back to readable text:

[System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String($encCmd))

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Write logs in CMTrace tool format

as recently promised at CMCE here is a powershell module to write your logfiles in cmtrace format:

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Write-CMTrace-0330216e

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Accessing the Task Sequence Environment in ConfigMgr

I had a question at CMCE Switzerland about how to get acces to the SMSTS variables through Powerhell, so here it is:

In either a script or at a Powershell command window, create a ComObject:

$tsenv = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment

you can use this to access and set Task Sequence variables:

$tsenv.Value(“OSDComputerName”)

will return the value of the OSDComputerName action variable

$tsenv.Value(“SMSTSErrorDialogTimeout”) = 0

sets the timeout on the error message box to something like 6 years (in seconds)