Introduction to Scripting COM Objects with PowerShell
ComObject, or plain COM, increases the range of PowerShell activities. One way of looking at COM objects is as a mechanism for PowerShell to launch programs, for example, mimicking the RUN command. Another way of looking at ComObjects is performing the role previously undertaken by VBScript.
For both those tasks, scripting with COM objects gives you a rich selection of options. The bonus of using PowerShell rather than VBScript is that you need fewer commands.
The secret of manipulating COM objects is starting with the command: New-Object -COM. What comes next depends on which type of object you need. Here are examples of creating, then manipulating ComObject with $variables:-
#ComObject to launch the Internet Explorer application. Clear-Host $ie = New-Object -ComObject InternetExplorer.Application; $ie.visible=$true
Note 1: Incidentally, -com and -ComObject appear to be interchangeable.
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Let us investigate the properties of the -com object. At first, Get-Member appears not work, even help seems unsupportive. Fortunately, all that is missing is the
name of the -com object that you wish to research. For example:
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is one of the hidden
treasures of Microsoft operating systems. Fortunately, Solarwinds
have created a
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information, and thus improve your PowerShell scripts. Take the guess work out of which WMI counters to use when scripting the
operating system, Active Directory or Exchange Server.
Import users from a spreadsheet. Just provide a list of the
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The ComObject family of commands add important capabilities to PowerShell. For example, creating network objects means that you don't have to revert to VBScript when you need to map network drives. Another way
of looking at the -ComObject command is as a PowerShell method of accessing the Run dialog box programmatically.
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Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is one of the hidden
treasures of Microsoft operating systems.
Fortunately, Solarwinds
have created the
Free WMI Monitor so that you can actually see and understand these gems of
performance information. Take the guess work out of which
WMI counters to use for applications like Microsoft Active Directory,
SQL or Exchange Server.
