In one of my previous blog posts PowerShell: Documenting your environment by running systeminfo on all Domain-Computers I have described how to list important system information of all Domain Computers by running systeminfo. Now I want to paste it in a function. The name of this function will be Get-SystemInfo. What a surprise. I’m really a creative person.  🙂 And here it is.

The Goal

The approach is to gather all relevant Operating System information from all Domain Computer and/or Domain Servers or from one or more computers. It should look like this:

As mentioned, I’ve already prepared some stuff in a previous blog post. Now I want to go a huge step further.

Get-SystemInfo

The Parameters

Get-SystemInfo enables you to define a scope or computername. Pressing CTRL+Space lists all options. Two of them are particularly interesting.

A closer look at parameters …

Ok, I have to admit I’m not a professional developer who cares much about error and error conditions. But I try to provide some help. Pay attention to the description of the scope parameter.

Or simply type Get-SytemInfo -Scope and then press CTRL+Space.

Which brings me to the next part: Playing with Get-SystemInfo. Remember the parameter values. Now they come into play … and action …

Get-SystemInfo in Action: Defining a Scope

Query all Servers

Query all Domain-Controllers

Query all Client Computer (WinRM must be enabled, it’s disabled by default on all client operating systems)

For enabling WinRM with Group Policies see:

Group Policies: Enabling WinRM for Windows Client Operating Systems (Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7)

Query all Computers

Do you like it? Let’s keep going it’s not the end …

Get-SystemInfo in Action: Defining a Computer Name

Running on one Computer only

Running on multiple computer (separate them by comma)

Which brings me to the last part of this blog post. Actually, the most important thing. The function itsself.

The Function

Make sure you run the code an a Domain Controller or on a computer with RSAT installed.

function Get-SystemInfo {
param
(
[parameter(HelpMessage='Enter the following values: LocalHost, ServerOnly, DCOnly, ClientOnly or AllComputer')]
[ValidateSet('LocalHost', 'ServerOnly', 'DCOnly', 'ClientOnly', 'AllComputer')]
$Scope, $ComputerName
)
$header='Host Name','OS','Version','Manufacturer','Configuration','Build Type','Registered Owner','Registered Organization','Product ID','Install Date','Boot Time','System Manufacturer','Model','Type','Processor','Bios','Windows Directory','System Directory','Boot Device','Language','Keyboard','Time Zone','Total Physical Memory','Available Physical Memory','Virtual Memory','Virtual Memory Available','Virtual Memory in Use','Page File','Domain','Logon Server','Hotfix','Network Card','Hyper-V'
If ($Scope -eq 'ServerOnly') {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-ADComputer -Filter {operatingsystem -like '*server*'}).Name {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView
}
elseif ($Scope -eq 'DCOnly') {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-ADDomainController -Filter *).Name {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView
}
elseif ($Scope -eq 'LocalHost')
{systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1 | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView
}
elseif ($Scope -eq 'ClientOnly') {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-ADComputer -Filter {operatingsystem -notlike '*server*'}).Name {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView
}
elseif ($Scope -eq 'AllComputer') {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-ADComputer -Filter *).Name {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView
}
elseif ($ComputerName) {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $ComputerName {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView
}
}

The script has grown over time. One of my followers pointed out to me that it would be better to work with switch instead lots of If and elseif. Thank you for the advice. Here is the function with switch. We can thus save some lines.

function Get-SystemInfo {
param
(
[parameter(HelpMessage='Enter the following values: LocalHost, ServerOnly, DCOnly, ClientOnly or AllComputer')]
[ValidateSet('LocalHost', 'ServerOnly', 'DCOnly', 'ClientOnly', 'AllComputer')]
$Scope, $ComputerName
)
$header='Host Name','OS','Version','Manufacturer','Configuration','Build Type','Registered Owner','Registered Organization','Product ID','Install Date','Boot Time','System Manufacturer','Model','Type','Processor','Bios','Windows Directory','System Directory','Boot Device','Language','Keyboard','Time Zone','Total Physical Memory','Available Physical Memory','Virtual Memory','Virtual Memory Available','Virtual Memory in Use','Page File','Domain','Logon Server','Hotfix','Network Card','Hyper-V'
switch ($Scope)
{
'ServerOnly' {Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-ADComputer -Filter {operatingsystem -like '*server*'}).Name {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView}
'DCOnly' {Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-ADDomainController -Filter *).Name {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView}
'LocalHost' {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1 | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView}
'ClientOnly' {Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-ADComputer -Filter {operatingsystem -notlike '*server*'}).Name {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView}
'AllComputer' {Invoke-Command -ComputerName (Get-ADComputer -Filter *).Name {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView}
}
If ($ComputerName) {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $ComputerName {systeminfo /FO CSV | Select-Object -Skip 1} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ConvertFrom-Csv -Header $header | Out-GridView
}
}

Make it permanent

If you like my approach open PowerShell ISE. Copy the function to your ISE session. Create a folder in C:\Program Files\Windows PowerShell\Modules and save the code as psm1 file. Make sure that your file name and folder name match.

Close PowerShell. Open PowerShell again. The command is now available for all users. Have fun with Get-SystemInfo!

See also

It’s worth taking a look at my other functions which are very useful for day-to-day tasks:

Test- FirewallAllServer: Query the Firewall status on all Windows Servers (enabled/disabled)

PowerShell: Find out whether a host is really down or not with Test-ConnectionLocalSubnet (ping, arp)

PowerShell: Notify me when someone is added to the Administrator Group