VBScripts BLOG

<Types>
  <Type>
    <Name>System.String</Name>
      <Members>
        <ScriptMethod>
          <Name>GetRss</Name>
          <Script>
            $wc = New-Object Net.WebClien
            ([xml] ($wc.DownloadString($this))).rss
          </Script>
        </ScriptMethod>
      </Members>
  </Type>
</Types>

# Select a post title and press return to get the
# post body text.
$Url = "http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/rss.xml"
$rss = [xml](new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString($Url)
$feeds = $rss.rss.channel.item

[reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
$form = new-object windows.forms.form
$form.Text = "RSS titles"
$form.StartPosition = "CenterScreen"
$form.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(600,400)
$form.KeyPreview = $true

# initialize listbox   
$listbox = new-object windows.forms.listbox
$listbox.Width = 500
$listbox.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(10,10)

# initialize textbox
$textbox = new-object system.windows.forms.textbox
$textbox.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(10,120)
$textbox.Multiline = $true
$textbox.Width = 500
$textbox.Height = 200
$textbox.ScrollBars = "Vertical"
$textbox.Visible  = $false

$index = -1

$form.add_keydown({if ($_.KeyCode -eq "Return")
    {
        $index = $listbox.selectedindex
        if ($index -gt -1)
        {
            #--------------start one line------------#
            $textbox.text = $feeds[$index] |
            Select-Object Description |
            ConvertTo-Html
            #--------------end one line--------------#
            $textbox.Visible  = $true
        }
    }
})

# Fill teh listbox with the RSS titles
foreach ($feed in $feeds)
{
    $listbox.items.add($feed.title)
}

# Add alle objects to the form
$form.controls.Add($listbox)
$form.Controls.Add($textbox)
$form.ShowDialog()

Exception calling "Add" with "0" argument(s): "Old format or invalid
type library. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80028018
(TYPE_E_INVDATAREAD))"

$a = New-Object -comobject Excel.Application

$a.Visible = $True

$b = $a.Workbooks.Add()
$c = $b.Worksheets.Item(1)

$c.Cells.Item(1,1) = "A value in cell A1."
$b.SaveAs("C:\Scripts\Test.xls")

$a.Quit()

function pinger
{
    param($ip)
    $ping = New-Object System.Net.NetworkInformation.Ping
    $alive = $ping.send($ip)
    if ($alive.Status -eq "Success")
        {
            $out = $ip  + ", Is alive"
            return $out
        }
    else
        {
             $out = $ip  + ", Is dead"
            return $out
        }
}

function Invoke([object]$m, [string]$method, $parameters)
{
    $ciUS = [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]'en-US'
    #----------one line start-------------------------- 
    $m.PSBase.GetType().InvokeMember(
    $method, [Reflection.BindingFlags]::InvokeMethod,
    $null, $m, $parameters,$ciUS)
    #----------one line end----------------------------
} 

#----------------User settings-------------------------
$count = 1
$Max = 10
$ipbase="10.10.10."
#------------------------------------------------------

$objExcel = New-object -com Excel.Application
$objExcel.visible = $True
$objWorkbook = Invoke $objExcel.Workbooks Add
$objWorksheet = $objWorkbook.Worksheets.Item(1)

$objWorksheet.Cells.Item($count,1).Formulalocal = "IP number"
$objWorksheet.Cells.Item($count,2).Formulalocal = "State"

while($count -le $max)
{
    $out=pinger $ipbase$count
    $parts=$out.Split(",")
    $objWorksheet.Cells.Item($count+1,1).Formulalocal = $parts[0]
    $objWorksheet.Cells.Item($count+1,2).Formulalocal = $parts[1]
    $count++
}

Invoke $objWorkbook SaveAs "C:\Ping states.xlsx" > $null
Invoke $objWorkbook Close 0 > $null
$objExcel.Quit()

We are merging two Active Directories to one and Exchange 2003 was one the components that needed to be migrated to the new Active Directory. The old Exchange 2003 had Email addresses based on the login credentials of the users. In the new Active Directory user login credentials differ from the local part of the email address. So user name and email address where no longer related.

It took me some time to figure this one out. After installing SP3 on my Windows XP virtual machine I was no longer able to update my Windows with Microsoft update.

After some debugging I found out that Windows installer was the problem. All windows updates failed directly after installation.

We all have our weak moments and do stupid things. Just like I did with our virtual center database transaction log. I did not set a maximum growth limit to which the transaction log could grow and so it ran out of disc space. And our Virtual Center server stop running because of it. So I needed to trash the transaction log and fast. I made this little SQL script that can be run with SQL Query Analyzer.