Powershell – Scripts, Notes and More

The following Powershell script will display information such as the Hostname, IP Address, and Username of the computer hosting it. The script works on both Windows Server Desktop and Windows Server Core and is best implemented as a login script for an environment. Prior to enabling it as a login script, one would have to codesign the script, but that will be covered in another post.

add-type -name user32 -namespace win32 -memberDefinition '[DllImport("user32.dll")] public static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 nCmdShow);'
[win32.user32]::showWindow((get-process -id $pid).mainWindowHandle, 0)

# Load the Winforms assembly
[reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName( "System.Windows.Forms") | out-null

# Create the form
$form = New-Object Windows.Forms.Form

#Configure the form
$form.text = ""
$form.AutoScaleMode = 2
$form.FormBorderStyle = 0
$form.ControlBox = $false
$form.BackColor = [System.Drawing.Color]::Black
$form.TransparencyKey = [System.Drawing.Color]::Black
$form.AllowTransparency = $true
$form.Width = 400
$form.ShowInTaskbar = $false

#Systray Icon
$notifyIcon = New-Object Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon
$notifyIcon.Icon = [System.Drawing.SystemIcons]::Information
$notifyIcon.Text = "DesktopInfo POSH"
$notifyIcon.Visible = $true


#define a context menu
$contextMenu = New-Object Windows.Forms.ContextMenu
$contextMenuExit = New-Object Windows.Forms.MenuItem
$contextMenuExit.Text = "E&xit"
$contextMenuExit.Add_Click({
    $form.Close()
})
#Out-Null is added to suppress output of index
$contextMenu.MenuItems.Add($contextMenuExit) | Out-Null
$notifyIcon.ContextMenu = $contextMenu


$point = New-Object System.Drawing.Point
$point.Y = 0
$point.X = [System.Windows.Forms.Screen]::PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Right - $form.Width
$form.StartPosition = [System.Windows.Forms.FormStartPosition]::Manual
$form.DesktopLocation = $point


# Create the hostName label control and set text, size and location
$hostName = New-Object Windows.Forms.Label
$hostName.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(10,10)
$hostName.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(100,25)
$hostName.Width = 300
$hostName.Font = New-Object System.Drawing.Font($hostName.font.Name,16,[System.Drawing.FontStyle]::Bold)
$hostName.ForeColor = [System.Drawing.Color]::White
$hostName.text = "Host Name: $($env:COMPUTERNAME)"

# Create the userName label control and set text, size and location
$userName = New-Object Windows.Forms.Label
$userName.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(10,40)
$userName.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(100,25)
$userName.Width = 300
$userName.Font = New-Object System.Drawing.Font($hostName.font.Name,16,[System.Drawing.FontStyle]::Bold)
$userName.ForeColor = [System.Drawing.Color]::White
$userName.text = "Username: $($env:USERNAME)"


$NetAdapters = Get-NetAdapter
$IPLabel = @()
$i = 70

foreach($na in $NetAdapters){
        $IP = New-Object Windows.Forms.Label
        $IP.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(10,$i)
        $IP.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(100,25)
        $IP.Width = 500
        $IP.Font = New-Object System.Drawing.Font($hostName.font.Name,16,[System.Drawing.FontStyle]::Bold)
        $IP.ForeColor = [System.Drawing.Color]::White
        $IP | Add-Member -NotePropertyName ifIndex -NotePropertyValue $na.ifIndex
        $AdapterAlias = $na.ifAlias
        if($adapterAlias.length -gt 15){
            $adapterAlias = "$($na.ifAlias)".Substring(0,15)
        }
        $IP.text = "$($AdapterAlias): $((Get-NetIPAddress -InterfaceIndex $na.ifIndex).IPv4Address)"
        $IPLabel+=$IP
        $i+=30
}


#refresh form every 2 seconds
$Timer = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Timer
$Timer.Interval = 2000
$Timer.Add_Tick({
    $hostName.text = "Host Name: $($env:COMPUTERNAME)"
    $userName.text = "Username: $($env:USERNAME)"
    
    #cycle through known interfaces by index
    foreach($l in $IPLabel){
        $na = Get-NetAdapter -InterfaceIndex $l.ifIndex
        $AdapterAlias = $na.ifAlias
        if($adapterAlias.length -gt 15){
            $adapterAlias = "$($na.ifAlias)".Substring(0,15)
        }
        $l.text = "$($AdapterAlias): $((Get-NetIPAddress -InterfaceIndex $na.ifIndex).IPv4Address)"
    }
    $form.SendToBack()
})
$Timer.Enabled = $true


# Add the controls to the Form
$form.controls.add($hostName)
$form.controls.add($userName)
foreach($l in $IPLabel){
    $form.controls.add($l)
}

# Display the dialog
$form.SendToBack()
$form.ShowDialog()
$timer.Stop()
$notifyIcon.Dispose()

The script starts by adding the user32 namespace from the win32 DLL to access the ShowWindow function, which hides the script’s console window. Then, it loads the System.Windows.Forms assembly to create a form for displaying the desktop information.

The form is configured with various settings such as size, background color, transparency, and positioning on the desktop. It also includes a system tray icon with a context menu that allows users to exit the script.

The script retrieves the host name and username from environment variables and displays them as labels on the form. It also fetches network adapter information and dynamically creates labels to display the IP addresses of each adapter.

The form is refreshed every 2 seconds to update the information displayed. It is a work in progress, and more will be added, as well as a configuration file to allow customization of the information displayed. This is only the beginning.

The script can be viewed and downloaded from my github: https://github.com/Thurdi/POSH-DesktopInfo

Category: Powershell

PowerShell Desktop Information Script