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windowspowershellregistry

Checking if registry value is equal to 1 is not working correctly


I have slopped together bits of PowerShell to remote query a list of machines, stored in a .csv file, for a registry value. If the registry key's value is equal to '1', the script should then create a text file using the machine's name as the name of the text file.

Everything works great. The script runs happily without any errors. The problem is that when I go back and remotely check a targeted registry value, I find that the value isn't 1. The script is simply creating a file for every line in the .csv.

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT*** I found a problem I had a typo in the $key variable for the registry path. 7/17/2013 2:21p

$File = Import-Csv 'c:\temp\machines.csv'

foreach ($line in $file)
{
  $machinename = $line.machinename
  trap [Exception] {continue}
  $reg = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey("LocalMachine",$MachineName)
  $key = "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\WinLogon"
  $regkey = ""
  $regkey = $reg.opensubkey($key)
  $keyValue = ""
  $keyValue = $regKey.GetValue('AutoAdminLogon')

  if ($keyValue = "1")
  {
    try
    {
      $textFile = New-Item -Path "c:\temp\autologin" -Name $MachineName -ItemType "File"
    }
    catch
    {
      $msg = $_
      $msg
    }
  }
  $Results = $MachineName , $keyValue
  Write-host $Results

  #Output Below Here:
}

Solution

  • In PowerShell = is an assignment operator, not a comparison operator. Change this line:

    if ($keyValue = "1")
    

    into this:

    if ($keyValue -eq "1")
    

    For more information see Get-Help about_Operators.

    You're making this way too complicated, BTW. Something like this should suffice:

    $keyname = 'SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\WinLogon'
    
    Import-Csv 'C:\temp\machines.csv' | % {
      $reg = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey("LocalMachine",
               $_.machinename)
      $key = $reg.OpenSubkey($keyname)
      $value = $key.GetValue('AutoAdminLogon')
      if ($value -eq "1") {
        $filename = Join-Path "c:\temp\autologin" $_.machinename
        try {
          touch $filename
          $textFile = Get-Item $filename
        } catch {
          $_
        }
      }
      Write-Host ($_.machinename , $value)
    }