Tag Archives: Measure-TMCommand

I am TechNet Gallery Years Old

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I did not know it when I started, but it turns out, this is Part I.

Up until just recently, I had a section on my website called “TechNet Gallery.” It was right up there between “Contents” and “About.” I have an image of what it contained below. There was some pretty great stuff in there, but it was time for that section to be removed. With that, it is now time for the links to be updated, so people can find these scripts and modules again. The TechNet Gallery links no longer work. It has been a while since I have looked these over, but the links will likely be a combination of GitHub and the PowerShell Gallery. Check the content below the image for information about the first four entries. The others will be highlighted in additional, related posts.

1. “Get Synonyms for Approved and Unapproved Verbs”

I have always loved this script. I even used it yesterday, prior to knowing I would start piecing this post together. If there is a verb you want to use for your cmdlet or function, but it is not approved, this function will look for verb synonyms and tell you if they are approved or not. Here’s a quick image (because it is just beautiful).

While the 1.3 version is available in a GitHub Gist, the newest version — 1.4 — was written and uploaded to the PowerShell Gallery. You can either use that link or use PowerShellGet to download it using the PowerShell below. I have written about this script before, so you can read more here: https://tommymaynard.com/get-tmverbsynonym-1-4-2017/.

Install-Script -Name Get-TMVerbSynonym

2. “Active Directory User Lookup Form”

This was “my first, hand-coded PowerShell form using Windows Forms.” While it was available on the TechNet Gallery for download, that link no longer works.  Here is the 2015 post, and here is an updated link to the GitHub Gist. I always love doing a forms project and am grateful it made its way into .NET (core).

3. “Find DNS Servers Being Used by DHCP Scopes”

This script was written as a solution to a post on the TechNet Forums. I did not read that whole thread, but I can offer you the link to the Gist if this is helpful or interesting. Oh, one other thing, I apparently wrote about the script here on my own site, as well. All the way back in 2015!

4. “Measure Command with Multiple Commands, Repetitions, Calculated Averages”

There is no way I did not write about this one. I loved this script and to this very day, I still think it should be implemented in PowerShell by the PowerShell Team. Perhaps I will add it as a discussion in GitHub in the future. I do not think that was a thing back in 2017. Here is my post about it now!

Measure-Command can only measure one command and only one time per command invocation. This changed that. It allowed a user to measure multiple commands multiple times. It could even calculate the average time for a command to complete. I think its Command parameter accepted a string, so that should probably be changed to a ScriptBlock.

Here is an old image that accompanies the above link to the article on my site — click it to enlarge it. And here, is a link to the code in a Gist.

There is more to cover, but we will put that on hold for a moment. I will be back with a continuation of these soon. And once I am, the below text will link to Part II of this series!

Part II

An Improved Measure-Command: Multiple Commands, Multiple Repetitions, Calculated Averages, and Pauses Between Runs

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Download the Measure-TMCommand function here: https://gist.github.com/tommymaynard/c97c5248d76aba08f1c8aa01096aa12b

In Windows PowerShell, there are often several ways to complete the same task. With that in mind, it makes sense that we might want to determine how long commands and scripts take to complete. Until now, Measure-Command has been the cmdlet we’ve used.

While Measure-Command has been helpful, I’ve often thought it should include some additional functionality. Therefore, I’ve written an advanced function, Measure-TMCommand, that adds all the benefits listed below:

– Continually measure the execution time of a single command and/or script, up to a user-defined number of repetitions.

– Continually measure the execution time of multiple commands and/or scripts, up to a user-defined number of repetitions.

– Calculate the average time a command(s), and/or a script(s)  takes to execute.

– Display limited hardware information about the computer where the command and/or script is being measured.

– Includes an option to display the output of the command and/or script, as well as the measurement results.

– Updated 4/15/2015 (v1.2.1): Added a parameter -TimeInBetweenSeconds with a parameter alias of -Pause. This will pause the function between executions, allowing the ability to test at different times between a set time. For instance, let’s say you want to measure a command every 1/2 hour for six hours: 12 repetitions with 30-minute pauses. You would then run the command with the -Repetitions parameter with a value of 12 and the -TimeInBetweenSeconds (or -Pause) with a value of 1800 (as in 1800 seconds, or 30 minutes).

Here’s the function in action:

Measure-TMCommand1.2.1

In the example, above, we can easily determine that using the -Name parameter of the Get-Service cmdlet is faster than piping the entire result set to the Where-Object cmdlet, and then filtering on the name. Notice that not all properties were returned — only the ones in which I was interested.

With the addition of the -TimeBetweenInSeconds, or -Pause, parameter I have considered that this function might be better served to also have an -AsJob parameter. I’ll look into it, but no promises. Thanks, and enjoy.