Network Connection Ids

RichardSiddaway — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Yesterday I was looking at changing a Network connection id (the name that shows in Network and Sharing Center when you look at the adapters). I kept getting an error – either COM or number of arguments depending if I was running locally or remotely.

I eventually realised that I must be using a connection id that already existed in the Registry. I tracked them down to

HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

This works for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2. Please check for other Windows versions.

This produces a bunch of subkeys of the form

{F913D3B9-DBE4-455C-8926-10E24AB4E68A}

Each of these has a subkey Connection with a value of Name that we are interested in

function get-Registryconnectionid{             
[CmdletBinding()]             
param (             
   [string]$computer="."             
)             
BEGIN{}#begin             
PROCESS{            
            
Write-Verbose "Reading registry keys for IDs"            
$HKLM = 2147483650            
$key = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"            
$reg = [wmiclass]'\\.\root\default:StdRegprov'            
$subkeys = $reg.EnumKey($HKLM, $key)            
            
            
foreach ($name in $subkeys.snames){            
  if ($name -eq "Descriptions"){Continue}            
  $conkey = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\$name\Connection"            
  Write-Debug $conkey            
              
  $cvalue = "Name"            
  $id = $reg.GetStringValue($HKLM, $conkey, $cvalue)  ## REG_SZ            
              
  $ivalue = "DefaultNameIndex"            
  $index = $reg.GetDwordValue($HKLM, $conkey, $ivalue)  ## REG_DWORD            
  $connection = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property @{            
       Index = $index.uValue            
       Connection = $id.sValue            
    }            
  $connection              
}            
            
            
}#process             
END{}#end            
            
<# 
.SYNOPSIS
Retrieves network connection ids 

.DESCRIPTION
Retrieves network connection ids held in the registry.
This includes current and previous ids.

.PARAMETER  Computer
Computer name

.EXAMPLE
get-Registryconnectionid

.EXAMPLE
get-Registryconnectionid -computer server02

#>            
            
}

This uses the standard WMI methods to read a local or remote registry

The corresponding current values are given by

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapter | select NetConnectionId, Index

The two index values are not related

Reliability Records

RichardSiddaway — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Want to know if there is something affecting the reliability of you system? For Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 WMI providers some reliability metrics. They are enabled by default on Windows 7. group Policy has to be used to enable them on the server side. See Computer Settings - Administrative Templates – Windows Components - Reliability

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function get-reliabilityrecords{
[CmdletBinding()]
param (
[parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$true,
   ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]
[string]$computer=".",

[string]
[ValidateSet("System", "Application")]
$logfile,

[string]
[ValidateSet(
    "Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient ",
     "Application Error",
     "MsiInstaller",
     "Microsoft-Windows-UserPnp",
     "Application Hang",
     "Application-Addon-Event-Provider",
     "EventLog")]
     $source

)
BEGIN{
$filt = $null
if ($logfile) {$filt += "LogFile = '$logfile'"}
if ($source) {$filt += "AND SourceName ='$source'"}
if ($filt){
   if ($filt.StartsWith("AND ")){$filt = $filt.Remove(0, 4)}
   Write-Debug $filt
}

}#begin

PROCESS{
if ($filt){
   Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ReliabilityRecords -Filter "$filt" -ComputerName $computer |
   select ComputerName, EventIdentifier, InsertionStrings, Logfile, Message,
   ProductName, RecordNumber, SourceName,
   @{N="TimeGenerated"; E={$_.ConvertToDatetime($_.TimeGenerated)}},
   User
}
else{
   Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ReliabilityRecords -ComputerName $computer |
   select ComputerName, EventIdentifier, InsertionStrings, Logfile, Message,
   ProductName, RecordNumber, SourceName,
   @{N="TimeGenerated"; E={$_.ConvertToDatetime($_.TimeGenerated)}},
   User
}

}#process
END{}#end

<# .SYNOPSIS Gets the Reliability Records of the System. This is only valid for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 .DESCRIPTION Uses the Win32_ReliabilityRecords class. Records can be filtered by log file and source name .PARAMETER <Parameter-Name> Computer A string containing the computer name to access. .PARAMETER <Parameter-Name> source A string containing the source name used to write to the event logs. .PARAMETER <Parameter-Name> logfile A string containing the event log file name. Accepted values are "System" and "Application" .EXAMPLE get-reliabilityrecords -source "Application Hang" -debug | Format-Table TimeGenerated, ProductName, Message –wrap –AutoSize Returns the records from the Application Hang source .EXAMPLE get-reliabilityrecords -logfile application | Format-Table TimeGenerated, ProductName, Message –wrap –AutoSize Returns the records from the Application event log #>

}

The corresponding reliability metrics were covered here http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/powershell/system-stability/

I’ll be posting the two functions as another PSAM module on codeplex soon

Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tags 'Windows Server 2008 R2', 'PowerShell and WMI', and 'Windows 7'

Network Connection Ids

Reliability Records