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10) WinDiff

Windows PowerShell Get-Credential

PowerShell Get-Credential

PowerShell's get-Credential disappointed me.  I had hoped that this cmdlet would 'capture' my current credentials and encrypt them.  I now realize that get-Credential has a different purpose, which is to supply a dialog box for us to enter an alternative name and its password.

Topics for PowerShell Get-Credential

• PowerShell Get-Credential Example
• Get-Credential As a Foundation for Other Cmdlets

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PowerShell Get-Credential Example

A typical scenario for get-Credential, is when you are logged on as ordinary user and you need the credentials of an administrator so that the rest of the PowerShell script will execute successfully.  You may wish to append the -credential parameter followed by the name of a user account with more rights.

Note 1:  Most people put the user name "administrator" in double quotes.

Note 2:  As with all PowerShell nouns, remember that credential is singular.

Get-Credential As a Foundation for Other Cmdlets

The point of this example, in fact the only reason for using get-Credential is that the current user has insufficient privileges to run the rest of the PowerShell commands.

Note 1:  If you were already logged on with administrative privileges on the network computer it would be pointless to add the get-Credential code.

Note 2: This command won't work on your network unless you change -Computer ExchSrv to the hostname of a machine on your network.  Incidentally, if the command still does not work try disabling the firewall.

-ConsolePrompting

The idea of adding this registry setting is twofold, firstly to suppress the credential dialog box, secondly so that you can type the username and password at the command line.

While this technique just would not work for me in Windows Server 2008 PowerShell v 2.0 (CTP3); it DID WORK in WINDOWS 7.

This is one way of adding the registry key:

You have to imagine that you are now at the PowerShell command prompt.
When you type:

You should get a line saying:

Note 1:  I say again, this did not work in Windows Server 2008, even though I could see and control the ConsolePrompting key in the registry at:  HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds. And the value was set to 'True'.

Note 2: The above technique did work in Windows 7.  I kept it simple just launched the PowerShell command line and typed: get-Credential.   Incidentally, there is no need to type a -ConsolePromting switch.

Summary of Windows Get-Credential

The dialog box says it all.  If a PowerShell script needs elevated privileges - administrative rights, then include the get-Credential code to trap the relevant information.

See more PowerShell examples for Shutdown commands

• PowerShell Home  • Syntax  • Stop-Computer  • Restart Computer  • Get-Credential

Please write in if you see errors of any kind.  Please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to not only to correct the fault, but also to give you credit.

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