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HANReply's avatar
HANReply
Copper Contributor
Nov 03, 2022

powershell: how to authenticate workgroups PCs by script

Hi all,

I have a little network, few PCs in a workgroup, windows 10 and 11 pro.

I have written a .ps1 script to access remotely PCs and check several configs.

It happens that, if one PC is rebooted, the script doesnt work fine since it is not authenticated.

If I navigate to the PC it asks me the credentials, I put in them successfully (by hand), and then the scritp runs fine.

Is there a way to write this authentication into my script?

 

this is my script beginning, as first I ping the PC to know if it is online, then I access it, and I thought it was enaugh, but it isnt:

 

 

 

 

# Test ping
workflow Test-Ping 
{
	param( 
		[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] 
		[string[]]$Computers
	)
		foreach -parallel -throttlelimit 150 ($Computer in $Computers) 
		{
			if (Test-Connection -Count 1 $Computer -Quiet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) 
			{    
				$Computer
			}
			else
			{
				Write-Warning -Message "$Computer not online"
			}
		}
	}
	
$ComputerName = Test-Ping -Computers $ComputerName 


# open remote sessions
foreach ($Computer in $ComputerName)
{

	#Parameters for Credentials
	$UserName = "Administrator"
	$PassWord = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $Computer -AsPlainText -Force
	Write-Output "accessing $Computer..."
	 
	#Create a Credential object
	$Cred = New-Object -TypeName "System.Management.Automation.PSCredential" -ArgumentList $UserName, $PassWord

	Get-WMIObject Win32_Service -computer $Computer -Credential $Cred
	#Get-WinEvent -computername $Computer -Credential $Cred
	#$session = new-pssession -computername $Computer -Credential $Cred

	Write-Output "access to $Computer done..."

}

 

 

 

 

thanks!

Windows PowerShell

1 Reply

  • Varun_Ghildiyal's avatar
    Varun_Ghildiyal
    Iron Contributor
    Mar 07, 2023

    HANReply 

     

    You can use the New-Object cmdlet to create a PSCredential object and use it in your script to authenticate with the remote computers. Here's an example of how you can modify your script to use the PSCredential object:

    # Test ping
    workflow Test-Ping
    {
    param(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string[]]$Computers
    )
    foreach -parallel -throttlelimit 150 ($Computer in $Computers)
    {
    if (Test-Connection -Count 1 $Computer -Quiet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
    {
    $Computer
    }
    else
    {
    Write-Warning -Message "$Computer not online"
    }
    }
    }

    $ComputerName = Test-Ping -Computers $ComputerName

    # Create credential object
    $UserName = "username"
    $Password = ConvertTo-SecureString "password" -AsPlainText -Force
    $Credential = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($UserName,$Password)

    # open remote sessions
    foreach ($Computer in $ComputerName)
    {
    Write-Output "accessing $Computer..."

    Get-WMIObject Win32_Service -computer $Computer -Credential $Credential
    #Get-WinEvent -computername $Computer -Credential $Credential
    #$session = new-pssession -computername $Computer -Credential $Credential

    Write-Output "access to $Computer done..."
    }


    Replace username and password with the actual username and password you use to authenticate with the remote computers.

    Using a credential object in your script will allow you to authenticate with the remote computers without being prompted for credentials each time.

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