Active Directory Powershell: Quick tip LastLogonTimeStamp and pwdLastSet

Here is a quick tip on how to quickly convert properties like LastLogonTimeStamp and pwdLastSet into readable results in your PowerShell Script.

Here is the problem, when running commands like get-aduser or get-adcomputer, results of fields are unreadable and require additional formatting in order to read.

Example:

get-aduser chad -properties lastlogontimestamp,pwdLastSet | select samaccountname, lastlogontimestamp,pwdLastSet

There are several blogs on how to use a calculated property to convert and display the results, that is not the purpose of this blog entry. For me I usually forget how to do this (older I get the less I remember) and have to review previous scripts on how to do this each time I write one.  I also usually write bigger scripts were I have to perform this same conversion multiple times, which causes my script to grow in size and makes it a little more difficult to read.

This is how most articles and blogs do this conversion.

Example:

get-aduser chad -properties lastlogontimestamp,pwdLastSet | select samaccountname, `

    @{Name="LastLogonTimeStamp";Expression={([datetime]::FromFileTime($_.LastLogonTimeStamp))}},`

    @{Name="pwdLastSet";Expression={([datetime]::FromFileTime($_.pwdLastSet))}}

Now keep in mind copying and pasting this over and over isn't that hard.  But I’m going to provide a way to define it once in a script and then just reference it as needed. In additional going to provide a way to add this to PowerShell ISE as a snippet so that it can be added in a script as needed.

Here is the solution, store the calculated property hash into a variable, reference the variable instead of the entire hash.

Example:

$hash_lastLogonTimestamp = @{Name="LastLogonTimeStamp";Expression={([datetime]::FromFileTime($_.LastLogonTimeStamp))}}

$hash_pwdLastSet = @{Name="pwdLastSet";Expression={([datetime]::FromFileTime($_.pwdLastSet))}}

get-aduser chad -properties lastlogontimestamp,pwdLastSet | `

    select samaccountname, $hash_lastLogonTimestamp,$hash_pwdLastSet

Using the variable I can define this once and reuse it through out a script or the PowerShell cli

Example:

$hash_lastLogonTimestamp = @{Name="LastLogonTimeStamp";Expression={([datetime]::FromFileTime($_.LastLogonTimeStamp))}}

$hash_pwdLastSet = @{Name="pwdLastSet";Expression={([datetime]::FromFileTime($_.pwdLastSet))}}

get-aduser chad -properties lastlogontimestamp,pwdLastSet | `

    select samaccountname, $hash_lastLogonTimestamp,$hash_pwdLastSet

get-adcomputer corp-apps -properties lastlogontimestamp,pwdLastSet | `

    select samaccountname, $hash_lastLogonTimestamp,$hash_pwdLastSet

get-aduser ryan -properties lastlogontimestamp,pwdLastSet | `

    select samaccountname, $hash_lastLogonTimestamp,$hash_pwdLastSet

get-adcomputer corp-web01 -properties lastlogontimestamp,pwdLastSet | `

    select samaccountname, $hash_lastLogonTimestamp,$hash_pwdLastSet

For those that use PowerShell ISE,  make this something to easily reference by using ise snippets.  More Information

Here is that cmdlets to run in ISE to make this a snippet:

New-IseSnippet -Description "Convert Active Directory property LastLogonTimestamp" `

    -Text '$hash_lastLogonTimestamp = @{Name="LastLogonTimeStamp";Expression={([datetime]::FromFileTime($_.LastLogonTimeStamp))}}' `

    -Title "Convert LastLogonTimeStamp" -Author "Chad"

New-IseSnippet -Description "Convert Active Directory property pwdLastSet" `

    -Text '$hash_pwdLastSet = @{Name="pwdLastSet";Expression={([datetime]::FromFileTime($_.pwdLastSet))}}' `

    -Title "Convert pwdLastSet" -Author "Chad"

 

In Powershell ISE, put the cursor on the line where the snippet needs to go, Press Ctrl + j and then select the newly created snippet.

Just like that no longer do I have to look through previous scripts.

That is all I have for now, Hope you find this useful.

-Chad