Get Registry Key Properties from Remote/Deserialized RegistryKey

PowerShell Help
1

I’m using Invoke-Command to read a registry key on a remote computer. I get some deserialized RegistryKey objects back, but can’t seem to access the key properties. The Format-Table cmdlet shows the property names/values, but I can’t find the property I use to access them in my script.

> $k = Invoke-Command -ComputerName ******** -ScriptBlock { Get-ChildItem 'HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall' } 
> $k | Format-Table


    Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall


Name                           Property                                                                                                              PSComputerName                                                                                                       
----                           --------                                                                                                              --------------                                                                                                       
{FFC6E93A-B9AD-3F20-9B06-EE20E AuthorizedCDFPrefix :                                                                                                 ********                                                                                                     
24AAEAF}                       Comments            :                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
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However, when I use Get-Member I don’t see any way to get the property values:

> $k | Get-Member * -Force


   TypeName: Deserialized.Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey

Name               MemberType   Definition                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
----               ----------   ----------                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
pstypenames        CodeProperty System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection`1[[System.String, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]] pstypenames{get=PSTypeNames;}                                                                   
psadapted          MemberSet    psadapted {SubKeyCount, View, Handle, ValueCount, Name}                                                                                                                                                                                   
psbase             MemberSet    psbase {}                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
psextended         MemberSet    psextended {ToString, Property, PSPath, PSParentPath, PSChildName, PSDrive, PSProvider, PSIsContainer, PSComputerName, RunspaceId, PSShowComputerName}                                                                                    
psobject           MemberSet    psobject {BaseObject, Members, Properties, Methods, ImmediateBaseObject, TypeNames, get_Members, get_Properties, get_Methods, get_ImmediateBaseObject, get_BaseObject, get_TypeNames, ToString, Copy, CompareTo, Equals, GetHashCode, G...
ToString           Method       string ToString(), string ToString(string format, System.IFormatProvider formatProvider), string IFormattable.ToString(string format, System.IFormatProvider formatProvider)                                                              
Property           NoteProperty Deserialized.System.String[] Property=                                                                                                                                                                                                    
PSChildName        NoteProperty System.String PSChildName=AddressBook                                                                                                                                                                                                     
PSComputerName     NoteProperty System.String PSComputerName=build01d-whs-04                                                                                                                                                                                              
PSDrive            NoteProperty Deserialized.System.Management.Automation.PSDriveInfo PSDrive=HKLM                                                                                                                                                                        
PSIsContainer      NoteProperty System.Boolean PSIsContainer=True                                                                                                                                                                                                         
PSParentPath       NoteProperty System.String PSParentPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall                                                                                                     
PSPath             NoteProperty System.String PSPath=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\AddressBook                                                                                               
PSProvider         NoteProperty Deserialized.System.Management.Automation.ProviderInfo PSProvider=Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\Registry                                                                                                                                      
PSShowComputerName NoteProperty System.Boolean PSShowComputerName=True                                                                                                                                                                                                    
RunspaceId         NoteProperty System.Guid RunspaceId=49c33ad2-07c3-4f9b-aba8-7452e7df86cb                                                                                                                                                                               
Handle             Property     System.String {get;set;}                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Name               Property     System.String {get;set;}                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
SubKeyCount        Property     System.Int32 {get;set;}                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
ValueCount         Property     System.Int32 {get;set;}                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
View               Property     System.String {get;set;}

Does anyone know how I can read the property values of a deserialized Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey object?

2

Remove the format-table, then run get-member and see if you get the properties. I had a similar issue in a recent script and for some reason the formatting removed my ability to access properties.

3

See the second code block in my original post. It shows that I’m calling Get-Member directly on the object without going through Format-Table.

4

You are actually getting tricked by Format-Table and it shows the values of your local registry.

The formatdata for the RegistryKey type is a scriptblock containing this code:

$result = (Get-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $_.PSPath |
    Select * -Exclude PSPath,PSParentPath,PSChildName,PSDrive,PsProvider |
    Format-List | Out-String | Sort).Trim()
$result = $result.Substring(0, [Math]::Min($result.Length, 5000) )
if($result.Length -eq 5000) { $result += "..." }
$result

To demonstrate this I made a simple script to be run in a lab environment:

$Remote = 'Server02'
$SetScript = {
    $Key = New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\TestKey\1' -Force
    New-ItemProperty -Path $Key.PSPath -PropertyType String -Name Computer -Value $ENV:ComputerName -Force | Out-Null
}

# This will set the regkey on the local machine
$SetScript.Invoke()

# This will set the regkey on the remote machine
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Remote -ScriptBlock $SetScript

$k = Invoke-Command -ComputerName $Remote -ScriptBlock { Get-ChildItem 'HKLM:\Software\TestKey' }
$k | Format-Table

This script will create a registry string value named Computer containing the computername of the Machine both on the local machine (Server01 in my case) and the remote Machine (Server02 in my case) in the path ‘HKLM:\Software\TestKey\1’.
Then it will run your command to get the childitems from ‘HKLM:\Software\TestKey’

On the last row, piping $k to Format-Table will output “Computer : Server01” in the Property column.