Exploring the Power of Out-GridView in PowerShell

Welcome back to Wahmans Powershell Blog! Today we are going to dive into a handy and visually engaging cmdlet: Out-GridView. This cmdlet allows you to send output to an interactive data grid window, which is perfect for visual representation, filtering, and manual selection of results.

As described by Microsoft, Out-GridView “sends output to an interactive table in a separate window.” This functionality is available on Windows PowerShell (since it’s reliant on the Windows Presentation Framework) and is especially useful when working with large datasets or when you want users to manually inspect or choose data from a GUI interface. Let’s jump into some examples ranging from beginner to more advanced use-cases.

Example 1: View the Services on Your System

This is a great starter example for those who want to explore system services in a GUI window.

Get-Service | Out-GridView

This command retrieves all services on your local computer and displays them in an interactive window. You can sort, filter, and scroll through the list of services.

Example 2: Filter Processes by User Selection

Here’s a more interactive use-case where you can manually select which processes you want to take action on.

$selected = Get-Process | Out-GridView -Title "Select processes to stop" -PassThru
$selected | Stop-Process -Force

In this example, -PassThru allows the selected items to be returned to the pipeline. The selected processes are then stopped using Stop-Process.

Example 3: Search and Filter Event Logs

Going beyond basic task management, let’s look at how to explore system events interactively.

Get-EventLog -LogName System -Newest 500 | Out-GridView -Title "System Event Logs"

This command grabs the 500 latest entries from the System Event Log and displays them for easy inspection and filtering. Ideal for helpdesk or admin tasks!

Example 4: Make a GUI Selection from a Dataset

This advanced use-case demonstrates how Out-GridView can be used to build user-friendly scripts where users can select data for further actions.

$computers = @('Server01', 'Server02', 'Server03')
$selectedComputer = $computers | Out-GridView -Title "Select a Computer to Query" -PassThru
Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem -ComputerName $selectedComputer

Here, a user selects a computer from a list. Then, the script runs a WMI query to get system information for the selected computer.

Wrapping Up

Out-GridView is a powerful cmdlet that brings GUI capabilities to scripts and workflows, enhancing interactivity and control for users. From viewing system information to building dynamic selection tools, it’s one of Windows PowerShell’s hidden gems.

Happy scripting, and I will see you in the next post!