Hello,  I'm trying to put together a file cleanup and compress script and am having trouble getting the compression piece to work correctly.  I'm also not getting an error to go off of so I'm looking for some help and direction.  This is what I have right now.  My goal is to cycle through the paths listed and compress only those directories that are not already compressed.  When I run this I get no output or errors.  The script just hangs.  I've tested on several windows 2k8 servers with the same result.  Am I missing something here?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Backslashes need to be escaped and you aren't using the actual variables in the query, try this - 

$dr1="C:\\windows\\assembly" 
$dr2="C:\\windows\\installer" 
$dr3="C:\\Windows\Logs\\DISM" 
$dr4="D:\\Program Files\\VERITAS\\Patch"
$dr5="D:\\Interwoven\\OpenDeployNG\\log'"

$folderstocompress = get-wmiobject -Query "select * from Win32_Directory where Name = '$dr1' or Name =  '$dr2' or name = '$dr3' or name =  '$dr4' or name = '$dr5'"

foreach ($folder in $folderstocompress)
{
if($folder.compressed = "False")
{
$folder.compress()
}
}

• Edited by Braham20 22 hours 55 minutes ago

You should not alter the files in c:\windows.  This area is owned and managed by the system.  Changes can have unforeseen consequences.

Backslashes need to be escaped and you aren't using the actual variables in the query, try this - 

$dr1="C:\\windows\\assembly" 
$dr2="C:\\windows\\installer" 
$dr3="C:\\Windows\Logs\\DISM" 
$dr4="D:\\Program Files\\VERITAS\\Patch"
$dr5="D:\\Interwoven\\OpenDeployNG\\log'"

$folderstocompress = get-wmiobject -Query "select * from Win32_Directory where Name = '$dr1' or Name =  '$dr2' or name = '$dr3' or name =  '$dr4' or name = '$dr5'"

foreach ($folder in $folderstocompress)
{
if($folder.compressed = "False")
{
$folder.compress()
}
}

• Edited by Braham20 Tuesday, April 28, 2015 8:13 AM

Backslashes need to be escaped and you aren't using the actual variables in the query, try this - 

$dr1="C:\\windows\\assembly" 
$dr2="C:\\windows\\installer" 
$dr3="C:\\Windows\Logs\\DISM" 
$dr4="D:\\Program Files\\VERITAS\\Patch"
$dr5="D:\\Interwoven\\OpenDeployNG\\log'"

$folderstocompress = get-wmiobject -Query "select * from Win32_Directory where Name = '$dr1' or Name =  '$dr2' or name = '$dr3' or name =  '$dr4' or name = '$dr5'"

foreach ($folder in $folderstocompress)
{
if($folder.compressed = "False")
{
$folder.compress()
}
}

• Edited by Braham20 Tuesday, April 28, 2015 8:13 AM

Backslashes need to be escaped and you aren't using the actual variables in the query, try this - 

$dr1="C:\\windows\\assembly" 
$dr2="C:\\windows\\installer" 
$dr3="C:\\Windows\Logs\\DISM" 
$dr4="D:\\Program Files\\VERITAS\\Patch"
$dr5="D:\\Interwoven\\OpenDeployNG\\log'"

$folderstocompress = get-wmiobject -Query "select * from Win32_Directory where Name = '$dr1' or Name =  '$dr2' or name = '$dr3' or name =  '$dr4' or name = '$dr5'"

foreach ($folder in $folderstocompress)
{
if($folder.compressed = "False")
{
$folder.compress()
}
}

• Edited by Braham20 Tuesday, April 28, 2015 8:13 AM

Thats seems to get me further but now I'm getting the error below.

"D:\\Program Files\\VERITAS\\Patch"

I added the missing slash.  Now I get no error but the script seems to hang again.  I confirmed that none of the folders show compressed.

I've tried this on several windows 2k8 servers in our environment and even on my personal PC but I still get no result as if it hangs.  I've been copy/pasting the code into PS so I figured I would try to call it instead.  This is the result.  Any thoughts?  Am I calling this correctly?

It will hang until it finishes, nothing will be returned. The code in the file needs to be:

If($folder.compressed ="false") not if($folder.compress="false")

Syntax is faulty:

foreach ($folder in $folderstocompress){
    if($folder.compressed){
        Write-Host "$folder is already compressed" -fore green
    }else{
        Write-Host "Compressing $folder" -fore green
        #$folder.compress()
    }
}

It takes a while to compress a folder, you will need to wait for it to finish. Try it with a test folder with only a couple of files in, it definitely works.

You cannot do this:

if($folder.compressed = 'false'){

It will always be true.

Try it:

It really should be

if($folder.compressed -eq 'true'){

• Marked as answer by Kreifer1 13 hours 57 minutes ago

It will hang until it finishes, nothing will be returned. The code in the file needs to be:

If($folder.compressed ="false") not if($folder.compress="false")

That will not work either.  $folder.compressed is a booolean and can and should be directly tested.

if($folder.compressed ){

Doing tests of Booleans against a value will, most often, create havoc as you can see.

Meh, either way works, although i agree that is the better way to go about it.

Either way does NOT work.

if($folder.compressed = 'true') tests nothing and wil always be true no matter what compressed is set to.

if($true='true')

Note that the following are always true:

PS C:\scripts> $test='true'
PS C:\scripts> if($test='true'){'true'}else{'false'}
true
PS C:\scripts> if($test='false'){'true'}else{'false'}
true
PS C:\scripts> $test='false'
PS C:\scripts> if($test='true'){'true'}else{'false'}
true
PS C:\scripts> if($test='false'){'true'}else{'false'}
true
PS C:\scripts>

I should note that WMI lets us assign properties with illegal values until we do a "Put()" which will then record the error.

PS C:\scripts> $folder.compressed='false'
PS C:\scripts> $folder.put()
Exception calling "Put" with "0" argument(s): "Provider is not capable of the attempted operation "
At line:1 char:1
+ $folder.put()
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException

Get-Member will show us the property:
Compressed                  Property      bool Compressed {get;set;}

Note that it is a "bool"

See what happens when assigned:

PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed='hello'
PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed
True
PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed='false'
PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed
True
PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed=$null
PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed
PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed='false'
PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed
True

PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed=$false
PS C:\scripts> $folder.Compressed
FalsePS C:\scripts>

Note that the following are always true:

PS C:\scripts> $test='true'
PS C:\scripts> if($test='true'){'true'}else{'false'}
true
PS C:\scripts> if($test='false'){'true'}else{'false'}
true
PS C:\scripts> $test='false'
PS C:\scripts> if($test='true'){'true'}else{'false'}
true
PS C:\scripts> if($test='false'){'true'}else{'false'}
true
PS C:\scripts>

Sorry, i'm about 3 posts behind on this conversation and using my mobile to reply, it is a frustrating experience!

Braham - once you get back in front of a PC you may want to vote up this suggestion:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/79ce8e12-53b9-433f-a240-73c518e70fa3/please-create-a-mobile-website-version-of-the-technet-forums?forum=suggest

I think this would be great, but I doubt we'll get traction on it unless there's much more of a demand.

I updated the script with this code and It appears to work going off of the write-host, but when I check the folders the txt is not blue, denoting compression, and when I go into the properties the option to compress is not checked.

To double check I ran the script again, and the writeout shows that it is attempting to compress the same folders that it did during the first run.  This confirms that they were not compressed.  See screen shots below.  I checked all directories listed in the script with the same result.  

Sorry, i'm about 3 posts behind on this conversation and using my mobile to reply, it is a frustrating experience!

Braham - once you get back in front of a PC you may want to vote up this suggestion:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/79ce8e12-53b9-433f-a240-73c518e70fa3/please-create-a-mobile-website-version-of-the-technet-forums?forum=suggest

I think this would be great, but I doubt we'll get traction on it unless there's much more of a demand.

I updated the script with this code and It appears to work going off of the write-host, but when I check the folders the txt is not blue, denoting compression, and when I go into the properties the option to compress is not checked.

To double check I ran the script again, and the writeout shows that it is attempting to compress the same folders that it did during the first run.  This confirms that they were not compressed.  See screen shots below.  I checked all directories listed in the script with the same result.  

• Marked as answer by Kreifer1 Wednesday, April 29, 2015 5:10 PM

• Marked as answer by Kreifer1 Wednesday, April 29, 2015 5:10 PM

• Marked as answer by Kreifer1 Wednesday, April 29, 2015 5:10 PM

Glad it's sorted :) Jrv should be marked as the answer really, his logic is strong.

Hey one last question.  I have a line to remove temp files using %windir% but getting "path does not exist."

We have some servers where the windows directory was renamed to the asset tag during build.  I found some posts online but nothing that seems to be working.

Hi,

PowerShell doesn't use variables in the same way. You want $env:windir instead of %windir%.

If you continue to have problems, I suggest starting a new thread.