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$emailFrom = "sender@example.com"
$emailTo = "recipient@example.com"
 
$subject = "Subject"
$body = "This is my automated email`nThis is line number 2"
$smtpServer = "localhost"
 
$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$smtp.Send($emailFrom, $emailTo, $subject, $body)

Now let’s send a SMS text massage alert, in this message we will include how much free space we have on our C: drive. Most cell carriers limit text messages to 160 characters, so we want to keep them as short and useful as possible. Check the list below to see see what the email address of your phone is and make sure to replace the $to variable.

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$freeSpace = gwmi win32_logicaldisk -filter "DeviceID=`"C:`"" | % { $_.freespace/1GB }
$freeSpace = [System.Math]::round($FreeSpace,2)
 
$from = "from@example.com"
$to = "1234567890@example.com"
 
$subject = ""
$body = "C: free space is " + $freeSpace + " GB"
 
$smtpServer = "localhost"
$smtp = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$smtp.Send($from, $to, $subject, $body)

Now we need to figure out what email address to use so that we can send the SMS address, below are a few examples for several US carriers. Make sure to replace 1234567890 with your ten digit phone number.

Alltel
1234567890@message.alltel.com

AT&T
1234567890@txt.att.net

Boost Mobile
1234567890@myboostmobile.com

MetroPCS
1234567890@mymetropcs.com

Nextel
1234567890@messaging.nextel.com

Sprint PCS
1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile
1234567890@tmomail.net

Verizon
1234567890@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile
1234567890@vmobl.com

1. Entering your own unique credentials
2. Entering a service account password, ie: the same username (or hard coding a username)
3. Hard coding a user name and password

Method 1:

Windows PowerShell Credentials Request Box

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PS C:\> $cred = Get-Credential
 
cmdlet Get-Credential at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
Credential
PS C:\> gwmi win32_LoggedOnUser -computer "dev-ghost" -credential $cred

Method 2
In this example, we are going to do the same as above, except we will specify the username, this is perfect for whenever you use service accounts.

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PS C:\>PS C:\> $cred = Get-Credential "dev-ghost\administrator"
PS C:\> gwmi win32_LoggedOnUser -computer "dev-ghost" -credential $cred

Now let’s do the same as above, but instead of saving our credentials to a variable, we will just use it once and call it inline.

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PS C:\> gwmi win32_LoggedOnUser -computer "dev-ghost" -credential "dev-ghost\administrator"

Method 3
I don’t think password should ever be hard coded into scripts, especially ones that can be decrypted. PowerShell provides a SecureString, this is nothing more than a joke. The reason I call it a joke is because anyone can decrypt a SecureString if they know a little bit of PS. But ignorance is bliss right? So let’s get to it…

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PS C:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0> Read-Host -AsSecureString | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Out-File C:\PowerShell\MyPassword.txt

Once you press enter just type in your password, this will save your password to a file called MyPassword.txt. So now that the password is saved as a "SecureString" we can now use these saved credentials.

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$password = type C:\PowerShell\MyPassword.txt | ConvertTo-SecureString
$cred = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist “administrator”,$password

and that’s it, your all set to start impersonating your credentials so that you can run scripts or executable under your service accounts.

Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem

The following command returned the following on my Windows XP box, and yes, anywhere you see XXXXX I censored the data for my personal privacy…

SystemDirectory : C:\WINDOWS\system32
Organization    : XXXXX
BuildNumber     : 2600
RegisteredUser  : XXXXX
SerialNumber    : XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX
Version         : 5.1.2600

If we use a pipe command, we can return the information in a table

PS H:\powershell> Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem | format-table

SystemDirecto Organization  BuildNumber  RegisteredUs SerialNumber Version
ry                                       er
------------- ------------  -----------  ------------ ------------ -------
C:\WINDOWS... XXXXX...      2600         XXXXX...     XXXXX-XXX... 5.1.2600

Of course, what if we just wanted to return the Windows Version and not all of the miscellaneous/irrelevant data? We can pipe the Get-Member command to see all of the properties that are hidden in that class.

Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem | Get-Member

Running this command shows us a list of MemberType, if you see a MemberType of Property we can query to see what is contained within that property field by using the Format Table command “ft.” For example

PS H:\powershell> Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem | ft Version, ServicePackMajorVersion

Version                                                 ServicePackMajorVersion
-------                                                 -----------------------
5.1.2600                                                                      3

Now, what if we want to access information on a remote client or server? Simple! just concat the computer name to the WMI call. Just make sure to change “ComputerName” to the client/server name.

PS H:\powershell> Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem -computer "ComputerName" | ft Version, ServicePackMajorVersion

That’s great, but if you don’t have access to client/server under your normal Windows or AD credentials, we can authenticate as a different user. To do this we are going to assign our credentials to the variable $cred (short for credentials), you can change this name to whatever you want. Once we’ve logged in, we will pass those to the client or server that we are trying to authenticate against to login and view the WMI system info. When we call Get-Credential this causes a Windows popup asking us to login.

PS H:\powershell> $cred = Get-Credential

cmdlet Get-Credential at command pipeline position 1
Supply values for the following parameters:
Credential

PS H:\powershell> Get-WmiObject Win32_OperatingSystem -computer dev-ghost -Credential $cred

SystemDirectory : C:\WINDOWS\system32
Organization    : XXXXX
BuildNumber     : 3790
RegisteredUser  : XXXXX
SerialNumber    : XXXXX-XXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXX
Version         : 5.2.3790