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I'm building a script that lists all Inactive computer accounts. I'd like to exclude a few systems from the results.

I've got a text-file containing all systems to be excluded (one systemname per line). All items are stored in an object with property name "name". So $excluded will contain:

name
----
system1
system2

To list all inactive systems I use the Search-ADAccount cmdlet:

$InactiveComputers = Search-ADAccount -AccountInactive -TimeSpan 90 -ComputersOnly | Where {$_.Enabled -eq $true}

Of course I can loop all results 1 by 1, but is there a simple way to exclude the systems directly from the results? I've got a feeling it's possible with select-object or where-object, but I can't figure out how to compare against the results in an object.

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3 Answers 3

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You were basically correct in using this in your title: "where {_.Name not in $object}"

Syntax is a little different. Pipe it to the following

Where { !($_.Name -in $excluded) }

OR

Where { $_.Name -notin $excluded }

Both seem to give the same results in the console. Happy coding!

Note: Tested this on PSv2 and v3.

I ran across this when looking for an answer and figured I would update with these options for others that run into this.

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2 Comments

What was the $PSVersionTable.PSVersion value of the PSv2 you tested?
@Matthew Sorry, I was running this on a work laptop which I don't have anymore so I can't say for sure. I don't recall what the exact powershell minor version was. Only recall the major versions. I did some digging and found this: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh847759.aspx It shows that Powershell v3 introduces -notin so you would have to use the first method to get this one to work in v2 ( Where { !($_.Name -in $excluded) } ). Hope this helps!
4

Import the exclude file (as csv) and use the -notcontains operator: 

$names = Import-csv exclude.txt | Foreach-Object {$_.Name} 

$InactiveComputers = Search-ADAccount -AccountInactive -TimeSpan 90 -ComputersOnly | Where {$_.Enabled -eq $true -and $names -notcontains $_.Name}
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6 Comments

That's not possible: the exclusion file actually also contains comments (= a line starting with a ;) and blanc lines. I don't want them included in my $exclused object.
You didn't mention this in your question. You could workaround it with: Import-csv exclude.txt | where {$_.Name -match '\S' -and $_.Name -notlike ";*"}
thanks for the tips. Unfortunately this command returns an empty object. import-csv excluded.txt works. But when I add the foreach or where-statement it returns an empty set
ignore that last comment. My bad.import-csv combined with where works.
but infortunately this didn't work. Search-ADaccounts stil includes the excluded items too :(
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I think you can use -notcontains (TechNet article) operator:

$InactiveComputers = Search-ADAccount -AccountInactive -TimeSpan 90 -ComputersOnly | Where {$_.Enabled -eq $true -and $excluded -notcontains $_.name }
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1 Comment

sorry, I tried that before, but it's not working. I think this is because $InActiveComputers contains more items (SamAccountName, Name, Enabled, SID, ...) while $Excluded only contains "name". How does where-object know how to match them?

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