Powershell outputting an executable into a text file

Question

I'm trying to write a Powershell script for work that will take the output of w32tm.exe \monitor and output everything into a text file. I'm trying the following code, however something is wrong since I'm able to create the text file, but nothing is being written in it:

#Take output of w32tm.exe and output into a plain text file
$file = "C:\Documents and Settings\a411882\My Documents\Scripts\timeScript.txt"
$executable = "w32tm.exe /monitor"
invoke-expression $executable | out-file -filepath $file

What am I doing wrong here? I'm new to Powershell so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: I can get all of the data to be displayed on the console when I run this, however I want the data to be written on the text file.

EDIT 2: I managed to get everything to finally output. I wanted to try avoiding using the > operator to write out to the text file in hopes of learning a little more on the out-file cmdlet however doing a simple invoke-expression $executable > $file managed to get the job done. I still don't understand why the cmdlet wouldn't work properly.

just using invoke-expression $executable give you the expected output to console? Using your code in my session, changing just the path to my profile dir it works! — CB.
– CB., Commented Jun 12, 2012 at 15:23

Aaron Jensen · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-12 18:53:19Z

1

Perhaps Invoke-Expression isn't properly sending output to stdout? I wouldn't expect that, but stranger things have happened. Try running w32tm.exe on its own:

$file = "C:\Documents and Settings\a411882\My Documents\Scripts\timeScript.txt"
w32tm.exe /monitor | Out-File -FilePath $file

answered Jun 12, 2012 at 18:53

Aaron Jensen

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Adrian Dymorz · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-04 08:33:55Z

0

You could use Start-Process which allows you to redirect also the error output:

Start-Process w32tm.exe -ArgumentList "/monitor" -Wait -RedirectStandardOutput "output.txt" -RedirectStandardError "error.txt"

answered Sep 4, 2019 at 8:33

Adrian Dymorz

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