Introducing the New ISE Color Theme Cmdlets!

Last week I posted about the ability to theme the Powershell ISE script pane and provided a link to a few themes to play with. In that article I lamented about the lack of command line support for themes. Allow me to elaborate a little. You can certainly change any theme element from the command line but you can not do the following:

• Apply a theme to your ISE session from a file or from a previously saved ISE theme
• Import an xml theme to the ISE
• Export an ISE theme to an xml file

Worse yet, the color values stored in the theme xml files are ARGB based, not hex, which is what you need to apply a theme color to an ISE property from the command line. For this reason the scripts used to apply themes are completely different than the xml files used for the import/export process. How could Microsoft come so far, yet come up so short?! Frustrating to say the least!

Solution

Where there is a problem, there is opportunity! After reviewing the situation and coming to the conclusion that all the pieces I needed were there, I decided to create the ISE Theme Cmdlets script module. This script module allows you to do all of the above and more from the command line. 

Here are a few things you can do with these cmdlets:

• Batch import a collection of xml theme files
• Batch export all of the custom themes available in the ISE
• Choose a different custom theme from the command line
• Alter the overall color scheme of a theme without the need to tweak each parameter individually

This last bullet point or feature is a lot of fun! The Adjust-ISEColor cmdlet allows you to easily alter a theme by giving it the following commands:

• Cooler
• Warmer
• Greener
• Lighter
• Darker

This cmdlet also uses a "Degree" parameter to set the degree of change to make. By playing with this cmdlet I was able to generate all of the new themes attached below in a fraction of the time it would take with the default interface. Give it a try and share your work!

ISEThemeCmdlets

Here is the list of cmdlets with a short description and example. 

Get-FileName()

Gets a file name using an OpenFileDialog.

Get-FileName | Set-ISETheme 

Get-SaveFile()

Gets a save file name using a SaveFileDialog.

$File = Get-SaveFile

Convert-HexToARGB()

Converts Hex to ARGB values

$ARGB = Convert-HexToARGB #FF000022

Convert-ARGBToHex()

Converts ARGB to Hex values

$Hex = Convert-ARGBToHex "255,0,0,233"

Get-CurrentISETheme()

Gets current ISE theme. Hex colors are converted to ARGB and added back to the returned objects
$CurrentISETheme = Get-CurrentISETheme


Get-ISETheme()
Gets an ISE them from either the ISE or xml file
$Theme = Get-FileName | Get-ISETheme


Get-ImportedISEThemes()
Returns imported theme objects from the ISE
$Themes = Get-ImportedISEThemes


Set-ISETheme()
Applies ISE theme to current session
Get-FileName | Set-ISETheme


Import-ISEThemeFile()
Imports an ISE theme xml file into the ISE and applies it to the current session if ApplyTheme is passed
Get-ChildItem d:\sandbox -Include *.ps1xml -recurse | Import-ISEThemeFile -ApplyTheme


Export-ISEThemeFile()
Exports an ISE theme to an xml file and saves it into the ISE if SaveToISE is passed
Export-ISEThemeFile -SaveToISE


Remove-ISETheme()
Deletes an ISE theme from the ISE
Remove-ISETheme "Monokai"


Adjust-ISEColor()
Adjusts ISE Theme colors according to switch
Set-ISEThemeWarmth -Cooler


Select-ISETheme()
Selects and applies an ISE theme using a selection form
Select-ISETheme

More Color Themes

Last week I shared a collection of themes I found in various searches online. This week I'm happy to say the themes I'm sharing are all original and created using the ISE Color Theme Cmdlets!

Here they are:

Brownie

Aquatic

Nightvale

PaperRose

To batch import these new themes, extract them to your file system and run the following command:

gci "C:\YourThemes" -Filter *.ps1xml | Select FullName | Import-ISEThemeFile



Here is a link to the new PowerShell Color Themes

Here is a link to the ISE Color Theme Cmdlets

PowerShell ISE Color Themes

So admittedly, I'm late for the party once again. I've only recently started running PowerShell 4.0 and having come from 2.0, I am quite impressed to say the least! I won't go on about all the new features here because I'm sure you've already read about it elsewhere by now. If not, this article will fill you in: What's New in the Windows PowerShell ISE. Instead of rewriting that article, I'll talk about the not so new by now ISE themeing capability.

With PowerShell 3.0/4.0 you can now change the color of every element in the script/command panes and save these changes to an xml file for use in other ISE sessions. You can also change these elements with a script file or commands but here's the strange thing. There is no current way to use the xml file with the scripted method. Instead you must manually set the individual properties. On top of that, their xml file is less than user friendly.

Here's an example script from the scripting guys in this article Customize Colors and Fonts in the Windows PowerShell ISE. Fair warning, the color selections are hideous!

Set-PsISEcolorsAndFonts.ps1

# fonts             
$psISE.Options.FontName = 'Kartika'             
$psISE.Options.FontSize = 16             
# output pane             
$psISE.Options.OutputPaneBackgroundColor = '#FFFFEFD5'             
$psISE.Options.OutputPaneTextBackgroundColor = '#FFFFEFD5'             
$psISE.Options.OutputPaneForegroundColor = '#FF000000'             
# command pane             
$psISE.Options.CommandPaneBackgroundColor = '#FFFAEBD7'             
# script pane             
$psISE.Options.ScriptPaneBackgroundColor = '#FFFAEBD7'             
# tokens             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Command') = '#FFA0522D'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Operator') = '#FFA0522D'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Unknown') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Member') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Position') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('GroupEnd') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('GroupStart') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('LineContinuation') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('NewLine') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('StatementSeparator') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Comment') = '#FFAEAEAE'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('String') = '#A2BC13'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Keyword') = '#FFFFDE00'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Attribute') = '#FF84A7C1'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Type') = '#FF84A7C1'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Variable') = '#EE9A00'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('CommandParameter') = '#FFFFDE00'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('CommandArgument') = '#FFFFFFFF'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('Number') = '#FF4169E1'             
$psISE.Options.TokenColors.item('LoopLabel') = '#FF4169E1'

Importing xml themes

While you could create a bunch of scripts to change your themes on command, a much better way is to use xml theme files. By using xml theme files, you can take advantage of the color adjustment features of the Options panel. You can also export your changes for use elsewhere. 

When I read about themes and played around with the color options, I was excited to see all the various PowerShell theme collections people must have created by now. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any theme collections out there. I couldn't even find many themes let alone theme collections. So I took the few themes I did find and put them together and attached them here.  

To use them do the following:

1. Download and extract the theme files.
2. Open the ISE and select Tools > Options.
3. Select Manage Themes and import the extracted theme files.

Potential to script the import method

Although Microsoft did a nice job incorporating the theme option, they came up a little short in that you cannot import a theme using a PowerShell command. Kind of funny considering the nature of the product being themed.

Fortunately it won't take much to work around this deficiency. With a simple look through the registry, I can see they are creating string values with the content of the xmls stored as the data. It won't take much to create a function to do that! From there, I can build it into a form with preview pictures. Perhaps I can find some time to write this but I digress for now...

UPDATE: This has been done! Now you can import, change themes, and modify themes from the command line. Check out my latest post and grab my new ISE Theme Cmdlets! 

Themes contained in zip file

Here are some screenshots of the themes contained in the zip file. The original theme sources are also contained in the zip file.

Blackboard:

CoSolarized:

IR_Black:

Monokai:

My favorite of these 4 is Monokai. If you have an ISE color theme you'd like to share, let me know and I'll add it to this collection and update this post.

Here's the theme zip: 

PowerShellColorThemes.zip

Requesting WMI registry data on a 64-bit platform using a 32-bit PowerShell process

We've all been there before. You've learned "all there is to know" about the differences between x86 and x64 Windows. When working with the file system, look for "Program Files (x86)" or "SysWow64". When working with the registry, look for "Wow6432Node" to find your 32-bit application data. Life's good and you go on coding in your 64-bit ISE world, confident that you'll avoid cross-architecture pitfalls with the knowledge you've learned. Everything looks good, right?

The Problem

You find yourself needing to run your script with SCCM 2007 which uses a 32-bit client agent. Your script accesses both 32-bit and 64-bit registry locations using that trusty "Wow6432Node" key you learned about. Suddenly you realize that nothing is working as you expected when running on a 64-bit machine. This is because a 32-bit process knows nothing of the Wow6432Node that you are hard coding in your script.

The Solution

To get around this, I use the .Net StdRegProv class. This class allows you to set the architecture or "alternate registry view" as part of your registry query. To find out more about requesting WMI data on a 64-bit platform, click here.

The following example can be run in either x86 or x64 processes and is compatible with PowerShell 2.0 or later.

#-----------------------------
#--  Get-RegKey           
#-----------------------------            
Function Get-RegKey {            
    [cmdletbinding()]            
    Param(            
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]            
        [int] $Arch, # registry view to use            
                    
        [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline=$True,ValueFromPipelinebyPropertyName=$True)][ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]            
        [string] $Computer = ".", # computer to query            
            
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]            
        [string] $KeyPath, # path to the key to find            
                    
        [Parameter()] [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]            
        [object] $WMIObject # WMI connection object passed by another registry cmdlet                          
    )            
            
 Begin {            
        # Parse the Keypath            
        $i = $keyPath.IndexOf(":")            
        $Hkey = $keyPath.Substring(0,$i)            
        $KeyPath = $KeyPath.Substring($i + 2)            
    }            
            
 Process {            
  try {                    
            # Create a WMI connection object if one is not passed to the function already            
            If ($WMIObject -eq $null) {            
                # Create WMI connection object            
                $objswbem = New-Object -ComObject "WbemScripting.SWbemNamedValueSet"            
                $objswbem.Add("__ProviderArchitecture", $Arch) | Out-null            
                $objswbem.Add("__RequiredArchitecture", $True) | Out-null            
                $ObjLocator = New-Object -ComObject "Wbemscripting.SWbemLocator"            
                $objServices = $objLocator.ConnectServer($Computer,"root\Default",$null,$null,$null,$null,$null,$objswbem)            
                $objReg = $objServices.Get("stdRegProv")            
            } Else {            
                # Use the passed WMI connection object            
                $objReg = $WMIObject                
            }            
                        
            # Load the Enumkey method into the inparams            
            $Inparams = $objreg.Methods_.Item("EnumKey").Inparameters            
                        
            # Set the Hkey value            
            switch ($Hkey) {            
                “HKCR” {$HkeyVal = "&h80000000"} #HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT             
                “HKCU” {$HkeyVal = "&h80000001"} #HKEY_CURRENT_USER            
                “HKLM” {$HkeyVal = "&h80000002"} #HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE             
                "HKU" {$HkeyVal = "&h80000003"}  #HKEY_USERS                             
                "HKCC" {$HkeyVal = "&h80000005"} #HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG            
                "HKDD" {$HkeyVal = "&h80000006"} #HKEY_DYN_DATA                            
            }            
            
            # Load the parameters and execute method            
            $inparams.properties_.item("Hdefkey").Value = $HkeyVal            
            $inparams.properties_.item("sSubKeyName").Value = $KeyPath            
            $Outparams = $objReg.ExecMethod_.Invoke("EnumKey", $Inparams,$null,$objswbem)            
                        
            # Output the results                           
            if (($Outparams.Properties_ | where {$_.name -eq "ReturnValue"}).Value -eq 0) {              
                $OutputObj = New-Object -Type PSObject            
                $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Computer" –Value $Computer            
                $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Architecture" –Value "$Arch-bit"
                $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "KeyPath" –Value "$HKey`:\$KeyPath"
                $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Exist" –Value $True            
                $OutputObj             
              
            } else {                
                $OutputObj = New-Object -Type PSObject            
                $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Computer" –Value $Computer            
                $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Architecture" –Value "$Arch-bit"
                $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "KeyPath" –Value "$HKey`:\$KeyPath"
                $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Exist" –Value $False            
                $OutputObj               
            }                              
        } catch {                    
        #throw “Failed to retrieve keys in: ‘$KeyPath’. The error was: ‘$_’.”             
            $OutputObj = New-Object -Type PSObject            
            $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Computer" –Value $Computer            
            $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Architecture" –Value $_            
            $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "KeyPath" –Value "$HKey`:\$KeyPath"
            $OutputObj | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Exist" –Value ""            
            $OutputObj                         
  }            
        }            
            
    End {}            
                
    <#
  .SYNOPSIS
   Checks if registry key exists

  .DESCRIPTION
   Checks if registry key exists using the enumkey method of the StdRegProv

  .PARAMETER Arch
   Registry architecture or view to use for query

  .PARAMETER Computer
   Computer name to query registry from. If none provided searches local computer.
   
  .PARAMETER KeyPath
   Registry key path to find
  
  .EXAMPLE
   PS C:\> Get-RegKey 64 mycomputer "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore"
            
        .EXAMPLE
   PS C:\> Get-RegKey -Arch 64 "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore"

  .EXAMPLE
   PS C:\> Get-RegKey 64 my computer "HKLM:\Software\Alps\Apoint"

  .INPUTS
   System.String

  .OUTPUTS
   
  .NOTES
                        Part of the RegistryCmdlets.ps1 script by Jeff Pollock
                        http://lifeinpowershell.blogspot.com 
                        http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Powershell-Registry-19689888                                                                 
 #>                        
}

As you can see there is quite a bit of coding just to properly get a simple RegKey and there are many other registry operations yet to cover. Fortunately I've coded the most useful ones for you. You can get them in the link at the end of this post. They are well commented so I won't go into detail about them here other than to provide the following.

List of the cmdlets provided in the script:

Get-RegKey()

Get-RegSubKeys()

Set-RegKey()

Remove-RegKey()

Get-RegValue()

Get-RegSubValues()

Set-RegValue

Remove-RegValue()

SearchRegValue()

Cmdlet features:

Both x86 and x64 compatible

Can accept a WMI registry object as a parameter to avoid creating multiple WMI connections.

Fully pipeline enabled

Over the next few posts I will talk a little more about some of the routines used in these cmdlets. For now, give them a try and let me know how it goes.

Here is a link to the script on the Technet Gallery:

Powershell Registry Cmdlets utilizing the .Net StdRegProv