Vista - finding all machines on the network.

context: i want to find all machines on our LAN and WAN and then from
that query them to their screen resolution, I am writing a query to
find out and summarize the different screen resolutions in use in our
organisation...

first attempt

(New-Object
DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("LDAP://CN=Computers,DC=whatever,DC=net")).get_children()
|
foreach {$comp = $_.cn ;get-WmiObject -computername $comp
Win32_DisplayConfiguration |
Select-Object (as computer , {$comp}, height, pelsheight , width ,
pelswidth) }

this works great, other than that our active directory is quite
incomplete and disorganised (b.t.w as a side querstion, is there a way
i can search through the whole of an active directory structure and
just get out all the computers in it (in comparision to users , groups
etc?)

anyhow i am thinking my next attempt is to get a list of all the
machines via DNS, anybody got an example script or technique of getting
a list of DNSs remotely from your win2k3 domain server with powershell?

Karl

Use a filter, of course. "objectcategory=computer" Put that in
DirectorySearcher one the rootDSE and that will find all machines for you.

One thing to note, that will show all machines, not just computers but
servers as well. AD doesn't discriminate between the two.

james

klumsy@xtra.co.nz wrote:
> context: i want to find all machines on our LAN and WAN and then from
> that query them to their screen resolution, I am writing a query to
> find out and summarize the different screen resolutions in use in our
> organisation...
>
> first attempt
>
> (New-Object
> DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("LDAP://CN=Computers,DC=whatever,DC=net")).get_children()
> |
> foreach {$comp = $_.cn ;get-WmiObject -computername $comp
> Win32_DisplayConfiguration |
> Select-Object (as computer , {$comp}, height, pelsheight , width ,
> pelswidth) }
>
> this works great, other than that our active directory is quite
> incomplete and disorganised (b.t.w as a side querstion, is there a way
> i can search through the whole of an active directory structure and
> just get out all the computers in it (in comparision to users , groups
> etc?)
>
> anyhow i am thinking my next attempt is to get a list of all the
> machines via DNS, anybody got an example script or technique of getting
> a list of DNSs remotely from your win2k3 domain server with powershell?
>
> Karl
>