CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershelloutlook
Min
Min

Reputation: 538

Get-Process output value if it it does not find the process specified

What is the Get-Process output value if it does not find a process specified? For example, I am checking if Outlook is closed and if it is, I back a PST file. Here is my code:

$source = "C:\Users\----\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.pst"
$destination = "\\----\users\----\outlook"

$isOutlookOpen = Get-Process outlook*
$isOutlookOpen
if($isOutlookOpen = $true){
    # Outlook is already closed:
    Copy-Item -Path $source -Destination $destination
    $messageParameters = @{
        Subject = "Daily Outlook Backup Report computer"
        Body = "Outlook was closed. Backup was complete."
        From = "---"
        To = "---"
        SmtpServer = "---"
        Port = ---
    }
    Send-MailMessage @messageParameters -BodyAsHtml
} else {
    $messageParameters = @{
        Subject = "Daily Outlook Backup Report computer"
        Body = "Outlook was not closed. Backup was not initiated."
        From = "---"
        To = "---"
        SmtpServer = "---"
        Port = ---
    }
    Send-MailMessage @messageParameters -BodyAsHtml
}

It always goes to the else statement.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2561

Answers (2)

Ansgar Wiechers
Ansgar Wiechers

Reputation: 200483

You use an assignment operator (=) in the condition, so it will always evaluate to $true. The equality comparison operator in PowerShell is -eq.

With that said, you don't need an operator there in the first place. Get-Process returns a list of System.Diagnostics.Process objects (or $null if no matching process is found). You can use the value of the variable $isOutlookOpen like a boolean value, because PowerShell will interpret a non-empty array as a boolean value $true and $null as a boolean value $false.

This should work:

$isOutlookOpen = Get-Process outlook*
if($isOutlookOpen) {
    # ...
} else {
    # ...
}

Upvotes: 1

smwk
smwk

Reputation: 218

In your code you are checking if something is $true when it's value would be the details of the process:

$isOutlookOpen = Get-Process outlook*
$isOutlookOpen
if($isOutlookOpen = $true){

Even if it did give a true or false response you are actually assigning a value of $true in your if statement. It should be:

if ($isOutlookOpen -eq $true)

A better way to do it would be to put it in a try and catch block:

try {
 get-process outlook* -errorAction stop
}
catch {
 write-host "Outlook not running..."
}

Upvotes: 0

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