powershell : The given path's format is not supported

Question

i am not a programmer but i am trying to run this powershell script to get multiple website screenshots with internet exporer ( not my script )

can anyone help to find out what is wrong with it because i am stack and i dont know what to do.

thnx in advance

# Author: Shawn Keene
# Date: 09/12/2019
# Powershell script to automate Internet Explorer and grab screenshots

$ScriptPath = Split-Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
cd $ScriptPath

[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing")

function screenshot([Drawing.Rectangle]$bounds, $path) {
$bmp = New-Object Drawing.Bitmap $bounds.width, $bounds.height
$graphics = [Drawing.Graphics]::FromImage($bmp)

$graphics.CopyFromScreen($bounds.Location, [Drawing.Point]::Empty, $bounds.size)

$bmp.Save($path)

$graphics.Dispose()
$bmp.Dispose()
}

$bounds = [Drawing.Rectangle]::FromLTRB(4, 110, 1580, 1584)      #area for screenshot

cls
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "Starting... Move or minimize this window."
sleep 3                                                          #give the user 3 seconds to minimize 
or move the powershell window out of the way

$iterator = 1;
$OutputFile = "screenshot-log.log"                               #just in case we need to debug 
something later

$products = import-csv "urls.csv" | foreach {                    #load a 2-column CSV with headers of 
"filename" (for picture file) and "url" to visit

$ie = New-Object -com internetexplorer.application;          #initialize a fresh browser window for 
each row of the CSV
$ie.top = 0;
$ie.left = -8;                                               #because windows 10 has an invisible 
grab borders unless you use AeroLite theme
$ie.height = 1600;
$ie.width = 1600;
$ie.visible = $true;

$ie.navigate("about:blank");
while ($ie.Busy -eq $true) { Start-Sleep -Seconds 1};

$startTime = Get-Date                                       #start the stopwatch and log it
write-host $iterator.ToString() `t $_.url

$ie.navigate($_.url);                                       #go to the website and wait for browser 
to become idle

while ($ie.Busy -eq $true) { Start-Sleep -Seconds 1};
sleep 3                                                     #wait at least 3 seconds and then check 
for idle one more time to be sure
while ($ie.Busy -eq $true) { Start-Sleep -Seconds 1};

$endTime = get-date                                         #end timer

$filepath = "Results\" + $_.filename + ".png"               #place screenshots into the Results 
subfolder of the current working directory

screenshot $bounds $scriptpath\$filepath                    #say cheese

#log the result to the log file
$iterator.ToString() + "`t" + $_.filename + "`t" + $_.url + "`t" + $startTime.DateTime + "`t" + 
($endTime - $startTime).TotalSeconds + " seconds" >> $outputFile

$ie.quit();                                                 #close the browser process

$iterator = $iterator+1;
}

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green "All Done!";

and i am get this error

Exception calling "Save" with "1" argument(s): "The given path's format is not supported."
At line:7 char:4
+    $bmp.Save($path)
+    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : NotSupportedException

can anyone help to find out what is wrong with it because i am stack and i dont know what to do.

thnx in advance

Answer 1

If you get path error in powershell, use below script: Basically divide your path into 3 parts.

$sSecStrPassword = "Come up with something secure!";
$FilePath = "c:\a\";
$FileName = "mycert";
$FileType = ".pfx";
$certificateObject = New-Object System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate2
$certificateObject.Import($FilePath+$FileName+$FileType, $sSecStrPassword, [System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509KeyStorageFlags]::DefaultKeySet);
return $certificateObject.Thumbprint;

Answer 2

Note:

• The following answer applies to Windows.

• Unix-like platforms (supported by PowerShell [Core] v6+) have different rules; notably, there are no drive letters^[1], and : is therefore a legal character in a file name; except for / , which is invariably the path separator, there are virtually no restrictions on what characters you may use in a file name, including \.^[2]

---

As you've since confirmed, the problem was that a filename column value in your input CSV file contained a : (colon) character, but a mere file name isn't allowed to contain :

: is only allowed in a file path, once, as part of a drive specification (e.g., C:)

A : in any other part of a path triggers the exception you saw, which surfaces as a statement-terminating error in PowerShell (error message abbreviated below); e.g.:

# On Windows
PS> [System.IO.StreamWriter]::new("C:\foo:bar")
"The given path's format is not supported."

---

A related error shows if you try to use characters that are fundamentally unsupported in file names, notably one of: : * ? " < > | (\ / too cannot be used in file names, only as separators in paths); note that the error message changed in PowerShell [Core] v6+:

# Windows PowerShell
PS> [System.IO.StreamWriter]::new("foo?bar")
"Illegal characters in path."

# PowerShell [Core] v6+ on Windows
PS> [System.IO.StreamWriter]::new("foo?bar")
"The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."

---

The above errors are both due to invalid file-system path syntax.

By contrast, if the path is syntactically valid but the target directory doesn't exist, you'll see yet another error:

# On Windows.
PS> [System.IO.StreamWriter]::new("NoSuchSubdir\file.txt")
"Could not find a part of the path '...'."

With / as the separator, you'd see the same error on Unix-like platforms.

---

^{[1] Paths based on PowerShell-only drive definitions (created with New-PSDrive) can have drive specifications on Unix too, but you cannot pass such paths to .NET methods (such as in this case), because .NET doesn't understand them.}

^{[2] This applies to .NET method calls and calls to native utilities; PowerShell, in an attempt to unify behavior across platforms, allows use of \ as the path separator on Unix as well, which can be problematic - see this GitHub issue.}

Answer 3

You may have to create Results directory first to save the screenshots, I tested and creating the directory solved the problem

Correction: Issue is in the filename inputs supplied from csv, which contain the characters like ':' which are not supported for filename in windows

Detailed answer given below by @mklement0

Answer 4

You have to meet the following two prerequisites in order to make this script work:

1. You need a CSV file named urls.csv at the location where your script is stored. This file has to contain two comma-delimited columns with headers filenameand url. Also note, that the filename has to be provided without an extension. Example:

filename,url
test,https://www.google.com

2. You need a folder named "Results" at the destination where this script is stored. You will find your screenshots inside this folder then.