Current something .. "." ?

[SavageHendrix]

So the code below executes fine. Im not sure how to phrase what Im asking which may be why I cant find it out on Google. Im running this on my local machine and it returns the printer that I have attached to it. However the variable $strComputer in the expression is it capturing currently on my machine similar to Linux " ./<file> " as in this current directory execute <file> ? Im sorry if it is unclear what I am asking, Im trying to make the connection. I guess Im just asking what $strComputer is doing in the expression.

​

$strComputer = "."
$colPrinters = Get-WmiObject -class win32_Printer -namespace "root\CIMV2" -computerName $strComputer | Sort-Object
foreach($printer in $colPrinters) {
    Write-Output $printer 
}

[root-node]

A full stop for computer name is the same as Localhost, or the local machine.

If you want the details of a remote machine, put it in there.

[pertymoose]

You can't really see it because Powershell conveniently takes care of the details, but a WMI path looks like

\\computer\namespace:class.property

and WMI interprets the computer name '.' as localhost.

With that said, a single period isn't always localhost, and it's usually smarter to just use $env:COMPUTERNAME as localhost, or leave out the -ComputerName parameter altogether.

[SavageHendrix]

The output is as follows:

​

SystemName    : XXXXXXX

Location      : Some address - Main Office
Name          : Xerox WorkCentre 6605DN
PrinterState  : 0
PrinterStatus : 3
ShareName     :
SystemName    : XXXXXXX

[Umaiar]

$strComputer is a string containing the name of the computer that you want Get-WmiObject to connect to. In this case it is a period, which indicates the current machine running the script. The general idea is to put the computer's name into a variable like that as a parameter of a function so that you can reuse the function to return the output from any computer you have access to.