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I’d like to get the MS-Defcon rating in a script as a variable. Right now as I’m typing this the rating is “2.” Is this possible? I’d give proper credit and not just make it look like something I came up with on the screen that displays the MS-Defcon rating.
Here‘s the current script if that matters. Thanks.
If I was doing it in AutoHotkey I guess the simplest way would be to parse the AskWoody homepage using IfInString. Although it’s a deprecated command, IMO for a simple task like this it’s just easier to use compared to InStr or RegExMatch.
Something like this works for me:
UrlDownloadToFile, https://www.askwoody.com/, %A_Temp%woody.txt ; Save AskWoody homepage to a temporary file
Sleep, 1000 ; Pause for 1 second to allow for any download/file writing delay
FileRead, devcon, %A_Temp%woody.txt ; Read the contents of the file into a variable
IfInString, devcon, MS-DEFCON-1.jpg ; Check within variable for which JPG is referenced
{
MsgBox, , MS-DEVCON is currently set at 1
}
Else IfInString, devcon, MS-DEFCON-2.jpg
{
MsgBox, , MS-DEVCON is currently set at 2
}
Else IfInString, devcon, MS-DEFCON-3.jpg
{
MsgBox, , MS-DEVCON is currently set at 3
}
Else IfInString, devcon, MS-DEFCON-4.jpg
{
MsgBox, , MS-DEVCON is currently set at 4
}
Else IfInString, devcon, MS-DEFCON-5.jpg
{
MsgBox, , MS-DEVCON is currently set at 5
}
FileDelete, %A_Temp%woody.txt ; Clean up afterwards
Exit
… which currently gives a result of:
Obviously, you’ll just grab the result instead of using it in a message box but it was just to show it’s possible.
(f you want a nicer looking script just shout and I’ll attach as a .TXT file for you to rename to .AHK. I’ve documented the AHK code – everything after a semi-colon [;] is a comment – to make it as clear as possible what’s happening.)
I haven’t added any errorchecking but UrlDownloadToFile can be used with it… check the documentation, especially the bit about avoiding caching by adding a query string to the end of the URL.
Hope this helps get you started. I’m not very good at scripting so, any queries, use AutoHotkey‘s Ask For Help forum.
PF100,
Here’s a PowerShell script that will do the deed. At least if I parsed the HTML correctly and the pattern is standard!
Function Show-Msg {
Param ( [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,
HelpMessage="Message box content.")]
[string]$Msg ,
[Parameter(Mandatory=$False,
HelpMessage="Message box title.")]
[string]$Title = "Information"
)
[Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show("$Msg", "$Title",
[Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons]::OK ,
[Windows.Forms.MessageBoxIcon]::Information)
} #End Function Show-Msg
#------------------ Main Program -----------------
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
Clear-Host
$IWRArgs = @{URI = "https://www.askwoody.com/"
UseBasicParsing = $True
}
$WebResponse = Invoke-WebRequest @IWRArgs
ForEach ($Image in $WebResponse.Images) {
$x = $Image.OuterHTML.ToString()
If ($x -like "*MS-DEFCON-*") {
$y = $x.split('/')
$z = $y[8].split('.')
$SMArgs = @{Msg = "MS-DefCon = $($z[0].SubString(10,1))"
Title = "AskWoody MS-DEFCON Setting"}
Show-Msg @SMArgs
}
}
Brilliant! I can more or less follow the flow… 🙂
(Apologies in advance MODs but I think the following may be of interest to others rather than me bothering RG with a PM.)
How on earth do you get your code indented so nicely, RG? I’m struggling big time with this.
Just half an hour ago I found out I couldn’t even attach a zipped script ‘cos ZIP files are not allowed.
Rick, using the text tab enter pre /pre tags then paste between them from notepad++ or other plain text editor. Note unlike WSL here you use <> vs [] brackets.
PF100,
Ok, here it is:
Powershell Code: {Get-AskWoody-MSDEFCON.ps1}
Clear-Host
$IWRArgs = @{URI = "https://www.askwoody.com/"
UseBasicParsing = $True
}
$WebResponse = Invoke-WebRequest @IWRArgs
ForEach ($Image in $WebResponse.Images) {
$x = $Image.OuterHTML.ToString()
If ($x -like "*MS-DEFCON-*") {
$y = $x.split('/')
$z = $y[8].split('.')
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("MSDEFCON",
"$($z[0].SubString(10,1))", "user")
} #End If
} #End ForEach
How to call from .cmd file:
Echo Off CLS PowerShell.exe -noninteractive -command "G:BEKDocsScriptsGET-AskWoody-MSDEFCON.ps1" Echo MS-DefCon = %MSDEFCON% Rem --- Clear Variable --- Set MSDEFCON= Pause
Sample run:
Of course you’ll adjust drive/path info per your system. 😎
P.S. I almost forgot to mention that for some reason this will NOT work if you double click on the batch file in File Explorer but it works just fine if you open cmd.exe and run the batch file from there. Most likely some kind of scope issue maybe someone else could enlighten us both.
I posted the code I ended up using here, then when I edited it the forum says I already posted it, but it’s not showing up here!
So, here’s the code on pastebin instead:
https://pastebin.com/XJDFfsSr
And here’s the result:
Also, someone asked me:
“I’d like to see a graph of the AskWoody MS-DEFCON rating trend since it was implemented. Do you think it’s ever been “5” All clear?”
Does anyone have an answer to that?
One more thing – is
https://www.askwoody.com/patch-list-master/
the best link to give people? Seems like it is to me, but is there any other link you guys might think is more suitable, or is the patch master list the most informative yet easiest to read page about patches as related to MS-DEFCON?
Thanks.
> Has MS-DEFCON ever hit 5?
Yep. As recently as two years ago.
Four years ago, we had two MS-DEFCON 5 months in a row.
If you go way back, you’ll find even more – but that was back when we were looking at just a few current versions of Windows.
By contrast, we’ve had loads of MS-DEFCON 1s, many of them in recent memory.
is https://www.askwoody.com/patch-list-master/ the best link to give people? Seems like it is to me, but is there any other link you guys might think is more suitable, or is the patch master list the most informative yet easiest to read page about patches as related to MS-DEFCON?
It’s a little more complicated than that.
The MS-DEFCON rating is a single, simple, red-light/green-light scale for all versions of Windows, all versions of Office, and NET, and whatever else is floating around.
Susan’s Patch Watch list is for people who have the luxury (and the knowledge) to look at individual patches, and weigh their futures accordingly.
Two very different audiences.
Save this as “MS-DEFCON.cmd” and run it and be amazed. Thank you @RetiredGeek.
Script won’t paste correctly here, so I put it on pastebin here.
Hey Y’all,
Here’s version 3 of my Get-MSDEFCON.ps1 program that now includes the textual description as well as the number rating. It also includes some revised code to parse the HTML. HTH 😎
Sorry, forgot to post the screen shot.
Hey y’all,
I’ve been in the process of moving and have finally obtained some semblance of order to the new abode. I had put off fixing a bug in this program (actually in PowerShell’s Invoke-WebRequest). Well I finally found a way to get around the problem of PowerShell not returning the Images by finding another way to parse the HTML of the site to return the MS-DefCon number.
Update: Forgot to delete temp file. Fixed and new code below.
Get-MSdefCon.zip: Get-MSDefCon-1
.zip MD5 Hash: 0002B8B82B5116EDA88C348A0D5066A2
.ps1 MD5 Hash: 50EAAA44593871F8E9B4BD074AD0999B
HTH 😎
Try this:
Right click on the PS1 file.
Properties.
Unblock.
OK.
cheers, Paul
@RetiredGeek – Has something changed again? When I run the script I get the dialog absolutely fine, but an error appears in the console:
Cannot convert value "s" to type "System.Int32". Error: "Input string was not in a correct format." At C:\temp\Get-MSDefCon\Get-MSDefCon.ps1:102 char:8 + $DEFCONNo = [Int]$Parts[$Cntr].substring(10,1) + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [], RuntimeException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidCastFromStringToInteger
I can’t even see a value “s” on line 102…
Also, the script downloads an askwoody.htm file as an outfile to parse. Can this be automatically cleaned up after parsing?
EDIT: RG – Please just ignore this post. I was using the old version posted in this topic above.
I downloaded a new version from your shared OneDrive folder and everything’s fine, including deletion of the temporary outfile.
Hope this helps…
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