PowerShell Tool Of The Month
In this issue:
I thought I'd introduce something new into the mix on a monthly basis. I have a huge library of PowerShell tools, many of which I use myself. I've written about many of them in past newsletters over the years. At a minimum, you've seen me use these tools from the PSScriptTools module:
And of course the tools I've been created using the pwshSpectreConsole module like Show-SpecreSystemStatus
Once a month I want to share something new. At least I think it will be new to you. Today's tool is something I wrote years ago but I have cleaned it up a bit. I try to document my code liberally with comments so I won't spend a lot of time detailing the code.
> All of my code is offered as-is with no guarantees, warranties, or support. You should review and test everything in a non-production environment.
Parsing with the AST
Today's tool is an extension of past articles I've written on using the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) in PowerShell. You can use the AST to parse a script file or script block and discover the individual elements that make it tick.
If you need a refresher, take a look at these items from the archives:
- Going Out on a Limb on the Abstract Syntax Tree
- Climbing Higher in the Abstract Syntax Tree
- Creating AST-Based PowerShell Tools
- PowerShell Parsing and Processing
- Positioning with the PowerShell AST
Years ago in the PowerShell v2 days, the original Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, asked me to write a PowerShell script that would dissect a file and prepare a report showing what commands were going to be called, if any of the commands might be potentially dangerous like Remove-Item and anything else that an IT Pro might want to know about a script. This was before the PowerShell Gallery when we often downloaded scripts from blogs and web sites. Ed's idea was to have a tool that would create a profile of the script that would provide useful information for someone who may not have extensive PowerShell experience.
A lot of this work was done with simple string parsing and regular expressions. Then PowerShell v3.0 introduced the AST. Over time, I revised the script profiling tool to use the AST. This allowed me to discover other information about how a script is constructed. Today, I want to share the current version of this tool with you.
Help Document
The earlier versions of my profiling tool wrote a text based report to the console that you could save to a file. At some point, I made the decision to create an about help topic file with script profile information.
Here's a fun side-effect of creating a file like this. By default, my profiling script saves the file to your TEMP folder. You would use Get-Content to look at the file or open in Notepad or VSCode. However you can specify a different folder. If you create a folder that is part of a location in $env:PSModulePath, you can use the help system to find and view the file.
I created C:\Users\Jeff\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\ScriptProfiles. The directory will be treated as a module which means it will be searched. I can save my profile reports to this directory.
Get-ASTProfile -Path C:\scripts\Set-ADPassword.ps1 -FilePath c:\users\jeff\documents\windowsPowerShell\Modules\ScriptProfiles
The file name format is about_<script-name>. If I know what I'm looking for, I can display it using help.
PS C:\> help about_Set-ADPassword
TOPIC
about Set-ADPassword.ps1 script profile
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Script Profile report for: C:\scripts\Set-ADPassword.ps1
Created: 09/11/2026 12:25:23
LONG DESCRIPTION
This is an analysis of a PowerShell script or module. Analysis will most likely NOT be 100% thorough.
REQUIREMENTS
RequiredApplicationId :
RequiredPSVersion : 4.0
RequiredPSEditions : {}
RequiredModules : {ActiveDirectory}
RequiredAssemblies : {}
IsElevationRequired : False
...
> The Created date is the date of the profile not the script.
However, each about topic also includes a keyword, scriptProfile. This isn't necessarily fast, but it should work.
Once I know the name, I can use the help command to display it.
Here's a complete sample.
TOPIC
about WeatherTicker.psm1 script profile
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Script Profile report for: C:\scripts\WeatherTicker.psm1
Created: 09/11/2026 11:24:17
LONG DESCRIPTION
This is an analysis of a PowerShell script or module. Analysis will most likely NOT be 100% thorough.
REQUIREMENTS
- None detected
PARAMETERS
- None detected. Parameters for nested commands are not tested.
FUNCTIONS DEFINED
- Get-YahooWeather
- Start-WeatherTitleTicker
ALL COMMANDS
All possible PowerShell commands for v5.1.26100.9278. This list may not be complete or even correct.
CommandType Name Version Source
----------- ---- ------- ------
Cmdlet Export-ModuleMember 3.0.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Core
Cmdlet Get-Command 3.0.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Core
Cmdlet Get-Date 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet Get-Unique 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet New-Object 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet Out-Null 3.0.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Core
Cmdlet Receive-Job 3.0.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Core
Cmdlet Register-ObjectEvent 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet Set-Alias 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet Sort-Object 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet Start-Job 3.0.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Core
Cmdlet Start-Sleep 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet Write-Output 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet Write-Verbose 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
Cmdlet Write-Warning 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
UNRESOLVED
These commands may be called from nested commands or unknown modules.
Get-YahooWeather
TYPENAMES
These are identified .NET type names that might be used as accelerators.
[char]
[console]
[datetime]
[scriptblock]
[string]
[xml]
WARNING
These are potentially dangerous commands.
- None detected
ERRORS
- None detected
KEYWORDS
- scriptProfile
Does this look like something you would use?
