PowerShell Transcript Techniques
A helpful PowerShell feature that I don’t think many people take advantage of is transcription. It is very easy to create a text-based log file. The log file will capture all pipeline output, as well as console output using Write-Host
. The transcript should capture anything written using StdOut
, which includes most command-line tools. The transcript won’t capture output from commands like nslookup
or netsh
that have an interactive mode. But since, presumably, you are primarily running PowerShell commands, this shouldn’t be that much of an issue.
Use Start-Transcript
to initiate the process.
PS C:\> Start-Transcript
Transcript started, output file is C:\Users\Jeff\Documents\PowerShell_transcript.PROSPERO.o2MTQq57.20230404163414.txt
PS C:\>
By default, a text file be created in your Documents folder using the naming convention you see above. The naming convention is the same regardless of what version of PowerShell you are running. I’m assuming you are running at least Windows PowerShell 5.1. The file is locked, so you can’t insert anything while the transcript runs.