Windows Tip Sheet
Prints Charming
Slay the documentation dragon with a few of these nifty tricks.
- By Jeffery Hicks
- 01/03/2007
I'm sure you've all heard the documentation mantra at one time or another.
The challenge is finding time to do it. Well, depending on what you need
to document, creating printed documentation on the fly is pretty easy.
From a command prompt, all you need to do is redirect the console output
to a printer:
dir > \\Print01\hplaser5
If your needs are a little more complex -- say you need to audit file
permissions -- a command expression like this will get the job done (typed
in a single line, of course):
(for /f %i in ('dir e:\users /b /s') do @cacls %i) > \\Print01\hplaser5
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When complete, you'll have a printed report. It might be
quite long, but you'll have it.
One drawback to command-line redirection is that you can't send a job
to a USB-attached printer without using a third-party solution. However,
if the printer is on LPT1, you can do something like this:
(for /f %i in ('dir *.exe /b') do @filever %i) > LPT1:
If you're using PowerShell, redirecting output to a printer is even easier.
All you need to do is pipe the output to the Out-Printer cmdlet:
get-service | where {$_.status -eq "stopped"} |
out-printer
If you don't specify a printer name, output goes to the default printer.
It doesn't matter if the default printer is network- or USB-based or on
LPT1. If you want to specify a printer, use an expression like this:
get-service | where {$_.status -eq "stopped"} |
out-printer -name \\jdhit-dc01\hplaser5
If you have a PDF driver installed, you can create digital documentation
in a snap without lifting too many fingers:
get-childitem|get-acl |format-list |out-printer -name "Adobe
PDF"
Now you can be the "Prints Charming" of your department, slay
the evil documentation dragon and save the day.
About the Author
Jeffery Hicks is an IT veteran with over 25 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT infrastructure consultant specializing in Microsoft server technologies with an emphasis in automation and efficiency. He is a multi-year recipient of the Microsoft MVP Award in Windows PowerShell. He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant. Jeff has written for numerous online sites and print publications, is a contributing editor at Petri.com, and a frequent speaker at technology conferences and user groups.