Trouble getting date range from Outlook email using Powershell

Question

Trouble getting date range from Outlook email using Powershell ISE 4.0. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this script? I can get the script to partially work but date sorting is not working for me at all.

<#  Outlook Data Mining Script

You will need to install Powershell 4.0, otherwise known as Windows Management package
   so that you can get the program called 'Powershell ISE'

    Finally, to run this, first, enable execution policy by running these commands:
    > Get-ExecutionPolicy
    > Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser Unrestricted -Force

#>

cls 
Write-Host "Wait while we compile the inbox items..."

<# $oldestdate = (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) #>   

Get-OutlookInbox | where { ($_.ReceivedTime -gt [datetime]"12/28/13") }

<#  Filter examples:
   where { $_.Subject.StartsWith("RE:") } | 
   where { $_.ReceivedTime -gt [datetime]::Parse("12/20/2013") }
   sort ReceivedTime -Descending
   select subject, ReceivedTime -last 5
   #>


<# functions defined below here #>

Get-OutlookInBox function
Function Get-OutlookInBox
{

  <# .Synopsis
    This function returns InBox items from default Outlook profile
   .Description
    This function returns InBox items from default Outlook profile. It
    uses the Outlook interop assembly to use the olFolderInBox enumeration.
    It creates a custom object consisting of Subject, ReceivedTime, Importance,
    SenderName for each InBox item.

    *** Important *** depending on the size of your InBox items this function
    may take several minutes to gather your InBox items. If you anticipate
    doing multiple analysis of the data, you should consider storing the
    results into a variable, and using that.

   .Example
    Get-OutlookInbox |
    where { $_.ReceivedTime -gt [datetime]"5/5/11" -AND $_.ReceivedTime -lt `
    [datetime]"5/10/11" } | sort importance
    Displays Subject, ReceivedTime, Importance, SenderName for all InBox items that
    are in InBox between 5/5/11 and 5/10/11 and sorts by importance of the email.

   .Example
    Get-OutlookInbox | Group-Object -Property SenderName | sort-Object Count
    Displays Count, SenderName and grouping information for all InBox items. The most
    frequently used contacts appear at bottom of list.

   .Example
    $InBox = Get-OutlookInbox
    Stores Outlook InBox items into the $InBox variable for further
    "offline" processing.

   .Example
    ($InBox | Measure-Object).count
    Displays the number of messages in InBox Items

   .Example
    $InBox | where { $_.subject -match '2011 Scripting Games' } |
     sort ReceivedTime -Descending | select subject, ReceivedTime -last 5
    Uses $InBox variable (previously created) and searches subject field
    for the string '2011 Scripting Games' it then sorts by the date InBox.
    This sort is descending which puts the oldest messages at bottom of list.
    The Select-Object cmdlet is then used to choose only the subject and ReceivedTime
    properties and then only the last five messages are displayed. These last
    five messages are the five oldest messages that meet the string.

 #>

 Add-type -assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook" | out-null

 $olFolders = "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.olDefaultFolders" -as [type]

 $outlook = new-object -comobject outlook.application

 $namespace = $outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")

 $folder = $namespace.getDefaultFolder($olFolders::olFolderInBox)

 $folder.items |

 Select-Object -Property Subject, ReceivedTime, Importance, SenderName

} #end function Get-OutlookInbox

Answer 1

This script works fine on my computer running:

• Windows Server 2012 Std
• Powershell 3.0
• Outlook 2010

I modified it a little, just to cut out some stuff, but overall the script is the same:

function Get-OutlookInBox {
    Write-Host "Wait while we compile the inbox items..."

    Add-type -assembly "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook" | out-null

    $olFolders = "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.olDefaultFolders" -as [type]
    $outlook = new-object -comobject outlook.application
    $namespace = $outlook.GetNameSpace("MAPI")
    $folder = $namespace.getDefaultFolder($olFolders::olFolderInBox)
    $folder.items | Select-Object -Property Subject, ReceivedTime, Importance, SenderName
}