Powershell. Write event logs

Question

I have a script which moves some files from a folder to the temp folder, archives them and cleans the temp folder at the end.

I want my script to also write information about it in the win-event log.

Here is my script:

Get-ChildItem C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\test1\ | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt "09/24/2018 09:00 PM"} | Move-Item -Destination C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\data\
Compress-Archive -path C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\data\ -CompressionLevel Optimal -DestinationPath C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\data1\test.zip
Remove-Item C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\data\*

I want to add code which will write an event for any error into the win-event log.

Answer 1

Per the comments, you can use Write-EventLog to write to the Windows Event Logs. If you want to write any errors that occur during those commands, then you probably want to use a Try..Catch to catch any errors and handle them:

Try {
    $PrevEAP = $ErrorActionPreference
    $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

    Get-ChildItem C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\test1\ | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt "09/24/2018 09:00 PM"} | Move-Item -Destination C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\data\
    Compress-Archive -path C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\data\ -CompressionLevel Optimal -DestinationPath C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\data1\test.zip
    Remove-Item C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\data\* 
Catch {
    Write-Error $_

    $ErrorEvent = @{
        LogName = 'Application'
        Source = 'YourScript'
        EventID = 123
        EntryType = 'Information'
        Message = $_
    }
    Write-EventLog @ErrorEvent
}
Finally {
    $ErrorActionPreference = $PrevEAP
}

In order for an exception (error) to trigger a Try..Catch the exception needs to be terminating (vs non-terminating). You can force cmdlets to do terminating errors by setting the cmdlets -ErrorAction to Stop , or you can do this globally via the $ErrorActionPreference variable.

In the catch block, the error is held in the special variable: $_ . So we can use Write-Error to still write it out to the console (if you want to) and then we're using Write-EventLog to write it into the Event Log.

Customise LogName, Source, EventID, Information etc. as per your needs. Note LogName needs to be one of the existing Logs and Entry Type needs to be one of the valid entry types (Information, Warning, Error).