Q. How can I create a list of all folders in a passed path in PowerShell that can then be passed to another cmdlet?

A. I had a large folder of virtual machines I had exported. Each folder was a separate machine, and I wanted to run a script to import each VM in the folder. The first step was to use PowerShell to create the list of folders. To do that, I needed to list all child items in a path then check if the item is of type directory, as shown below.

PS E:Virtuals> b




    Directory: E:Virtuals




Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----         4/25/2011   6:27 AM            hypervserv
d----         4/24/2011   4:34 PM            PXETest
d----         4/25/2011   6:02 AM            savdalappv01
d----         4/24/2011   4:44 PM            savdalcb01
d----         4/24/2011   4:50 PM            savdalclient2.savilltech.net
d----         4/24/2011   4:56 PM            savdalclient3.savilltech.net
d----         4/24/2011   5:02 PM            savdalclient4.savilltech.net
d----         4/24/2011   5:08 PM            savdalcm01

The next step is to pass this output to another command. For example, below I just pass it to a command to list the fullname of the directory. You could use any function you need to.

PS E:Virtuals> Get-ChildItem e:virtuals | Where-Object { $_.Attributes -band  [System.IO.FileAttributes]::Directory } | ForEach-Object {Write-Host $_.FullName}


E:virtualshypervserv
E:virtualsPXETest
E:virtualssavdalappv01
E:virtualssavdalcb01
E:virtualssavdalclient2.savilltech.net
E:virtualssavdalclient3.savilltech.net
E:virtualssavdalclient4.savilltech.net
E:virtualssavdalcm01
E:virtualssavdaldc11
E:virtualssavdaldpm01
E:virtualssavdalex10
E:virtualssavdalfs01