I write a LOT of things that include technical terms, including email, book chapters, and client documentation. Of course, being the good soldier that I am, I try to spell and grammar check things so that the communications don’t make me look like a blabbering idiot.

The problem is that I’m constantly adding terms to the dictionary as I come across them. This include a ton of PowerShell, and usually, Exchange specific cmdlets. When I switched to a new workstation a week ago, I figured it was time to make life earlier. I mentioned online that there had to be a way to easily take a full list of PowerShell cmdlets and functions and dump them into the dictionary. Fellow Exchange MVP Michael B. Smith said it should be easy in PowerShell, and could be done in a single line of code. So we started to collaborate via Facebook (of all places!) on a solution. Michael posted the solution at Simplifying Life for Exchange Authors. I recommend you read his post for a way to do this painlessly. Thanks to Michael for indulging me.

After we came up with working code, it dawned on my that not everyone has remote PowerShell sessions into Exchange servers from their workstations. So I figured I’d make life a little easier, and compiled some various pieces together into a script. The script below will get a list of all Exchange servers in the same AD site as your workstation, randomly pick one, and establish a remote PowerShell session to it. Once established, it will dump all PowerShell functions and cmdlets to the Office dictionary. Copy the following code into Notepad on your workstation:

function Get-ExchangeServerInSite {
    $ADSite = [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.ActiveDirectorySite]
    $siteDN = $ADSite::GetComputerSite().GetDirectoryEntry().distinguishedName
    $configNC=([ADSI]"LDAP://RootDse").configurationNamingContext
    $search = new-object DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher([ADSI]"LDAP://$configNC")
    $objectClass = "objectClass=msExchExchangeServer"
    $version = "versionNumber>=1937801568"
    $site = "msExchServerSite=$siteDN"
    $search.Filter = "(&($objectClass)($version)($site))"
    $search.PageSize=1000
    [void] $search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("name")
    [void] $search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("msexchcurrentserverroles")
    [void] $search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("networkaddress")
    $search.FindAll() | %{
        New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            Name = $_.Properties.name[0]
            FQDN = $_.Properties.networkaddress |
                %{if ($_ -match "ncacn_ip_tcp") {$_.split(":")[1]}}
            Roles = $_.Properties.msexchcurrentserverroles[0]
        }
    }
}

#add all servers in the local site to an array
$servers = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
Get-ExchangeServerInSite | %{ [void]$servers.Add(($_.fqdn)) }

#select a random server from the current site
if($servers.count -gt 1) {
    $random = Get-Random -Minimum 0 -Maximum $servers.count
    $fqdn = $servers[$random]
}
else {
    $fqdn = $servers[0]
}

#create the session
$session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri "http://$fqdn/PowerShell/" -Authentication Kerberos
#import the session
Import-PSSession $session
$dicFile = (Get-Content Env:AppData) + "\Microsoft\UProof\CUSTOM.DIC"
Get-Command -module $global:importresults | Where-Object {$_.CommandType -eq "cmdlet" -or $_.CommandType -eq "function" -and $_.Name -notmatch ":"} | select-Object Name | Out-file -append $dicfile
#kill the session
Remove-PSSession $session

Save it as Add-Cmdlets2Dictionary.ps1. Now, open PowerShell, navigate to where you saved the file, and execute it using .\Add-Cmdlets2Dictionary.ps1. Once it’s finished, open Word or Outlook and test it with some random cmdlets like New-Mailbox. Keep in mind that Michael’s one-liner works great if you’ve already got a remote session into an Exchange server. My script above is in case you don’t, or you want a reusable script to share with colleagues.

Installation

Execution Policy: Third-party PowerShell scripts may require that the PowerShell Execution Policy be set to either AllSigned, RemoteSigned, or Unrestricted. The default is Restricted, which prevents scripts – even code signed scripts – from running. For more information about setting your Execution Policy, see Using the Set-ExecutionPolicy Cmdlet.

Donations

I’ve never been one to really solicit donations for my work. My offerings are created because *I* need to solve a problem, and once I do, it makes sense to offer the results of my work to the public. I mean, let’s face it: I can’t be the only one with that particular issue, right? Quite often, to my surprise, I’m asked why I don’t have a “donate” button so people can donate a few bucks. I’ve never really put much thought into it. But those inquiries are coming more often now, so I’m yielding to them. If you’d like to donate, you can send a few bucks via PayPal at https://www.paypal.me/PatRichard. Money collected from that will go to the costs of my website (hosting and domain names), as well as to my home lab.