How to write a string of text in multiple colors in PowerShell

One of the features about PowerShell that drew my attention away from VBScript many years ago was PowerShell’s ability to output information in multiple colors. When you use Write-Host to display text on the screen, you also get to use the ForegroundColor and BackgroundColor parameters to change the font colors for that line of text.

What if you wanted to have a line of text with different colors? To do this you will need to to use several Write-Host lines. The problem with that is that you will have your text on multiple lines. In the Help file for Write-Host, I noticed a parameter NoNewLine that will not put a return at the end of the text. Your next Write-Host statement will appear on the same line. Take a look at the code below and the output.

Write-host "This is some" -ForegroundColor Green -NoNewline
Write-Host "string" -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor DarkRed -NoNewline
Write-Host "in different" -ForegroundColor Gray -BackgroundColor DarkYellow -NoNewline
Write-Host "Colors"

Comments

Unknown said…

Thanks for posting this. -nonewline is what I needed!

July 24, 2014 at 11:34 AM

Erik said…

Thanks...

September 14, 2015 at 11:36 AM

Sticky Key problem between Windows Server 2012 and LogMeIn

This week I instructed my first class using Windows Server 2012 accessed via LogMeIn and discovered a Sticky Key problem every time you press the Shift key. Here is my solution to resolve this. First off, in the Preferences of LogMeIn for the connection to the Windows Server, click General . Change the Keyboard and mouse priority to Host side user and click Apply at the bottom. On the Windows 2012 server, open the Control Panel – Ease of Access – Change how your keyboard works . Uncheck Turn on Sticky Keys . Click Set up Sticky Keys . Uncheck Turn on Sticky Keys when SHIFT is pressed five times . Click OK twice. If you are using Windows Server 2012 as a Hyper-V host, you will need to redo the Easy of Use settings on each guest operating system in order to avoid the Sticky Key Problem. Updated Information: March 20, 2013 If you continue to have problems, Uncheck Turn on Filter Keys .

Where did a User’s Account Get Locked Out?

Updated: May 15, 2015 When this article was originally published, two extra carriage returns were add causing the code to malfunction. The code below is correct. My client for this week’s PowerShell class had a really interesting question. They needed to know where an account is being locked out at. OK, interesting. Apparently users hop around clients and forget to log off, leading to eventual lock out of their accounts. The accounts can be unlocked, but are then relocked after Active Directory replication. This problem is solved in two parts. The first one is to modify the event auditing on the network. The second part is resolved with PowerShell. The first part involves creating a group policy that will encompass your Domain Controllers. In this GPO, make these changes. Expand Computer Configuration \ Policies \ Windows Settings \ Security Settings \ Advanced Audit Policy Configuration \ Audit Policies \ Account Management Double click User Account Management C...

How to run GPResult on a remote client with PowerShell

In the past, to run the GPResult command, you would need to either physically visit this client, have the user do it, or use and RDP connection. In all cases, this will disrupt the user. First, you need PowerShell remoting enabled on the target machine. You can do this via Group Policy . Open PowerShell and type this command. Invoke-Command –ScriptBlock {GPResult /r} –ComputerName <ComputerName> Replace <ComputerName> with the name of the target. Remember, the target needs to be online and accessible to you.

Jason Yoder, MCT

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