Uninstalling using Get-WmiObject

Question

I\'m trying to run a PowerShell command in a batch script. Im trying to remove all traces of an old RMM tool from client PCs and for the life of me can\'t get this line to run c

Answer 1

Check this snippet, it is using WMI but in another way, and has almost never failed me :

function Uninstall-Application($computer, $target) {
    $productInfo = Get-WmiObject Win32_Product -Filter "Name LIKE '%$target%'" -ComputerName $computer
    $pin = $productInfo.IdentifyingNumber
    $pn = $productInfo.Name
    $pv = $productInfo.Version

    if($pn -ne $null) {
        $classKey = "IdentifyingNumber=`"$pin`",Name=`"$pn`",version=`"$pv`""

        $uninstallReturn = ([wmi]"\\$computer\root\cimv2:Win32_Product.$classKey").uninstall()
        if($uninstallReturn.ReturnValue -ge 0) { Write-Host "Uninstall complete" }
        else { $uninstallReturn | Out-Host }
    } else {
        Throw "Product not found"
    }
}

Example usage :

Uninstall-Application "127.0.0.1" "firefox"

Answer 2

You're getting that error, because you're using unescaped percent characters and double quotes inside a double-quoted string:

"& {... -Filter "vendor LIKE '%N-able%'" ...}"

The above evaluates to -Filter vendor LIKE '' when the PowerShell command is executed, i.e. only the token vendor is passed as an argument to the parameter -Filter. LIKE and '' are passed as separate positional parameters.

You must escape the nested double quotes to preserve them for the PowerShell command:

"& {... -Filter \"vendor LIKE '%N-able%'\" ...}"

You must also double the % characters (that's how they are escaped in batch/CMD), otherwise %N-able% would be interpreted as a batch variable and expanded to an empty string before the execution of the powershell commandline.

"& {... -Filter \"vendor LIKE '%%N-able%%'\" ...}"

With that said, in general it would be far simpler to implement the PowerShell code in a PowerShell script:

$nableguid = Get -WmiObject Win32_Product -Filter "vendor LIKE '%N-able%'" |
             Select -ExpandProperty IdentifyingNumber)

foreach ($nguid in $nableguid) {
  & MsiExec.exe /X$nguid /quiet
}

and run that script via the -File parameter (if you must run it from a batch file in the first place):

powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\path\to\script.ps1"

An even better approach would be to drop the batch script entirely and implement everything in PowerShell.