Windows – Powershell – Copy-Item to a remote share path error illegal characters in path

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OK, the real problem was that I was getting the path from a registry entry and then cleaning it with Regex. The very start of the path had a space in the front which I did not notice the way I was logging. I fixed this problem by using this:
#outvar is used to build the path and comes from a registry key | Out-String
$outvar = ($outvar -replace '\s','')

$localtruststore = "C:\Users\me\OneDrive\work\scripts\PS\TEST\truststore"
$servers = "SERVER1"

## remotepath is actually set by looking at a registry entry, but I am sure it is coming out like this:
$remotepath = "d$\programname\40\server\Openfire\resources\security"


#### THIS LINE CAUSES THE ERROR - I think just because of the $.
Copy-Item $localtruststore -Destination \\$server\$remotepath -Force

Copy-Item : Illegal characters in path.
At C:\Users\me\OneDrive\work\scripts\PS\TEST\chat_copy_trustore_to_remote.ps1:46 char:11
+     Copy-Item <<<<  $localtruststore -Destination \\$server\$remotepath -Force
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Copy-Item], ArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.ArgumentException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.CopyItemCommand

If I manually put the Destination in, the copy works perfectly, so this must be a simple syntax issue.

I have tried completely building the $destinationpath variable by doing these:

$destinationpath = "\\$server\$remotepath"    
$destinationpath = ("\\{0}\{1}" -f $server,$remotepath)

BOTH of these work and when I write-host the variable I get the correct \server\d$\programe…
I still get illegal character in path., char14

I have confirmed that the character referenced in the error is the exact number where the $ symbol is in the destination. it is that char number in that argument.

I ended up just breaking this in to two parts….see below..

This will copy to the admin share for the root of D.
Copy-Item -path $localtruststore -Destination \$server\d$ -Force

Then I use this later to move the file on the remote server..
Invoke-command -ComputerName $server {
Copy-Item -path D:\truststore -Destination D:\Temp -Force
}

What may or may not have complicated this is my Java Keystore files, JKS files, do not have file extensions..

Best Answer

UNC paths start with double backslashes so your command should look like this:

$source = "C:\Users\me\OneDrive\work\scripts\PS\TEST\truststore"
$server = "server1"
$destinationpath = "\\$server\d$\programname\40\server\Openfire\resources\security"

copy-item -path $source -destination $destinationpath -verbose


Or you can do it like this:
$foldershare = "d$\programname\40\server\Openfire\resources\security"
$destinationpath = ("\\{0}\{1}" -f $server,$foldershare)

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The root cause of your problem is that the destination does not exist. If you look upstream in your error log you will see that message. You need to create the destination folder:

if (-Not (Test-Path \\[machine 2]\[path 2]))
{
     md -path \\[machine 2]\[path 2]
}

Copy-Item \\[machine 1]\[path 1]\[directory 1]\ \\[machine 2]\[path 2]\ -recurse

Windows – Powershell script to run a .reg file on remote computers

WinRM already is set up to receive requests on this machine.

WinRM already is set up for remote management on this machine.

delete this winrm quickconfig out of your script. it wants to configure your WinRM service but it's already set up, so there's no need for this. WinRM lets you access Remote Computer via its Service, it's needed for e.g invoke-command {}.

Copy-item : Cannot find path 'C:\OfficeDocumentfix.reg' because it does not exist.

the reason for this is, that your $newfile variable uses $servers instead of $server as it should (because it's inside the foreach() block) so $servers is $null. that's the cause of the error.

if the Registry File you're using writes to HKCU:, you don't need to elevate the script, if it's writing to HKLM: you have to. Only Admins can write to HKLM. The elevation is the whole part from the beginning up to winrm quickconfig.

this should give you the following end-product (I left the elevation in there):

$myWindowsID=[System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()
$myWindowsPrincipal=new-object System.Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal($myWindowsID)

$adminRole=[System.Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator

if ($myWindowsPrincipal.IsInRole($adminRole))
{
    $Host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle = $myInvocation.MyCommand.Definition + "(Elevated)"
    $Host.UI.RawUI.BackgroundColor = "Darkred"
    clear-host
}
else
{
    $newProcess = new-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo "PowerShell";
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}

$servers = Get-Content c:\temp\servers.txt

$HostedRegFile = "C:\temp\CyclopsOfficeDocumentfix.reg"
foreach ($server in $servers)
{
    $newfile = "\\$server\c`$\Downloads\RegistryFiles\"
    New-Item -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -ItemType directory -Path \\$server\C$\Downloads\RegistryFiles\
    Copy-Item $HostedRegFile -Destination $newfile
    Invoke-Command -ComputerName $server -ScriptBlock {
        Start-Process -filepath "C:\windows\regedit.exe" -argumentlist "/s C:\Downloads\RegistryFiles\test.reg"
        Write-Host -NoNewLine "Press any key to continue..."
    }
}

please do also take a look at this line:

Start-Process -filepath "C:\windows\regedit.exe" -argumentlist "/s C:\Downloads\RegistryFiles\test.reg"

it's not dynamic yet. it will always read in test.reg instead of your desired reg-file.

instead of start-process you could also simply use regedit /s $regfile /f PowerShell can execute batch-like commands (but that's detail. if it works like this, leave it like it is).

Best Answer

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