$LASTEXITCODE

$LASTEXITCODE is a preexisting variable which takes on the exit / error code of a command.

In this snippet powershell calls the vbscript items and adds the exit codes together to produce a final exit code total

$LASTEXITCODE = 0

$ErrorCode = $null

$Install1 = "cscript .\inst1.vbs"
$Install2 = "cscript .\inst2.vbs"

Invoke-Expression $Install1

    $ErrorCode += $LASTEXITCODE

Invoke-Expression $Install2

    $ErrorCode += $LASTEXITCODE

$ErrorCode
exit $ErrorCode

Compress and Expand Zips

Powershell 5.0 has cmdlets to handle file compression.

# Create a zip file with the contents of C:\Stuff\
Compress-Archive -Path C:\Stuff -DestinationPath archive.zip

# Add more files to the zip file
# (Existing files in the zip file with the same name are replaced)
Compress-Archive -Path C:\OtherStuff\*.txt -Update -DestinationPath archive.zip

# Extract the zip file to C:\Destination\
Expand-Archive -Path archive.zip -DestinationPath C:\Destination


above is from
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1153126/how-to-create-a-zip-archive-with-powershell

I gotta split

#Locate the last split value in this case a folder from a path of unknown length.

$UserProfile = $env:USERPROFILE

#This item splits up the user profile into any given number items using the \ character as the charcter to split at.
$UserProfileSplit = $UserProfile.Split("\")

#The counts the number of split items generated in to the $UserProfileSplit array
$UserProfileSplit | measure | select -expand count


$UserProfileFolder = $UserProfileSplit | select -last 1

Check if a process is running

#See if Excel is running.
#Do not exit until it is not running.

$CheckExcelRunning=Get-Process | select -ExpandProperty  processname

While ($CheckExcelRunning -contains "EXCEL")
    {
    $CheckExcelRunning=Get-Process | select -ExpandProperty  processname

        if ($CheckExcelRunning -contains "EXCEL")
            {
            #Wait 5 minutes before next check
            start-sleep -S 300
            }
 
     }

exit

Call a command line command and process the output

Powershell scripts can call standard command line commands and then process the output.

$FSUoutput = fsutil.exe 8dot3name query c:
$DIRXoutput = cmd.exe /c dir C:\ /x

foreach ($line in $DIRXoutput)
    {
        if ($line -like "*progra~1*") {$8DOT3NamesExist=1}
    }

if ($8DOT3NamesExist -ne 1) {$ERRORCODE+=1}


foreach ($line in $FSUoutput)
    {
        #Checks FSUtil output reports C: is 8dot3 enabled
        if ($line.StartsWith("The volume state is"))
            {
            #Checking for 0
            $line=$line.Remove(22)
            $line=$line.TrimStart("The volume state is: ")
        
            $line = $line/1
            
            $CVSTATE = $line
            
            if ($CVSTATE -ne 0) {$ERRORCODE+=$CVSTATE*10}
            
            }
            
        #Checks fSUtil output reports what the system registry setting is
        if ($line -isnot [int] -and $line.StartsWith("The registry state is: "))
        
        
            {
            $line=$line.Remove(24)
            $line=$line.TrimStart("The registry state is: ")
            
            $line = $line/1
            
            $RSTATE = $line
            

            if ($RSTATE -ne 2)
                {
                if ($RSTATE -eq 0) {$ERRORCODE+=100}
                if ($RSTATE -eq 1) {$ERRORCODE+=200}
                if ($RSTATE -eq 3) {$ERRORCODE+=300}
                }
            }        
                 

    }

exit $ERRORCODE