TimeStamp on file name using PowerShell

Question

You can insert arbitrary PowerShell script code in a double-quoted string by using a subexpression, for example, $() like so:

"C:\temp\mybackup $(get-date -f yyyy-MM-dd).zip"

And if you are getting the path from somewhere else - already as a string:

$dirName  = [io.path]::GetDirectoryName($path)
$filename = [io.path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($path)
$ext      = [io.path]::GetExtension($path)
$newPath  = "$dirName\$filename $(get-date -f yyyy-MM-dd)$ext"

And if the path happens to be coming from the output of Get-ChildItem:

Get-ChildItem *.zip | Foreach {
  "$($_.DirectoryName)\$($_.BaseName) $(get-date -f yyyy-MM-dd)$($_.extension)"}

Here's some PowerShell code that should work. You can combine most of this into fewer lines, but I wanted to keep it clear and readable.

[string]$filePath = "C:\tempFile.zip";

[string]$directory = [System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($filePath);
[string]$strippedFileName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($filePath);
[string]$extension = [System.IO.Path]::GetExtension($filePath);
[string]$newFileName = $strippedFileName + [DateTime]::Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd-HHmmss") + $extension;
[string]$newFilePath = [System.IO.Path]::Combine($directory, $newFileName);

Move-Item -LiteralPath $filePath -Destination $newFilePath;

I needed to export our security log and wanted the date and time in Coordinated Universal Time. This proved to be a challenge to figure out, but so simple to execute:

wevtutil export-log security c:\users\%username%\SECURITYEVENTLOG-%computername%-$(((get-date).ToUniversalTime()).ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ")).evtx

The magic code is just this part:

$(((get-date).ToUniversalTime()).ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ"))

Thanks for the above script. One little modification to add in the file ending correctly. Try this ...

$filenameFormat = "MyFileName" + " " + (Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd") **+ ".txt"**

Rename-Item -Path "C:\temp\MyFileName.txt" -NewName $filenameFormat

Use:

$filenameFormat = "mybackup.zip" + " " + (Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd")
Rename-Item -Path "C:\temp\mybackup.zip" -NewName $filenameFormat