Most efficient way to search for files on a remote Server

Can someone please help me with the following query.

I want to find the most efficient way of querying file names on a remote server where PowerShell is not installed by default on the remote Server (e.g. 2003 Server)

Now, thus far, as far as I am aware my options are

WMI                     CIM_DataFile
.NET                     [System.IO.Directory]::GetFiles(‘C:\Server1\c$’)
CmdLet               Get-ChildItem

Now the thing is I want to limit how many levels the search goes down the directory structure for example:

C:\
C:\Temp
C:\Temp\Temp2

I just want to search in save C:\ and C:\Temp but not C:\Temp\Temp2

The .NET method above appears to be the fastest however to only option if has is AllDirectories e.g.

[System.IO.Directory]::GetFiles(‘C:\Server1\c$’,’*.bat’,’ALLDIRECTORIES’)

It does not have an up to 5 directories deep option for example, neither does WMI, so I have filter like this

Get-WmiObject  -query “select * from win32_datafile where not (path like ‘\\%\\%\\%’)”

This is OK but again can be a bit slow

I wrote the following using the third option e.g. get-childitem, which works OK i.e. set the depth level with respect from the \ down e.g. 1 being root and 2 being c:\temp\ for example.

However this works fast when searching say up to two possible 3 levels but slows right down, when going a bit deeper.

Therefore my questions is, can anyone think of a faster/more efficient way to achieve this goal e.g. if there a .net type I can use that does allow you to set how many levels deep you want to go?

Thanks all in advance

Ernie

[CmdLetBinding()]

param([int]$Depth= 2,[string]$Filter="*.cmd",[string]$SearchFor="SDCli")

$VerbosePreference="Continue"

cls

$outputfile=New-Item-ItemTypeFile-PathC:\Ernie\OutPutFile.log-Force

Write-Verbose"Checking for files which match the following name $Filter"

Write-Verbose"Results will be written to $($outputfile.fullname)"

Write-Verbose"Getting Server list"

#$Servers = ([DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher]"(&(ObjectClass=Computer)(operatingsystem=Windows Server*))").FindAll()

$Depth+= 1

$Servers= ([DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher]"(&(objectClass=Computer)(cn=bovnsv01))").findone()

Write-Verbose"Computers Collection contains $(($Servers).count) Servers"

foreach ($Serverin$Servers) {

Write-Verbose"Testing connection to computer $($Server.psbase.properties.cn)"

if (Test-Connection-ComputerName$Server.psbase.properties.cn-Quiet-Count 2-ErrorAction 0) {

Write-Verbose"Checking drives on Server $($Server.psbase.properties.cn)"

$LogicalDisks=Get-WmiObject`

-Query"select * from win32_logicaldisk where (DriveType = 3 AND (DeviceID = 'C:' OR DeviceID = 'D:' OR DeviceID = 'E:' OR DeviceID = 'F:'))"`

-ComputerName$Server.psbase.properties.cn-Amended -EA 0 |

select @{n='Server';e={$_.__Server}},@{n='Drive';e={$_.DeviceID}}

Write-Verbose"Found $(($LogicalDisks).count) local fixed disks"

Write-Verbose"Constructing UNC paths"

foreach ($Diskin$LogicalDisks) {

     $DiskDrive=$Disk.Drive-replace":","$"

     Write-Verbose"Disk Drive set to $DiskDrive"

     1..$Depth |% {

     [string]$Script:Path="\\"+$Disk.Server+"\"+$DiskDrive+ $('\*'*$_)

     Write-Verbose"Checking for files using path $path"

     $Files+=get-childitem-path$Path-Filter$Filter -EA 0 |where {-not$_.PsIsContainer}

     }

}}}

if ($Files) {

foreach ($Filein$Files) {

if ($File-match"\w+") {

Write-Verbose"Checking contents of file $File"

$reader= [System.IO.File]::OpenText($File)

try {

   while (!$Reader.EndOfStream) {

       $line=$reader.ReadLine()

       # process the line

       if ($line-match$SearchFor) {

           Add-Content-Value$File-Path$outputfile

           "File $File contains $SearchFor" }

     }

}

finally {

   $reader.Close()

}

}}}else {Write-Verbose"No Files Found"}