Export that collection membership

Hi folks.  Today's post is on the topic of one of those "so obvious it hurts" topics.  I will admit that as obvious as it is, it wasn't something I clewed in on right away.  I suspect that for someone new to the System Center 2012 Configuration Manager product it was obvious from the start but us old time users of SMS and SCCM were thrown off track based on our past experiences and expectations.

In configuration manager it is often the case that people build collections of machines (or users).  Then some manager or non SCCM admin wants to see the list of those resources with out going into the administration console.  The "proper" answer to give out a list of machines is to use a report, maybe even a subscription to a report.  That's all fine when said and done, but lets face it... it takes more effort to educate the person making the request than to just give them a list.  In System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and other versions that used the MMC you could access an export of the collection membership from the right click menu on the specific collection.  In 2012 that option is gone and it left many SCCM admins scratching their heads.

The answer, my friends, was right under our noses.  Simply look at the membership of the collection then click a machine, hit Ctrl-A to select them all, hit Ctrl-C to copy them, then move to notepad or the app of your choice and hit ctrl-V.  Yes.. Copy and paste is all it takes.  After years of the MMC interface such an obvious answer was.. not so obvious.