How to use a config file (ini, conf,...) with a PowerShell Script?

Thanks a lot for your help Dennis and Tim! Your answers put me on the good track and I found this

SETTINGS.TXT

#from http://tlingenf.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B1B09F516B5BAEBF!213.entry
#
[General]
MySetting1=value

[Locations]
InputFile="C:\Users.txt"
OutputFile="C:\output.log"

[Other]
WaitForTime=20
VerboseLogging=True

POWERSHELL COMMAND

#from http://tlingenf.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B1B09F516B5BAEBF!213.entry
#
Get-Content "C:\settings.txt" | foreach-object -begin {$h=@{}} -process { $k = [regex]::split($_,'='); if(($k[0].CompareTo("") -ne 0) -and ($k[0].StartsWith("[") -ne $True)) { $h.Add($k[0], $k[1]) } }

then

After executing the code snippet, a variable ($h) will contain the values in a HashTable.

Name                           Value
----                           -----
MySetting1                     value
VerboseLogging                 True
WaitForTime                    20
OutputFile                     "C:\output.log"
InputFile                      "C:\Users.txt"

*To retrieve an item from the table, use the command $h.Get_Item("MySetting1").*

There is a much more convenient way to read settings from JSON-file using the ConvertFrom-Json Cmdlet in PowerShell to read a JSON formatted file:

$SettingsObject = Get-Content -Path \path\to\settings.json | ConvertFrom-Json

In your case settings in JSON would be like settings.json:

{
    "link1": "http://www.google.com",
    "link2": "http://www.apple.com",
    "link3": "http://www.microsoft.com"
}

Reading:

PS C:\> $SettingsObject = Get-Content -Path \path\to\settings.json | ConvertFrom-Json

PS C:\> $SettingsObject

link1                 link2                link3                   
-----                 -----                -----                   
http://www.google.com http://www.apple.com http://www.microsoft.com



PS C:\> $SettingsObject.link1
http://www.google.com

Source: PowerTip: Read a JSON configuration file as a PowerShell object