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In the previous tip we used netsh.exe to determine the Wi-Fi signal strength. Since netsh.exe returns raw text output, it takes a lot of text...

Provided you are connected to a wireless network, then the following one-liner gets you the current signal strength: PS> @(netsh wlan show...

When you serialize objects to XML in PowerShell on a non-Windows system, i.e. by using Export-CliXml, any SecureString data is encoded only, not...

Let’s say you are admin in many areas, i.e. Azure, SharePoint, SQL, Microsoft 365, you name it. For each environment, you may need to run some...

If your script needs to know whether the current user is member in a given group, then the fastest and least resource intense approach for this is...

Occasionally, your script needs to know the path to the users’ desktop, or to the start menu, etc. These paths can vary, especially when users...

In previous tips we looked at NTFS streams, and you discovered how Windows marks downloaded files with Zone Information streams. You also learned to...

Whenever you download a file from the Internet (or other sources deemed untrusted) and store it on a NTFS drive, Windows silently marks such files...

In the previous tip we explained how NTFS streams work. However, it wasn’t possible to discover the names of hidden file streams. In...

In the previous tip we explained how NTFS streams can store additional data about a file which raises the question how you can delete such streams,...

On NTFS file systems, you can store extra information in hidden file streams. Traditionally, PowerShell accesses file streams via colons, so this...

German public broadcasting companies maintain rich TV archives and let users view their shows through web interfaces. There is typically no way to...

To find details about the last logged-on user on Windows, you can query the registry: Get-ItemProperty...

BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer System) is the technique used by Windows to download huge files such as operating system updates. You can use...

BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer System) is the technique used by Windows to download huge files such as operating system updates. You can use...

When you see results from commands in the PowerShell console, typically only part of the information is displayed. To see the complete information,...

Get-NetTCPConnection returns all current TCP network connections, but this cmdlet won’t tell you exactly who is connecting to your machine....

With just a couple of cmdlets, you can examine folder structures and i.e. return the sizes of subfolders in a folder tree. Here is an example that...

Here is a quick sample illustrating how you can discover folder structures. This example takes any root folder path and recursively traverses...

On Windows, by default many cmdlets encode text files with a BOM (Byte Order Mask) encoding. BOM writes some extra bytes at the beginning of a text...

If you need to access HTTPS websites that use a self-signed test certificate or a certificate that has expired or is otherwise not trustworthy,...

There are still floating around numerous Microsoft Office documents in old file formats (.doc instead of .docx). Here is a simple PowerShell...

When working with text files, it is important to always use the same text encoding for reading and writing or else special characters can be...

If VSCode won’t launch a PowerShell engine when editing a PowerShell script and instead the yellow message “Starting PowerShell”...