database-tools

Reading Registry Values Easily

All PowerShell versions Here is the simplest way to read Registry values: $Key = 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows...

Copying Command History as a Tool

In a previous tip we illustrated how you can copy the previously entered interactive PowerShell commands to your favorite script editor. Here is a...

DBAs and Dinosaurs

You have to admit that title is catchier than yet another “Death of the DBA” blog.  And that was exactly the direction I was headed until I ran a...

Finding Dates Between Two Dates

If you must know how many days are between two dates, you can easily find out by using New-TimeSpan: $startdate = Get-Date $enddate = Get-Date -Date...

Using Default Parameters

In PowerShell 3.0, an option was added to define default values for arbitrary cmdlet parameters. This line, for example, would set the default value...

Finding Working Days

To find all working days in a given month, here is a neat little one-liner: $month = 7 1..31 | ForEach-Object { Get-Date -Day $_ -Month $month } |...

Why Directories Have a Size of 1

Occasionally, you may notice that folders have a length of 1 byte. This was introduced in PowerShell 3.0. In PowerShell 2.0, they did not report...

Speeding Up Background Jobs

Background jobs can be a great thing to speed up scripts because they can do things in parallel. However, background jobs only work well if the code...

Understanding the statement "exit"

PowerShell supports the keyword "exit" which is a scope-based. It may work much differently than you assumed it would. Let's take a...

Using break, continue, and return

There are two special keywords in PowerShell that you can use in loops: break and continue. With continue, the loop continues but skips the...

Time for an Upgrade?

I don’t know about you, but deciding when to pull the trigger on an upgrade is not that easy for me.  What is to be upgraded usually doesn’t...

Dealing with Environment Variables

To read a Windows environment variable in PowerShell, simply use the prefix "env:": PS> $env:windirC:\WindowsPS> $env:USERNAMETobias...

Using Nested Hash Tables

Nested hash tables can be a great alternative to multidimensional arrays. They can be used to store data sets in an easy-to-manage way. Have a look:...

Speeding Up Arrays

When you assign new items to an array often, you may experience a performance problem. Here is a sample that illustrates how you should not do it:...

Using Event Logs Instead of Log Files

Often, people use file-based logging. There is nothing wrong about that, but using the built-in event log system provided by Windows may be much...

Fun with Path Names

You can use the -split operator to easily split a path in its components. The result is always an array. Simply use comparison operators to exclude...

Skipping Profile on Keystroke

Maybe you'd like to be able to occasionally skip certain parts of your profile script. For example, in the ISE editor, simply add this...

Using Profile Scripts

You probably know that PowerShell supports profile scripts. Simply make sure the file found in $profile exists. It's a plain script that gets...

Be Aware of Side Effects

There are plenty of low level system functions that PowerShell can use. This one, for example, creates a temporary file name:...

Bulk File Renaming

Let's assume you have a bunch of scripts (or pictures or log files or whatever) in a folder, and you'd like to rename all files. The new file name...

Reading Installed Software Remotely

Most software registers itself in the Registry. Here is a piece of code that reads all installed software from the 32-bit and 64-bit hive and works...