database-tools

Print All PDF Files in a Folder

Try this one-liner if you need to print out all PDF documents you have stored in one folder:   Dir c:\myfolder\*.pdf | Foreach-Object {...

Storing a Picture in Active Directory

When you need to store a picture into an AD account, the picture will have to be converted to byte values before it can be stored. Just make sure...

Finding Out Video Resolution

You can use this function if you would like to check the current video resolution on a local or remote system: function Get-Resolution { param(...

Sending Magic Packet

You can also send a "magic packet" with the machines MAC address if you'd like to wake up a machine,. Here is how to send such a...

Finding MAC Addresses

You can use the network adapter MAC address to wake a computer. Use this line if you want to find the MAC addresses of your network adapters:...

Getting List of Exchange Rates

In a previous tip, you learned how to read current exchange rates from the Internet., you can easily create a comprehensive list of all exchange...

Getting Up-to-Date Exchange Rates

If you would like to get currency exchange rates, you can simply access a Web service from one of the major banks. Here is how to get the USD...

Finding 32-Bit Processes

Did you know that on a 64-bit machine that not all processes are 64-bit? You can use this little trick to filter out only 32-bit processes:...

Getting Port Connectors

WMI can retrieve all kinds of information about your computer configuration. However, the information is often coded. Consider using hash tables to...

Get Installed Software

You can get a list of installed software right from the registry as long as the target system runs PowerShell v2 and is set up for PowerShell...

Accessing Registry Remote

If you need to access registry keys and values on another machine, you can either use PowerShell Remote (requires PowerShell v2 on the remote...

Reading Password Age

When you want to find out the password age of Active Directory accounts, you can use this piece of code: function Get-PwdAge { $filter =...

Reading Twitter News

Have you ever wanted to stay updated on Twitter news? You just need three lines of code to return the latest 100 Twitter entries related to...

Control Media Player from PowerShell

Start your day with your favorite music or playlist by controlling Media Player by PowerShell. Get-MediaPlayerItems will return all playlists and...

Getting Non-Expiring Passwords

You should use a searcher object like this if you need to find all user accounts in your Active Directory with non-expiring passwords: function...

Validating Input

You can also use regular expressions to validate user input. For example, the following piece of code only accepts three seven digit numbers: do {...

Mandatory Password Parameters

If you mark a parameter as mandatory and set its type to "SecureString," PowerShell will automatically prompt for the password with masked...

Entering Passwords Securely

You can use Read-Host -asSecureString to be able to type a password with hidden characters: $password = Read-Host -asSecureString 'Password'...

Sorting IP Addresses

Sorting or comparing IP addresses won't initially work because PowerShell uses alphanumeric comparison. However, you can compare or sort them...

Accessing Web Services

Did you know PowerShell can access public and private Web services? The piece of code below will connect to a global weather service providing...

Create HTML report in style

Also, here is a template that shows you how to change to a nicer font if you want to export PowerShell results as HTML report.. It will generate a...

Launching Scripts Externally

For example, you should use this line if you want to launch a *.ps1 PowerShell script externally from outside PowerShell via desktop shortcut or...

Get All Logged On Users

In a previous tip, you learned how to determine who the user is logged onto the physical machine. However, this will not discover logged-on terminal...

Comparing Hotfixes

If you want to check hotfixes, you should compare installed hotfixes on a master image with some other machine. Go ahead and use Compare-Object and...

Backing Up Event Log Files

WMI provides a method to backup event log files as *.evt/*.evtx files. The code below creates backups of all available event logs: Get-WmiObject...

Opening Excel Reports in a New Window

When opening CSV files with Excel from PowerShell, you may receive exceptions if the particular file was opened by Excel already: Invoke-Item...

Loading .EVT/.EVTX Event Log Files

If customers send in dumped event log files, there is an easy way to open them in PowerShell and analyze content: Get-WinEvent! The -Path parameter...

Checking Loaded Formats

PowerShell Snapins and Modules can add format files that describe how Powershell should auto-format object types. Use this line to check which...