In our last tip, you learned that F7 opens a dialog with your command history. To select a command, you had to use the arrow keys to move to the...
database-tools
Open Console History
Did you know that the PowerShell console shares some key shortcuts with classic cmd consoles? For example, press F7 to open a menu with your command...
Docking PowerShell in Windows 7
If you happen to run Windows 7 already, not only will you get PowerShell V2. In addition, with the new "Superbar", you can create your...
Does a Folder contain a specific file?
Test-Path supports wildcards so if you'd like to know whether there are any PowerShell script files located in your home folder, try this:...
File Or Folder? Find Out!
Test-Path can check whether a file or folder exists, but this does not tell you whether the path specified was actually a file or a folder. If...
Test-Path Can Check More Than Files
Test-Path is your friend whenever you want to check whether a file or folder exists: Test-Path C:autoexec.batTest-Path C:windows Test-Path can check...
Creating A HTML Font List
With just a couple of lines of code, you can create a HTML document listing each installed type face on your computer which you then can print out...
Converting Objects Into Text
PowerShell internally always works with objects, and this can cause confusion when you mix object and string technologies. In a previous example,...
Listing All Installed Font Families
To get a list of all available font families on your system, you can load the .NET drawing library and then ask the InstalledFontCollection for all...
Finding Empty Folders
To find out all folders that contain no files, you can use this line: dir -recurse | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer } | Where-Object {...
List All Folders and Subfolders
Ever wanted to create a list of all folders and subfolders? It just takes one line: dir -recurse | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer } |...
List Hidden Files
Did you notice that Dir, ls or Get-ChildItem do not return hidden files? To see hidden files, you need to specify the -force parameter: Dir...
Converting FileSystem To NTFS
When you buy a new external USB drive, most of the time it is preformatted with the old FAT32 file system for compatibility reasons. You could...
Reading and Writing Drive Labels
Drive Labels are the names attached to logical disks. Using WMI, you can both read and write (change) drive labels. To read the existing drive...
Finding Out A Drives’ FileSystem
If you ever needed a tool to find out the type of file system for any drive, take a look at this simple PowerShell function: function...
Feeding Input Into Native Commands
Sometimes, you need to call commands that require interactive input to work. For example, to find out existing drives with DiskPart, you would have...
Advanced String Filtering
In a previous tip, you learned how Select-String can filter string arrays based on a keyword. Have a look: route print | Select-String 127.0.0.1...
Filtering Command Results
PowerShell captures any output from any command you enter. This is why you can always store command results in a variable, even with native...
"Grep": Finding PowerShell Scripts with a Keyword
Select-String can automatically search entire folders and scan all file contents for specific key words. All you do is to provide a path to scan,...
Using Select-String to Focus on the important stuff
Select-String is a fun cmdlet. Whenever a command returns string data, Select-String filters out text that does not contain a specific keyword. For...
Wait For Key Press
Sometimes you'd like to wait for a key press. The easiest way is to use Read-Host like this: Read-Host 'Please press ENTER' | Out-Null...
Consolidating Information In An Object
Sometimes, you may want to store information you gathered in different places into one single object and return this object to the caller. This is...
Displaying Battery Charge in your prompt
If you use a notebook and are on the road often, you may want a way to check the battery status so you can shut down your stuff in time. Here is a...
Summing Up Multiple Objects
PowerShell is a dynamic language, and as Forest Gump put it, you never know what you get. For example, when you try and figure out the battery...