database-tools

Slmgr.vbs is an ancient VBScript used to automate Windows license management. In the previous tip we started bypassing slmgr.vbs by reading the WMI...

Most Windows license and activation tasks can be automated using an ancient VBScript called slmgr.vbs. It does not make much sense to use this tool...

Most automated license key management tasks are done via a command called slmgr. This command is actually an ancient VBScript. To read all of your...

Let’s start this mini-series with a one-liner that extracts your Windows license key: PS> $key = (Get-WmiObject -Class...

It’s amazing how versatile PowerShell is: with just a couple of lines of code, you can turn any photo and image into a piece of ASCII art....

In the previous tip, we asked Active Directory to validate user account passwords. The same can be done with local accounts. Your PowerShell code...

PowerShell can easily verify a password against a domain account. In other words, you can bind script logic to passwords maintained in Active...

Whenever you start or stop a service, it may take some time for the service to actually adopt the desired state – or it can of course fail....

WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)is not just a technique to create UIs. You can create any type of vector-based graphics composition and save it...

Yesterday we looked at how PowerShell can turn IEEE754 floating point values returned by a sensor into the actual value. This involved reversing the...

PowerShell is extremely versatile and nowadays often used with IoT and sensors as well. Some return values in IEEE754 float format which typically...

In the previous tip we explained how the throw statement can be influenced by $ErrorActionPreference set to “SilentlyContinue”, and that throw will...

Throw is a PowerShell statement that emits an exception to the caller and then exits the code. At least in theory. In the real world, throw might...

Here’s a special service to users with German language skills – and a challenge to adjust the code for everyone else: the code below...

When you view PowerShell scripts in Windows Explorer and have the preview pane open, by default you don’t get a code preview for your script...

If you want to eliminate completely empty array elements (and do not need to focus on empty properties), here are some approaches with fundamentally...

Occasionally you come across lists (arrays) with empty elements. What’s the best way of removing empty elements? Let’s first focus on a...

Let’s assume in an array you want to get rid of all elements that are either empty or null. This is what many would do: PS>...

For reporting and similar use cases, scripts may require the first and last day in a given month. The first day is easy, yet the last day depends on...

Whenever you have a true DateTime (and not a string, for example), you have plenty of powerful ways to format. You can get DateTime objects...

Ever wondered how old your Windows installation is? A one-liner can tell: PS> (Get-CimInstance -Class Win32_OperatingSystem).InstallDate Freitag,...

Are you tired of OneDrive icons polluting your file explorer tree view? If you don’t use OneDrive, then here are two handy functions that hide...