Get-CimInstance is a useful cmdlet to retrieve WMI information because it uses standard .NET DateTime objects rather than the awkward WMI datetime...
database-tools
Determine Boot Time and Uptime
WMI can tell you when a system was booted, and this information can be re-calculated to find out the uptime: $bootTime = Get-CimInstance -ClassName...
Pipe Information to Excel
Here is a small yet very useful function that receives data from other cmdlets and sends them to Excel: function Out-Excel { param( $path =...
“Quick issue detection and excellent customer support”: Stefan Schiele
Stefan Schiele, CEO, SCT Schiele talks about how Monyog helped them run mission-critical applications smoothly and without errors. SCT Schiele are...
Evaluating Event Log Information
Get-EventLog provides access to the content written to the classic Windows event logs. The most valuable information can be found in a secret...
New Free Tool: SQL Data Profiler
IDERA released a new free tool, SQL Data Profiler, designed to provide quick visibility into data patterns contained in SQL Server databases. Its...
Converting Weird Data Formats
Sometimes, you stumble across weird data formats, i.e. in log files, that won’t autoconvert to DateTime objects. Here is a quick approach for...
Troubleshooting MySQL Performance Issues
Despite your very best efforts, as tables increase in size and more and more users come online, sluggish MySQL performance eventually rears its ugly...
Finding All Domain Controllers (no module required)
In the previous tip we explained how you can use the ActiveDirectory module and its cmdlets to find all domain controllers in your organization, or...
Find All Domain Controllers
If you have installed the free Microsoft RSAT tools, you have access to the ActiveDirectory module. Here is a simple approach to find all domain...
Free Ebooks from Microsoft
Microsoft is giving away unlimited numbers of free ebooks on many different topics. Ebooks can be downloaded using a PowerShell script. Here are the...
Changing Network Connection Mode from Private to Public (and vice versa)
Starting with Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1, PowerShell ships with many useful cmdlets for client and server configuration. This comes...
Removing Windows 10 Apps
PowerShell is probably the easiest way to get rid of preinstalled Windows 10 apps. If you know the name of a particular app that you want to remove,...
Launching Daily Tools via Alias
You probably know the shortcut names that PowerShell predefines: Aliases like “dir” and “ls” help you save typing in...
PowerShell 2 Now Considered Deprecated
Microsoft just announced that PowerShell 2 will soon be labeled “deprecated”. It will still be available for some time, but this is a...
Data Governance Questions You Should Be Asking
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Many large data breaches have topped news headlines. With all of this great...
Repairing Disk Drives
In the old days, disk repair was performed by chkdsk.exe. This still works. In Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1, a new cmdlet called...
Finding Your Windows Product Key
Knowing your Windows product key can be essential when you later need to restore your computer from a backup. Here is a simple one-liner to provide...
Getting Cached Credentials
In the previous tip we talked about a public module called PSCredentialManager that helps you manage cached credentials. Sometime, less is more, so...
Monitor & Optimize Oracle Standard Edition with Precise
This 28 minute video shows how Precise for Oracle provides monitoring and optimization visibility to infrastructure & application DBAs. One tool...
Playing with PowerShell Gallery Content
The public PowerShell Gallery (www.powershellgallery.com) is a place where PowerShell scripters can freely exchange scripts and modules. All you...
October #SQLChat – Adult Learning
IT is a fast moving profession. If you aren't keeping up you are falling behind. Participate in our next #SQLChat on Wednesday, October 18 at 11...
Calculating Folder File Size
Measure-Object can also sum up property values. This is how you determine folder size. The following code calculates the complete folder size for...
Counting Files Efficiently (Part 2)
In the previous tip we looked at how to efficiently count items like files in a folder. Here are some more examples. Counting the number of files in...