Add-Content is a versatile command if you need to add additional content to text files. For example, you can create log file entries like this:...
Powershell
Secret -Force Switch
PowerShell automatically displays all object properties when you output the object to the console. Here is an example: Get-WmiObject win32_bios...
Returning Exit Code from Script
When running a PowerShell script, you may want to return a numeric exit code to the caller to indicate failure or success. You should use the...
List Local Groups
If you'd like to get a list of all local Groups on your computer, you can use this line: Get-WMIObject Win32_Group -filter...
List All Group Memberships of Current User
In case you need to get a list of all of your current Group memberships as derived from your current access token, use this line:...
Working Remotely With WMI
PowerShell v1 has no support for working remotely but WMI natively is able to work on local or remote machines. Simply use the -computername...
Deleting Shares
If you'd like to get rid of a file share, such as the one you created via WMI in our last tip, this is how you can do it: (Get-WMIObject...
Creating New Shares
You can use WMI to help create new file shares. This is the line you need: md...
Renaming Object Properties
You can use Select-Object to rename existing object properties. For example, you would like to rename e a directory listing "Name"...
Finding CD-ROM Drives
You can find out whether a system has CD-Drives by using a little function that returns all drive letters from all CD Drives in your system:...
Cloning Objects
As a rule of thumb, PowerShell creates real copies when you copy variables. So in the next example, changing the array in $a will not affect the...
Combining PowerShell And VBScript
PowerShell has a great way of integrating existing VBScripts. All you need to do is call the script using the console-based host cscript.exe. Then,...
Expanding Group Results
Group-Object is perfect for grouping objects based on one or more properties. Once you group objects, you can then filter, or sort, based on their...
Create Text Reports with Format-Table
Format-Table is a great cmdlet to output formatted data. Sometimes, you may just be interested in the raw table data. You can simply hide the column...
Sort With PS Code
Sort-Object is a great and versatile cmdlet to sort anything you want. Simply specify the property or properties you want to use for sorting: Dir...
Displaying First Or Last Elements
Select-Object can limit results to only the first or last elements. Simply use -first or -last: dir | select-object -first 10Get-Process |...
Splitting Text Into Words
If you ever need to read in a file and split file content into words, there are a couple of gotchas to keep in mind. First off, remember that...
Passing ByRef vs. ByVal
Usually, when you assign a variable to another variable, its content is copied. Here is an example: $a = "Hello"$b = $a$a = "Hello...
Ejecting CDs
PowerShell can still use COM libraries. Simply use New-Object -comObject and provide the COM library name to load it. With this approach, you can do...
PowerShell Essentials: Get-Member
Get-Member is the third important basic PowerShell cmdlet as it gives you a documentation of what a command returns. It lists all of the object and...
PowerShell Essentials: Get-Help
Get-Help is the second of the three most important PowerShell cmdlets as it retrieves all the Help for any cmdlet. If you just enter Get-Help, you...
PowerShell Essentials: Get-Command
There are only three cmdlets you should know by heart. One is the Get-Command, which can do a lot more than you might think. When called without...
Create PowerShell Shortcuts
If you ever wanted to create shortcut icons on your Desktop, or in your programs menu, to quickly launch PowerShell, here is a way to do it:...
Preserving Alias Definitions
Maybe you have invested some time in creating new aliases, and now you would like to know how to preserve your new aliases so that the next time you...