Powershell

When you access .NET types and objects directly in your PowerShell code, you must make sure that the appropriate .NET assemblies are loaded. If you...

You may have come across the –f operator before and wondered what it does. It’s the format operator and provides an extremely easy way...

PowerShell can quickly create backup files of your files. All you need to adjust is the type of files you want to backup, and the file extension you...

With only a few lines of code you can implement a command called Out-OfficeWord. It takes the data you pipe into it and inserts them into a new Word...

WMI is a great source of information but it is not always easy to find out the names of valid WMI classes to query. Here is a little search tool: it...

Out-GridView can be much more than just a window showing results. You can turn it into a pretty useful universal dialog. Let's assume you want...

When you store a number in a variable, you may want to display the number in different units. Bytes are very precise, but sometimes displaying the...

Here is a simple PowerShell filter that can convert any DateTime object into any date/time-format you like: #requires -Version 1 filter...

PowerShell has a built-in support to wait until a process or many processes end: simply use Wait-Process. There is no support to do the opposite:...

Here is a simple concept using an action parameter with a number of choices. Each choice refers to a script block that would be executed then....

Script blocks define a PowerShell code without executing it. The easiest way of defining script blocks is placing code into braces. Script blocks...

In a previous tip we introduced the Get-Software function that was able to retrieve installed software from local computers. If you have enabled...

Here is a very quick way of finding installed software. The Get-Software function reads both the 32- and 64-bit locations for software installed for...

PowerShell is console-based, but sometimes it would be nice to add some simple dialogs. Here is a function called Show-MessageBox that can display...

When you retrieve information across a network, always make sure you use client-side techniques like Where-Object as a last resort. Server-side...

PowerShell features the ".." operator which produces lists of numbers. With the -join operator, you can convert these to almost anything...

Ask WMI to find out whether your notebook is connected to AC: #requires -Version 1 $battery = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Battery | Select-Object...

PowerShell 5.0 added the capabilities to define enumerations but in older PowerShell versions, you can create enumerations too, simply by compiling...

The built-in "prompt" function is invoked whenever PowerShell completed interactive input, and you can use it to change the way your...

Today's tip is using the programmable CommandNotFoundHandler to have PowerShell talk with you once you enter an unknown command:...

One of the easiest ways of getting your operating system version is this one line of code: PS> [Environment]::OSVersion Platform ServicePack...

When you receive a red error message from PowerShell, you can always encapsulate the code in a try…catch block and handle the error yourself:...

The default PowerShell prompt displays the current location. When you are deep inside nested folders, this steals room for your actual input, and...

Rather than ranting about things that don't work as expected, or things you feel are missing, be constructive! The PowerShell team takes great...

In the PowerShell ISE, there are two key shortcuts that can help you. Pressing TAB works just like in the console, and each time you press TAB, you...

Whenever PowerShell comes across a command name that it does not know, you see a red error message. However, starting with PowerShell 3.0, there is...

Often when you write PowerShell scripts, you may not have used the correct casing, used only partial parameter names, or used aliases instead of...

To dump all .NET assemblies that are loaded in a PowerShell session, try this: System.AppDomain]::CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies() | Where-Object...

PowerShell cmdlets and functions can have parameters, and these parameters can have (shorter) alias names. One prominent example is the...

If all of your systems run PowerShell 3.0 or better, you can start shortening function parameter attributes. Boolean attributes now all default to...