Powershell

Some may have come across a .NET call that is supposed to generate random temporary file names: $path = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempFileName() $path...

When you run PowerShell code outside a PowerShell console, you need to submit the code to powershell.exe. To make sure your code does not conflict...

If you'd like to apply a numeric range of legal values to a variable, you can add a ValidateRange attribute to the variable, pretty much like...

If you try and increase your maximum command history, you may run into some limitations: PS C:\> $MaximumHistoryCount = 100000 The variable...

Command history can be a great help when you work for a while in a PowerShell session. Each session stores the commands you issued, and you can...

In PowerShell 3.0 and better, it's trivial to get back real DateTime information from WMI using Get-CimInstance. This would tell you when your...

In a previous tip we explained how you can safely "clone" an array using Clone() method. This will copy the content of an array to a new...

When you copy variable content, you may just copy the "reference" (memory address), not the content. Take a look at this example: $a =...

In VBScript there were encoded scripts. Encoding is by no means a safe way of hiding script content, but it makes it a little harder for users to...

If you must run some code before PowerShell should exit, you could simply use a try…finally clause like this: try { # some code Start-Sleep...

Background jobs can help speed up your scripts. If your scripts consist of a number of separate tasks that also could run in parallel, then...

Windows 10 comes with a bunch of preinstalled apps. Fortunately, you can use PowerShell to remove any app you don’t like. You may need...

If you use Invoke-Command to remotely execute PowerShell code, you may have noticed that PowerShell remoting adds a new PSComputerName property that...

This small piece of code prompts for a new registered owner name, then updates the value in the Windows Registry. Note that this requires...

Invoke-WebRequest can download files from the internet for you. This example downloads a 33MB public NASA video to your computer, then starts to...

It is routine for scripts to check whether a folder exists, and if it is missing, to create it: #requires -Version 1 $path = 'c:\testfolder'...

Invoke-Expression takes any string and treats it as PowerShell code. This way, you could construct dynamic code, and then execute it....

Beginning with PowerShell 3.0, the cmdlet Invoke-WebRequest can download web page content quite easily. This would scrape all links from...

Occasionally, you may see a bunch of processes named "svchost" in your task monitor or Get-Process output. These processes are hosts for Windows...

Group-Object is a great cmdlet to create lookup tables. If you wanted to identify a Windows service by its process ID, here is a way: $serviceList =...

PowerShell introduces class support in PowerShell 5.0, but you can define your own classes in other PowerShell versions as well. Simply use C# code...

To quickly open new test hosts inside the PowerShell ISE that ships with PowerShell 3.0 and better, here is a small helper function: #requires...

The PowerShell ISE shipping with PowerShell 3.0 and better is actually a multi-host. It can host multiple separate instances of PowerShell. To add a...

PowerShell can define defaults for any parameter, so if you wanted to always submit a default value for Get-ChildItem‘s –Path parameter,...

If you’d like to assign the results of a command to a variable, and at the same time output the results, too, here are two approaches. You can...

Cmdlets and advanced PowerShell functions can have their own parameters, but they also always inherit common parameters. To see a list of common...

Sometimes you may want to get a good overview of the data contained in an object. For example, if you query the PowerShell process and display it in...

Profile scripts are PowerShell scripts that launch automatically once PowerShell starts. The path to the primary profile file can be found in...

Sometimes you may want to create your own objects to store multiple pieces of information. Here is a pretty dense oneliner that illustrates a quick...

If you migrated from VBScript to PowerShell, you may remember how VBScript mapped network drives. This option is still available in PowerShell....