powertips

You may need to find the largest files for possible clean-up when free space on a drive runs low. One way is to have PowerShell examine all file...

Get-Random has a dual purpose. It can provide you with a random number and also pick random elements from a collection. So, if you want to get a new...

You can use Sort-Object to sort simple variable types. Have a look at the following: 'Tom', 'Chris', 'Judy', 'Alan'...

When you create new Aliases with Set-Alias, PowerShell does not check whether the target you specify is valid. Instead, this is checked only when...

You should try this to get all IPv4 addresses assigned to your system: Get-WMIObject win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | Where-Object { $_.IPEnabled...

You should use this to retrieve all IP addresses assigned to your computer: Get-WMIObject win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | Where-Object...

One easy way of creating lists of PC names or IP address ranges etc is a simple pipeline like this: 1..40 | Foreach-Object {...

Another way is to ConvertTo-HTML is a convenient way of converting object results in HTML. However when you open these files, your browser starts...

Whenever you use Get-WMIObject, be sure to minimize resources and maximize speed by using server-side filtering. The next line will use the slow...

Using Get-Hotfix is pretty convenient as it serves to list installed updates. Unfortunately, it is not very thorough as it doesn’t retrieve...

When using the additional cmdlets in the BitsTransfer module that comes with Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, you can make downloads happen silently in...

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 come with a module called BitsTransfer, which allows you to access the background intelligent transfer service used by...

Snapins and modules can add new cmdlets and/or providers to PowerShell. Use this if you would like to see the list of available Snapins:...

You should remember that registry values are treated like properties to a registry key so they have no specific path and you cannot use Test-Path to...

If you would like to test whether a certain registry key exists, you should remember that all registry keys are treated like folders on a drive, so...

In PowerShell, functions can be constant to prevent them from being deleted anymore, which is necessary if you must protect security-critical...

Functions that you define are read/write and can easily be overwritten. You can set the read-only attribute to make a function read-only so that you...

Each registry key has a default value. It is called (default) when you look into regedit. To read this default value, you can just use this name...

Get-ItemProperty reads registry values. You can create a software inventory in just one line since it supports wildcards: Get-ItemProperty...

You will find that reading Registry values is not always easy because the Registry is accessible only via the generic "drive" paradigm....

You can use Resolve-Path to support wildcards so you can use it to easily put together a list of file names like this: Resolve-Path...

You do not need to use drive letters to access information provided by PowerShell providers. For example, you should use this to list the...

You will find that Select-Object is often used to select object properties and discard unneeded information: Get-Process | Select-Object Name,...

While the PowerShell console is great, it is sometimes just easier to switch to Windows Explorer. Here is the fastest way to open Explorer and show...

Want to learn about all the new Exchange 2010 cmdlets? You can download the compiled Help file from Microsoft:...

In a previous tip, you learned how to use $ConfirmPreference to get a warning before a cmdlet actually changes your system. This was based on the...

Cmdlet authors can judge how severe the action is a cmdlet takes and choose from Low over Medium to High. You can use the variable...

You may already know that you can suppress error messages with the ErrorAction parameter, which is often a good idea. Take a look at this and then...

Thanks to Get-Date, you can easily create unique temporary file names with a timestamp: (Get-Date -format 'yyyy-MM-dd hh-mm-ss') +...

Many Get-*-Cmdlets, such as Get-EventLog or Get-Process, will output data in columns and support parameters named like these columns. So to filter...