powertips

PowerShell v.2 has a new trick for creating your very own objects that you can then pass to other cmdlets. It is a two-step process. First, create a...

Many cmdlet parameters have built-in alias names that you can use instead of the full parameter name. So instead of "dir -ErrorAction...

You can shorten parameter names since cmdlet parameters are sometimes long and hard to type in. You will only need to enter as much of a parameter...

Use this line if you need to get a quick list of all parameters that a given cmdlet supports along with a short description: Get-Help dir -para * |...

You can find out which cmdlet parameters are positional by using this line: get-help dir -parameter * | Where-Object { $_.Position -as [Int] } |...

Cmdlets typically support a lot of parameters. For convenience, the most important ones have an assigned "position" so you can specify...

In a previous tip, we created a Check-Online filter to eliminate offline systems from a list of IP addresses and computer names. Now, find out what...

If you need to collect hardware and/or software information from a bunch of remote systems, you should take advantage of the Check-Online filter...

Even PowerShell v.1 has remarkable remoting capabilities--as long as you can make sure the target systems are online. Otherwise, you run into...

You can use a cmdlet called Test-Path to test whether a given path exists. However, existing drives not currently in use, such as a CD-ROM drive,...

What if you needed to map network drives during log-on? You could use fixed drive letters, but what if those drive letters are already in use? Here...

Certificates are digital identities, and when you already own the private key to a certificate, you own this identity. You can then use these...

PowerShell has a cert: drive that lets you explore all certificates installed on your system. Once you locate a certificate, you can then export it...

As you probably know, PowerShell cmdlets adhere to a strict verb-noun syntax. You cannot choose just any verb when you compile your own cmdlets in a...

In a previous tip, you learned how to use BITS on Windows 7 to download files in the background. One issue with this approach is that the download...

Windows 7 comes with a new module called BitsTransfer. This allows you to schedule downloads so they can download in the background using the BITS...

While Get-Command delivers a list of available cmdlets, sometimes you'd like to find out which new cmdlets come from a specific snap-in....

You will find cmdlets available in PowerShell can come from two sources: PowerShell-SnapIns and (new in v.2) modules. Try this to see which cmdlets...

It is a good idea to check out how PowerShell v.2 automatically detects and loads all available system modules. Simply look at the definition of the...

In PowerShell v.2, you can import modules to load additional cmdlets and providers. Windows 7 comes with a number of such modules. Use the...

PowerShell can access COM-Objects as there are many useful objects present on a system. For example, WIA.Image can return all kinds of useful...

In PowerShell V2, Get-Random retrieves as many random numbers as you like, allowing you to use this random number generator in many scenarios. A...

When you move onto PowerShell V2, most of your V1 scripts will hopefully continue to work. There are only few bug fixes that could affect...

You may want to occasionally restart a single-instance process. However, shutting down a process does not necessarily mean it is killed in that...

PowerShell has an extremely flexible way of submitting return values. Instead of explicitly setting the return value of a function, PowerShell...

Working with event logs has become a lot easier in PowerShell v.2, and you have seen how you create and maintain your own logs. So, if you'd...

In PowerShell v.2, it is very easy to create and maintain your very own event logs to track errors in your scripts or other automation solutions....

In PowerShell v.2, Get-WinEvent provides access to events written to the numerous Windows event logs. In addition, you can also examine event...

There are numerous Windows event logs and you now have full control using Get-WinEvent in PowerShell v.2. Instead of searching for specific event...

In PowerShell v.1, Get-Eventlog would retrieve standard event log entries from event logs like "System" or "Application," but...