powertips

Whenever you use Invoke-Command to remotely execute code, you will notice that PowerShell automatically adds the column PSComputerName to your...

There is a not widely known COM object that you can use to list all the installed Windows Updates on a machine. Here is the code: $Session =...

Assume your function wanted to know whether it is the last element in a pipeline or operating in the middle of it. Here is a way for a function to...

Let's assume your script wants to share status information via a balloon message in the system tray area. Here is a sample:...

PowerShell is all about trial and error, and when you want to save your interactive input to a script file, this is how it could be done:...

In a previous tip you learned how you can forward function parameters to cmdlets. But what if you just want to forward some of the parameters? Here...

When disk space gets low, you may want to clean up your temporary folder. The code deletes all files that are older than 30 days to make sure...

To filter folder content by file or folder, check whether the Length property is present. It is present for files and missing in folders: Dir...

Office365 comes with a complete set of PowerShell cmdlets. To review the cmdlets and what you can do with them, visit this URL:...

To forward function parameters to a cmdlet, use $psboundparameters automatic variable and splatting. Here is a sample: function...

To find out how long your PowerShell session has been running, try this code snippet: ((((Get-Date)-(Get-Process -id $pid).starttime) -as [string])...

Many cmdlets have a built-in -ComputerName parameter that will allow for remote access without using the new PowerShell remoting. For this to work,...

In a previous tip, we showed you how to create a new local admin account using ADSI. On Windows 7 and Server 2008, it is much easier to use net.exe...

Here is a piece of code that will create a local user account and put it into the local Administrators group: $computername = $env:computername #...

To manage local groups, you can think about using net.exe. It may be much easier than using COM interfaces. The next line will add a local user...

Rename-Item can rename hundreds of files in one step. Have a look: $global:i = 1 dir c:\test1\ -Filter cover*.jpg | Rename-Item -NewName {...

You can use a FileSystemWatcher object to monitor a folder and write a log for all newly created files. For example, this can be used as an...

PowerShell can also rename computers. The next example will read the serial number from the system enclosure class and rename the computer...

In a previous tip, we showed you how adding a single comma can change the way functions return arrays. With this trick, you can force a PowerShell...

Normally, PowerShell will not preserve the type of an array returned by a function. It is always reduced to Object[]: function test {...

Here is how you can create new shortcuts, such as a desktop shortcut to PowerShell: $shell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell $lnk =...

You can use Regular Expression patterns to validate function parameters: function Get-ZIPCode { param( [ValidatePattern('^\d{5}$')] [String]...

PowerShell ISE by default saves .PS1 scripts in a highly unusual big endian Unicode encoding. For example, you cannot digitally sign such files.....

You use parenthesis in PowerShell to control an execution order. However, some language keywords are not legal inside parenthesis, like try and...