powertips

Try this if you need to check a single character and find out whether or not it is numeric: PS > [char]::IsNumber('1') True PS >...

You may know the -contains operator. Try using it to check whether an array contains a specific element: PS > $names = dir $env:windir |...

You can add a bunch of interesting new drives to PowerShell with just a single line of code:...

You can no longer assign other types when you strongly type a variable: [Int]$a = 1 $a = 'does not work'   However, you can always...

In a previous tip, we showed you how to create random passwords. Thanks to your feedback, here is an even shorter version: -join...

Do you remember the ancient feature where you could tile or cascade all open windows? These features are still available. However, before you try...

PowerShell hash tables are, by default, not case sensitive: PS > $hash = @{} PS > $hash.Key = 1 PS > $hash.keY = 2 PS > $hash.KEY 2 If...

You can try this to create a new empty byte array with 100 bytes: $byte = New-Object Byte[] 100   Try this if you need to create a byte array...

If you want to quickly exchange a file extension to create a "bak" backup version or generate a new file name for output, you should use...

In a previous tip, we showed you how to group using your own criteria. Group-Object can also auto-create hash tables so that you can easily create...

Try using Group-Object to group objects by any property: PS> Get-Process | Group-Object -property Company You can also submit a script block and...

In a previous tip, we showed you how to parse text-based log files using the PowerShell pipeline. However, the pipeline has considerable overhead....

Extracting useful information from huge text-based log files isn’t necessarily  a difficult task. Check out this line: PS> Get-Content...

Sometimes, classic tools like ipconfig.exe can yield useful information that you'd like to integrate with PowerShell. Here is sample code that...

Here is a useful function that you can use to calculate the total size of a folder: function Get-FolderSize($path) { Get-ChildItem $path -Recurse...

You can use Get-WMIObject to create a high-level hardware report. Instead of submitting a specific device class name, you should use a generic...

Once you create a hash table, it is easy for you to add new key-value pairs like this: PS > $myHash = @{} PS > $myHash.Name = 'Tobias'...

You can use Copy-Item to quickly copy entire structures of registry keys and sub-keys in a matter of milliseconds. Take a look at this example...

You may sometimes get "Access Denied" exceptions, even though  you have Admin privileges and used an elevated shell. For ...

The [RegEx] type has a method called Replace(), which can be used to replace text by using regular expressions. This line would replace the last...

If you would like to check the implications of stopping  a service, you should have a look at its dependent services: (Get-Service...

Check out this line to determine when an installation required a system restart: Get-EventLog -InstanceId 1038 -LogName Application | ForEach-Object...

In a previous tip, you learned that Select-Object can find multiple matches. Here is a function called matches. You can submit a regular expressions...

When you want to find matches based on regular expressions, PowerShell will only support the -match operator which finds the first match. There does...