posts-powershell

PowerShell 3+ PowerShell 5.0 ships with a new module called PowerShellGet, and on older PowerShell versions, you can easily download and install...

PowerShell 2+ In a previous tip we introduced automatic type-based parameter binding. Here is a use case. The function Test-Binding accepts files...

PowerShell 2+ PowerShell can automatically bind arguments to parameters based on type. Simply define different parameter sets. Here is an example:...

All Versions .NET objects often have properties that you can read to retrieve information. Some of these properties may actually be writeable, so...

All Versions While you can declare a parameter as mandatory, this leaves not much control to you. If the user omits the mandatory parameter,...

All Versions By default, PowerShell displays the current path in its input prompt which wastes as lot of space. When you overwrite the...

Any version By processing things in parallel rather than sequential, a script can complete much faster. Here is an example that uses background jobs...

In the previous tip, we explained how you can use a regular expression to split strings in groups of a given length. Let’s explore what else...

All PowerShell Versions Ever wanted to split a string in chunks of a given length? Regular expressions can help. Here is an example that splits a...

WPF-based windows are the preferred way to create user interfaces this way - because the code is much easier to write, shorter, and WPF scales well...

In the previous tip we explained how you can create WPF-based windows in PowerShell. However, when you play with WPF code inside PowerShell ISE, it...

WPF is a great technique to create user interfaces in PowerShell. Most of the window content can be defined using XAML, a description similar to...

Send-MailMessage has been around for many years. It can be used to quickly send an email without the need to have an email client at hand. All you...

Thanks to Jaap Brasser’s finding, here is an easy way of encrypting a bunch of credentials: $CredPath = "$home\Desktop\mycreds.xml"...

Here is a safe way of saving credentials to a file: $CredPath = "$home\Desktop\mycred.xml" Get-Credential | Export-Clixml -Path $CredPath...

A much awaited new cmdlet surfaced in PowerShell 5.0: Clear-RecycleBin! You can clear the recycle bin on a particular drive, or on all drives. This...

When you launch PowerShell, you should right-click the PowerShell icon in the taskbar and pin it to the taskbar. This way it is always visible, and...

In the previous tip we illustrated how the new "enum" keyword works in PowerShell 5.0 to set the values that are assignable to a...

Beginning with PowerShell 5.0, you can use the new keyword "enum" to create enumerations. They can be useful for parameter validation:...

When you remotely execute an application, it will run invisibly on the remote system. Here is some code that illustrates how you can run an...

If you need to change the content of a specific cell in an Excel spreadsheet, take a look at this sample code: $ExcelPath =...

The fastest way to read data from an Excel spreadsheet is to export the data to CSV, then use Import-CSV. However, sometimes the data in an Excel...

If all you need to do is minimizing all open windows, there is the Shell.Application COM object. PowerShell can access its methods via New-Object:...

In a previous tip we explained how PowerShell can access low level API functions such as ShowWindowAsync(). Once you better understand how a...

PowerShell can use C# to define new .NET types that access the internal Windows API methods. Here is some code that makes accessible the...

Sometimes, PowerShell modules ship as MSI packages. When they do, you never know what the installation logic does to your system. Unfortunately,...

If you have played with the early releases of PowerShellGet and the PowerShell Gallery (www.powershellgallery.com), you may still have a module...

If you want to convert a short 8.3 filename to its long file name, try something like this: PS> (Get-Item...

In PowerShell 5.0, a new .NET type was introduced that can help you escape text information so it can be displayed correctly: PS>...

Cleaning week comes to an end. As a last part, you may want to check the list of files you recently opened. This list is full of privacy sensitive...