posts-powershell

The PowerShell ISE shipping with PowerShell 3.0 and better is actually a multi-host. It can host multiple separate instances of PowerShell. To add a...

PowerShell can define defaults for any parameter, so if you wanted to always submit a default value for Get-ChildItem‘s –Path parameter,...

If you’d like to assign the results of a command to a variable, and at the same time output the results, too, here are two approaches. You can...

Cmdlets and advanced PowerShell functions can have their own parameters, but they also always inherit common parameters. To see a list of common...

Sometimes you may want to get a good overview of the data contained in an object. For example, if you query the PowerShell process and display it in...

Profile scripts are PowerShell scripts that launch automatically once PowerShell starts. The path to the primary profile file can be found in...

Sometimes you may want to create your own objects to store multiple pieces of information. Here is a pretty dense oneliner that illustrates a quick...

If you migrated from VBScript to PowerShell, you may remember how VBScript mapped network drives. This option is still available in PowerShell....

Beginning with PowerShell 3.0, you can use New-PSDrive to map network drives. They will be visible in File Explorer as well. Here is some sample...

PowerShell supports console commands, so if you need to map a network drive, often the most reliable way is to use good old net.exe like this:...

Start-Process can start processes but does not support a timeout. If you wanted to kill a runaway process after a given timeout, you could use an...

If you need to run selected parts of your script with Administrator privileges, you could temporarily launch a second PowerShell with Administrator...

Here is a simple function to find out the reserved drive letters: #requires -Version 3 function Get-DriveLetter { (Get-WmiObject -Class...

To quickly (and permanently) set a bunch of environment variables, here is a nice approach: $hashtable = @{ Name = 'Weltner' ID = 12 Ort =...

To quickly locate a PowerShell script anywhere in your MyDocuments folder, take a look at this Find-Script function: #requires -Version 3 function...

When you override the ToString() method of an object you control how this object is displayed. The object content stays untouched, though: $a = 123...

When you retrieve results, you may want to add additional properties to the results so later you know where they came from. Attaching additional...

Maybe you'd like to tag a variable and provide some extra information. In PowerShell, use Add-Member and attach NoteProperties or ScriptProperties...

If you'd like to keep settings outside of your script and store them in a separate config file, then you can use all kinds of data formats for...

Did you ever need to compare two arrays? Compare-Object might help. Check this out: $array1 = 1..100 $array2 = 2,4,80,98 Compare-Object...

You want to quickly get a list of IP addresses for your own computer or a network machine? Here is how: #requires -Version 3 $ComputerName =...

Let's assume you want to chop off some text at the end of a string. This is the traditional approach using string operations: $text = "Some...

While you can still use the old redirection operator to write command output to a file, you should rather use PowerShell cmdlets instead. Here is...

When you need to run code as a PowerShell command in a separate powershell.exe, it is not always safe to submit the code. Depending on from where...

When you need to define multiline text, in PowerShell you typically use here-strings like this: $text = @" I am safe here I can even use...

In PowerShell 1.0 and 2.0, you needed a lot of weird code to find out the current script location: # make sure the script is saved and NOT...

In a previous tip we showed how you find cmdlets that expose dynamic parameters. Let's explore what the dynamic parameters are. The function...

Some cmdlets expose dynamic parameters. They are valid only in certain contexts. Get-ChildItem, for example, exposes -File and -Directory only when...

The PowerShell ISE sports a zoom slider at its lower right edge, and you can control this slider with PowerShell code. So you could set defaults for...

If you do not have PowerShell 5.0 and .NET Framework 4.5 is not available, here is an approach to unzip ZIP files that uses the native Windows shell...