posts-powershell

All Versions Typically, when you declare a parameter as mandatory, and the user does not submit it, PowerShell takes care and prompts the user for...

All PowerShell versions To add some sophistication to your script, here is a simple function that opens the OpenFile dialog and lets the user pick a...

All Versions When you browse the file system with Get-ChildItem, you may stumble across folders that you have no access to view. If you’d like...

ActiveDirectory Module Sometimes you may want to directly access properties related to the terminal service in an Active Directory account. Here is...

PowerShell ISE 3.0 and later While it is generally not recommended to hard code passwords in scripts, there are sometimes scenarios where this is...

PowerShell 3.0 and later In PowerShell 3.0, a new feature called “Automatic Unrolling” was introduced. With it, you can write code like this:...

All PowerShell versions To preserve all the PowerShell commands that you entered in a PowerShell session, check out this one liner:...

All PowerShell versions In a previous tip we illustrated how you can take a DELL serial number and check online the warranty status. Other vendors...

PowerShell Version 2.0 and later If you own a DELL computer, you can take advantage of a web service that takes your computer serial number and...

PowerShell 2.0 and later Anyone who needs to manage MSI installer packages may benefit from an open source project found here:...

PowerShell 3.0 and later Sometimes you will stumble across tips like the following one: $FilePath = "$env:SystemRoot\WindowsUpdate.log"...

PowerShell 4.0 and later If you know that a given script needs Administrator privileges, then a simple #requires statement is enough to make sure...

Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2 Both Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 come with a module called “PrintManagement”. It includes all cmdlets...

Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2 Both Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 come with a module called “PrintManagement”. It includes all cmdlets...

Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2 To update Group Policy settings on a remote machine, use Invoke-GPUpdate, and submit the name of the computer where...

Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2 Both Windows 8.1 and Server 2012 R2 come with a module called “PrintManagement”. It includes all cmdlets...

All PowerShell versions PowerShell uses short names for the most common .NET types. To see if there is a short name for a .NET type you are using,...

PowerShell ISE 3.0 and later To turn PowerShell code to all uppercase letters in PowerShell ISE, select the text, then press CTRL+SHIFT+U. To turn...

PowerShell Version 3 and later To permanently map a network drive, use New-PSDrive with the –Persist parameter. This parameter makes the drive...

All Versions If your script wants to output warnings or error messages, you can use Write-Warning or Write-Error. Both cmdlets will use the default...

PowerShell 2.0 and later Here is a function that illustrates two things: it shows how you can limit a parameter to a given data type, and it shows...

PowerShell 3.0 and later The PowerShell ISE supports line breakpoints only: they make the code stop once the debugger hits that particular line. You...

Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 To detect whether a script runs in a 32-bit or 64-bit environment is fairly easy: check a pointer size, and test whether it...

All PowerShell Versions If you'd like to audit NTFS permissions on your file servers, here is a suggestion how you could start. This script...

All PowerShell versions Typically, NTFS permissions in the file system are inherited. You can, however, add explicit permissions to files and...

All Versions Typically, to access COM objects, these objects need to register themselves in the Windows Registry, and PowerShell needs the...

PowerShell 3.0 and later When you use Get-ChildItem to list files, by default, hidden files are excluded. To include hidden files, use the...

GroupPolicy Module When you create a new Group Policy, you can set a comment (or description). There is no apparent way, however, to change the...

PowerShell 2.0 and later This sample code finds all PowerShell scripts in a given drive, then checks the scripts for valid digital signatures, and...

All PowerShell versions When you run native EXE console commands inside your scripts, these commands typically return a numeric return value. This...