posts-powershell

If you'd like to find out whether an instance of WinWord (or any other program) is currently running, you can try this: (Get-Process winword -ea...

Dir (Get-Childitem) is a simple, but effective way to find files. The following line will find any file or folder called "hosts" anywhere...

To send PowerShell results to Excel, you can use CSV-files and automate the entire process by using this function: function...

If you want a variable to update its content every time you retrieve it, you can assign a breakpoint and an action to it. The action script block...

To open a file in a locked state so no one else can open, access, read, or write the file, you can use the low-level .NET methods like this: $path =...

If you want PowerShell to halt your script at some point, you can simply add this line: $host.EnterNestedPrompt() This will suspend execution and...

To lock your computer from PowerShell, remember that you can launch applications, including rundll32.exe, which can be used to call methods from...

If you don't like creating Regular Expression patterns, here is a trick so you can easily find and extract text: $text = 'The problem was...

With Regular Expressions, you can easily extract matching text. Have a look: $text = 'The problem was discussed in KB552356. Mail feedback to...

Select-String can find lines with a specific keyword. It can also include context-relevant lines before and after that line. This will filter the...

When you launch *.exe-applications with arguments, you may get exceptions because PowerShell may misinterpret the arguments. A better way to do this...

If you need to list all cmdlets that deal with file system-related tasks, try this: Get-Command -Noun item*, path Many of these cmdlets have...

To append a CSV file with new data, first of all make sure the type of data you append is the same type of data already in a file (or else column...

ConvertTo-CSV can create comma separated values (CSV) on the fly but it always adds a new header. To create CSV data without columns, take a look at...

In a previous tip we illustrated how -like can work on array. To iterate on that, check out how -like (in contrast to -contains) allows the use of...

If you need to get two random numbers from a given numeric range, and you want to make sure they cannot be the same, simply tell Get-Random to pick...

If you wanted to exclude results with empty (text) columns, you can filter based on $null values. This will get you all processes with a valid...

In a previous tip we showed you how you can add new drives to easily access your desktop, your cookies or media like music and video. However, when...

Use Select-Object to determine which information in a result you are interested in. Here are three easy rules for its parameters: Use -Property *...

In a previous tip you learned that WMI network adapter information is separated into two classes. Win32_NetworkAdapter represents the hardware, and...

To view the configuration details of a network adapter, you can specify the network adapter connection ID as it appears in your control panel. ...

In a previous tip you learned how to use a shortcut to quickly open the dialog with your network adapters. Today, you get a piece of code to access...

To quickly access the settings for your network cards, use this line from within PowerShell: explorer.exe...

If you'd like to list all members of local groups, encapsulate net.exe and make it a PowerShell function: function Get-LocalGroupMember{ param(...

On Windows 7, net.exe can list all local groups. To use this information with PowerShell, try this simple wrapper: function Get-LocalGroup { net...

On Windows 7, the easiest way to find local user accounts is to use net.exe. Here is a simple PowerShell wrapper called Get-LocalUser: function...

PowerShell supports regular expressions in a lot of areas which is why the following code fails: 'c:\test\subfolder\file' -split '\'...

In a previous tip we introduced the command openfiles which lists and disconnects files that were opened remotely on your machine. Openfiles can...

If you'd like to see which files are opened by network users on your machine, there is an internal command for it. All you need are local admin...

In a previous tip we showed that Trim() is an unsafe way for removing file extensions. A safe way uses .NET methods:...