posts-powershell

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...

Sometimes, you may need to have the event ID for a system event, though what you really need is the instance ID. For example, Get-EventLog will only...

Search for the appropriate events in your event log to discover when Windows has validated your license: get-eventlog -LogName Application...

Check out this line to visualize when your system defragmented your hard drives: get-eventlog -LogName Application -InstanceId 258 | ForEach-Object...

Windows Update and Software installations will frequently create system restore points. Run this to get a list of such events: Get-EventLog -LogName...

PowerShell will keep a history of the commands you entered and then you can list the history with Get-History, configuring the maximum length of...

When you need to handle errors created by native commands, you can use a wrapper function like Call. It will automatically discover when a native...

If you need to find out the time in another time zone, you can convert your local time to Universal Time and then add the number of offset hours to...

What if you would like to get a quick overview of all error events in any event log. Get-EventLog can only query one event log at a time. So, you...

If you need a list of consecutive IP addresses, you can check out this function. You can see that it takes a start and an end address and then...

If you need to split a decimal into bytes, you can use  a function called ConvertTo-HighLow, which uses a clever combination of type casts to...

Try this line if you would like to know whether a machine is currently connected to the Internet:...

If you are using code that can only run in a 32-bit environment (i.e. using old database drivers or COM objects), here is a solution that will...

On 64-bit systems, PowerShell will by default run in a 64-bit process. This can cause problems with snap-ins, some COM-objects (like...

Imagine you have a text string with a hex dump so that each hex number consists of two characters. How would you split this into individual hex...

Get-Process will return a list of all processes. If you just want to see those started within the last 10 minutes, you can check StartTime. Both...

If you need to manipulate registry data from another user, you may be out of luck because HKEY_CURRENT_USER always points to your own user data....

You can create a simple helper function called Get-Enum  to list all the values in an enumeration: function Get-Enum($name){...

Ever wondered why one computer runs well and another does not? Here is an example of how you can compare service configuration on two machines as...

As you may know, Select-Object can return the content of an object property when you use the parameter -expandProperty. This will get you a list of...