posts-powershell

PowerShell is great for parsing log files. Here is a function that extracts all installed Windows updates from an internal log file and returns the...

Regular expressions are extremely powerful - and complex. Fortunately, there are plenty of sources for good regular expressions that describe all...

While you can use Get-WMIObject to query for WMI objects and then select the ones you are really after, you can also cast a WMI object path to a WMI...

Group-Object creates groups based on object properties. For example, you could group processes by company or folder listings by extension: Dir...

Often, some text will need to be replaced in a text file. That's easy with Get-Content and Set-Content - or not? Get-Content c:somefile.txt |...

Sort-Object can sort on multiple properties at the same time. Have a look: Get-Service | Sort-Object Status, Name This will list stopped services...

Get-Member is a great cmdlet to discover object members, but it will not show everything: "Hello" | Get-Member You should add -force to...

Sometimes you may want to tag results returned by a cmdlet with some extra information, such as a reference to some PC name or a timestamp. You can...

Whenever you pipe objects through Select-Object, you actually get a copy of the original object. All properties are now readable and writeable, so...

To create relative dates like "10 days ago," there are two paths. Administrators often add or remove time spans created by New-Timespan:...

Whenever you use WMI (Get-WMIObject) to retrieve information, it's a snap to turn a local solution into a remotable solution. You can just add...

Ever wondered what type of RAM your PC uses and if there is a bank available to add more? Ask WMI! This example also converts the cryptic type codes...

Objects store information in various properties. There are two approaches if you would like to get to the content of a given property. One is...

You should use this approach if you need to change the creation time of a folder or file after you have created it: Get-Childitem c:\testfolder |...

If you would like to make error messages more readable, you can change their background color from black to white:...

How do you exclude objects based on empty properties? For example, WMI returns all kinds of "network adapters:" Get-WMIObject...

You can also use this little helper function if you run scripts every day and want to make sure they don't do anything on weekends: function...

When you pipe the result of a command to Get-Member, it examines the returned objects and shows the properties and methods. Use this line if you...

Strings contain all the methods you may need to access its content or manipulate it otherwise. Here is how you can list those methods: "Hello" |...

While Stop-Process will stop a process immediately in PowerShell, it will also destroy all data that hasn't yet been saved. You can try a more...

ConvertTo-HTML is a great way of creating system reports because you can combine information gathered from different sources into one report. The...

ConvertTo-HTML will convert text information into simple HTML, which can then be saved to disk. These reports will work fine, even though they are...

You will discover that Out-Printer can print results to your default printer. You can also print to any other printer when you specify its name:...

When you output results to text files, you will find that the same width restrictions apply that are active when you output into the console. You...

If you need to see all properties a result object provides, you should probably add Select-Object * to it like this: Get-Process -Id $pid |...

If you need to display a lot of information in as little room as possible, you should use Format-List with -Column: Get-Service | Format-Wide...

Format-Table has a parameter called -GroupBy which creates groups based on the property you supply. For example, you can use this to examine aliases...

You should use WMI to list all IPv4 addresses assigned to a computer: Get-WMIObject win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration | Where-Object { $_.IPEnabled...

You'll discover that some native commands require interactive keystrokes before they work. For example, to format a drive, for security reasons you...

Whenever Windows installs an update via Windows Update, it will log this in its windowsupdate.log file. PowerShell can then parse this file. You...