posts-powershell

Removing BOM from Unicode Text Files Using PowerShell BOM (Byte Order Mask) is a characteristic byte sequence used in some Unicode encoded text...

Ensuring Correct Text File Encoding in PowerShell Text files can be stored using different encodings, and to correctly reading them, you must...

psconf.eu – PowerShell Conference EU 2019 – June 4-7, Hannover Germany – visit www.psconf.eu There aren’t too many trainings around for experienced PowerShell scripters where…

Every Windows installation has a unique UUID that you can use to distinguish machines. While computer names can change, the UUID won’t: PS>...

In the previous tip we illustrated how Get-Date can take a format string and convert DateTime values to strings. The string conversion always uses...

Using Microsoft Print to PDF from PowerShell Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 finally come with a built-in PDF printer called “Microsoft Print to...

Understanding the FileSystemWatcher and Its Limitations In the previous tip we introduced the FileSystemWatcher and illustrated how it can miss...

A FileSystemWatcher can monitor a file or folder for changes, so your PowerShell code can immediately be notified when new files are copied to a...

Lines like $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition can be useful to determine the folder in which the current script is stored, i.e. to access other...

Most old VBS scripts can be easily translated to PowerShell. The key command in VBS is “CreateObject” which lets you access system libraries....

Running PowerShell in WinPE Environments PowerShell can run inside WinPE environments. If you’d like to detect whether your PowerShell script runs...

Starting with PowerShell 5, cmdlets like Extract-Archive can extract the content of ZIP files to disk. However, you can always extract only the...

PowerShell by default does not support the native cmd.exe command such as „dir“. Instead, it uses historic aliases called “dir” to point you to the...

Use the PowerShell progress Bar Here is a simple example using the PowerShell progress bar. The code displays a progress bar counting down a break....

Beginning with PowerShell 5, the PowerShell engine starts to log executed commands and scripts. By default, only commands considered potentially...

When you query an event log with PowerShell, by default you get back a text message with the logged information. For example, if you’d like to know...

If you are about to launch a lengthy automation script, why not turn off the display right away instead of waiting for the screen saver timeout to...

In the previous tip we covered klist.exe and how it can be used to purge all Kerberos tickets for the current user so that new permissions will take...

No need to reboot a system just to apply new permission settings. Instead, purge your Kerberos tickets so that you will get a new ticket based on...

Chocolatey is a free package manager for Windows that can be used to download and install software. Installing Chocolatey via PowerShell Before you...

Enabling VT Escape Sequences in PowerShell 5.1 Starting in PowerShell 5.1, the PowerShell console supports VT escape sequences that can be used to...

When you try and sort IPv4 addresses via Sort-Object, this fails: PS> '10.1.2.3', '2.3.4.5', '1.2.3.4' | Sort-Object 1.2.3.4 10.1.2.3 2.3.4.5...

Reviewing the Test-OnlineFast Function In the previous tip we published a super-fast function called Test-OnlineFast, and this function was able to...

Revisiting the Test-Online Fast Function In the previous tip series, we developed a new function called Test-OnlineFast that can ping multiple...

Understanding Event Log Source Names When you write events to an event log using Write-EventLog, you must specify a valid source name. However,...

Here is a line of code that often puzzles PowerShell users: Get-Service | Select-Object -ExcludeProperty Name Understanding the -ExcludeProperty...

Here is a fun PowerShell function called Convert-PowerShellToBatch. Provide it with the path to a PowerShell script, or pipe in the results from...

If you’d need to find out the SID for a user name, here is a useful chunk of code that does the job: $domain =…

Out-GridView always produces a table with one object per line: Get-Process -Id $pid | Out-GridView Occasionally, it would be more helpful to display the object…

Reviewing the ActiveDirectory Module Approach In the previous tip we explained how you can use the ActiveDirectory module and its cmdlets to find...