Category: Scripting

PrimalForms 2009 Script Editor

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SAPIEN’s Primal Forms 2009 now has an integrated script editor that you can use as a standalone editor for PowerShell scripts. The app has integrated help, popup command help, a PowerShell browser, a .NET object browser. As you can see in the screen shot I’ve started a very basic PowerShell script.

Once saved, I can run the script and view the results in the output panel. You can open and edit existing scripts as well. If you want a more full featured editing experience with code samples, snippets and more, or if you still need to work in other languages like VBScript, you’ll want PrimalScript 2009. But let’s say you only require an easy to use PowerShell script editor that provides a Windows Form feature, then PrimalForms 2009 is the ticket.

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Out-MSWord Revised

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This summer I wrote about a function I developed called Out-MSWord. The function was discussed in my Practical PowerShell column which was published in the free e-Journal Windows Administration in RealTime put out by RealTime Publishers. The original was published in Issue #17 if you are interested. The function accepted pipelined input and created a Microsoft Word document. Naturally, you need to have Microsoft Word installed in order for this to work.

PS C:\> get-service | out-MSWord

The function accepted a number of parameters so you could control font name, size, color, append, and more. The function was written for PowerShell v1.0 but also worked on PowerShell v2.0. However, I was revisiting the function and realize there were places I could tweak, such as adding additional error handing. I also realized that if rewrote this for PowerShell v2.0, I could create an advanced function and take advantage of cmdletbinding, advanced parameters and help.

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Absolute Beginning PowerShell

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I was looking at my current Mr. Roboto column “Polish Your Shell” on learning PowerShell by starting with 3 basic commands and noticed a lengthy and serious comment. I’ve always felt PowerShell is easy to use and learn, which was the point of my column. However, the comments paint a different story and one that I feel is more pervasive.

I’m afraid the comment is representative of how PowerShell is perceived by many IT admins. They don’t have time to learn anything new or their hair is constantly on fire (to borrow a favorite Jeffrey Snover phrase). Even though the concepts of cmdlets, parameters and a pipeline seem easy and practically self-apparent, they are not. Especially for an administrator who has never had to open a command window before. Granted GUI-based admin tools might have been cumbersome, but at least you could make some educated guesses about how to use it. A command line is very different.

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WinRM: Domain or Workgroup?

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I’m curious about something and would like to hear from you. PowerShell v2 remoting uses WinRM which in a domain environment is very secure and easy to use. You can even use a GPO to configure your domain members. However you can also use WinRM in a workgroup environment but you have few hoops to…

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Powershell: Exit Stage Left

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While reviewing and revising the manuscript for Windows PowerShell v2.0: TFM 3rd ed. I had the opportunity to revisit our chapter on working with events in PowerShell. An event in Windows is when something happens like a mouse-click, a process being created or window resized. In PowerShell you can easily watch for an event of interest and then do something when it happens or fires. This is referred to as an event subscription.

PowerShell v2.0 has a few event related cmdlets you can use for creating an event subscription: Register-WMIEvent, Register-ObjectEvent and Register-EngineEvent. Today I want to show you something I think you might find helpful using the last cmdlet in the list.

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Revising Windows PowerShell: TFM 3rd

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I know there was some concern related to my departure from SAPIEN about the status of the Windows PowerShell: TFM book. You’ll be happy to know that Don Jones and I are both involved now in the final revisions.  SAPIEN is very committed to this project and supporting the PowerShell community and I’m very happy…

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Summary Judgment

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While working on a new article for REDMOND magazine about PowerShell 2.0, I wanted to get some cmdlet information. I wanted an easy way to see a list of cmdlets for a given verb or noun. Of course that is easily done with Get-Command. However this only gives my the definition.

After a little experimenting I found that I could get the help synopsis with the actual Get-Help cmdlet, not the Help function. So combining the two gives me the results I need.

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August Mr. Roboto link repaired

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My August Mr. Roboto column was published online with a broken link to the PowerShell script. This has since been fixed. You can download the Get-WMIInfo.ps1 script from here.

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Friendly WMI Dates

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Gee..you think you know something only to find out you don’t. Or maybe this falls into the category of teaching an old dog new tricks.

When I first started using PowerShell several years ago, I learned about how to convert a WMI date to a more user friendly format…

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Reboot and Reload

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After a terrific few years at SAPIEN Technologies, I’m back on my own. This site will be my new home. I’ve revamped the title, but I think it more accurately describes my subject matter. Even though I write extensively about scripting and PowerShell, which I’ll continue to do, the topic is really a means to…

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PrimalForms now Available

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Even though PowerShell is by design a console based management tool, there are instances where you would like to use a GUI. PowerShell can use the Windows forms classes from the .NET Framework. However in the past creating anything other than the simplest of forms was very tedious and time consuming. Now SAPIEN Technologies has…

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TurboChargeAD.Org

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I’ll be adding yet another writing gig to my portfolio. This time I’ll be contributing a bi-weekly blog column at TurboChargeAD.org. The site is run by Quest Software with contributions from many members of the IT Pro and PowerShell community that you are likely familiar with like Don Jones, Brandon Shell, and Darren Mar-Elia, to…

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Updated Domain Password Script

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This month’s Mr. Roboto column offers a script you can use with PowerShell to build a domain password report. There were few issues that came up which have since been resolved. You can download the latest version, currently 1.2 at www.jdhitsolutions.com/scripts in the Mr. Roboto section.

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Order Managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell: TFM – Finally!

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Yes, its finally true. You can finally get your hands on Managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell: TFM. The book is being printed so you can get your copy today. You can order it today at ScriptingOutpost.com in both print and ebook format. Or if you prefer the best of both worlds get both as…

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Scripting/SysAdmin Meme

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[cross-posted from blog.sapien.com] I saw that Kirk Munro called me out on on Steven Muraski’s Scripting/SysAdmin meme . Here’s my contribution to the meme. How old were you when you started using computers? I probably didn’t start using computers until late in college (which was a very long time ago in computer time. What was…

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