Yesterday I shared a few PowerShell functions for configuring the Windows 10 taskbar to auto-hide. This works great in my virtual desktop when recording my Pluralsight courses. But even when hidden I would still get an annoying white sliver from the search box. So I got rid of that as well. Here are some PowerShell…
Category: Scripting
Managing the Windows 10 Taskbar with PowerShell
When I’m working on a Pluralsight course, I tend to setup a virtual machine for recording. Although, lately I’ve been trying with Windows 10 Sandbox. This is handy when all I need is a Windows 10 desktop. When I setup the system, I have particular settings I need to configure. Naturally I use a PowerShell…
Friday Fun – Custom Grouping with PowerShell
The other day I was answering a question in the PowerShell Facebook group. This person was getting data from Active Directory and trying to organize the results in a way that met his business requirements. My suggestion was to use Group-Object and a custom grouping property. I am assuming you are familiar with Group-Object. You…
PowerShell Event Log Mining
The other day someone who is learning PowerShell reached out to me with a problem. He couldn’t understand why the relatively simple PowerShell expression to pull information from the System event log wasn’t working. He wasn’t seeing errors, but he also wasn’t seeing the events he was expecting. Searching event logs with PowerShell is a…
A Better Way to Manage PowerShell Functions
Like many of you, I write a lot of PowerShell code. Much of it I use on a daily basis since I essentially spend my day at a PowerShell prompt. Also like many of you, I often assemble functions into a module. A module makes it easier to load the functions I need, and also…
Unlocking PowerShell Secrets
So I’ve been kicking the tires and trying to do more with the Secrets Management modules from Microsoft, now that they are out of pre-release status. You can install the Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore and Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement modules, you’ll need both, from the PowerShell Gallery. You can find extension modules that build on the Microsoft modules for working with…
Building a PowerShell Process Detection Tool
I spend my entire working day in a PowerShell prompt. It is often a combination of Windows PowerShell and PowerShell 7. Sometimes I’m in a session with a loaded profile, sometimes not. Sometimes I have a PowerShell 7 Preview session running. And then there are the scheduled jobs which also run PowerShell. Over the years,…
Answering the PowerShell Export Challenge
Last month, the Iron Scripter Chairman put out a rather large and complex challenge. The basic premise of the challenge was to export a PowerShell session to a file, and then import it in later PowerShell session. In essence, the save the working state of your PowerShell session. This would include items such as defined…
Cleaning with PowerShell Revisited
Springtime is approaching in North America. Where I live, the snow has finally melted and we have blue skies with warmer temperatures. Of course, this means Spring Cleaning. Time to clear out the winter debris and spruce up the house. For me, this is also a good time for some computing housecleaning as well. I…
Solving Another PowerShell Math Challenge
Last month, the Iron Scripter Chairman posted a “fun” PowerShell scripting challenge. Actually, a few math-related challenges . As with all these challenges, the techniques and concepts you use to solve the challenge are more important than the result itself. Here’s how I approached the problems. Problem #1 The first challenge was to take a…
Comparing PowerShell Property Names
Recently, I was chatting with my friend Gladys Kravitz about the hassle of comparing objects in PowerShell. Even after all these years. She has a specific use case, but you might also feel the need for a better comparison option. And to be clear, the comparison we’re talking about is not the object’s values, as…
Friday Fun: PowerShell Weather Widget
Recently, someone on Twitter turned me on to an resource that could be used in a PowerShell session to display weather information. This is apparently a well-established and well-regarded source. Once I worked out the basics, I naturally wanted to see what else I could do it with. Here’s what I came up with. Everything…
Solving the PowerShell Memory Challenge
I hope you tried your hand at this Iron Scripter PowerShell challenge on reporting memory usage. The basic challenge was to find the total percent of working set memory that a specific process or service is using. Here’s how I approached it, with my usual disclaimer that my solution is not the only or nor…
Searching Active Directory Logs with PowerShell
The last few weeks, I’ve been spending time with Active Directory and automating management tasks with PowerShell. If you go back a page or two of posts, you’ll see some of the scripts and functions I’ve shared. Today, I want to address something that has come up in recent comments related to tracking changes in…
Building a PowerShell Tool for Active Directory Changes
A few days ago, I posted a PowerShell script I wrote that creates a formatted HTML report, complete with collapsible regions, which shows recent changes to objects in your Active Directory domain. Including objects that have been deleted, assuming you enabled the Active Directory RecycleBin feature. I am pleased with the result and many of…