This morning I helped out a fellow scripter in the PowerShell forum at ScriptingAnswers.com. He was trying to figure out an Exchange 2007 problem. He wanted to update a property value, but keep the existing property values. This seems a like a reasonable request and one that isn’t limited to Exchange. There are plenty of…
Tag: PowerShell
Think Objectively
A challenge many new comers to PowerShell face, especially those arriving with a VBScript background, and one that I often talk about, is shifting gears from working with text to working with objects. Here’s a good example.
Putting the Squeeze on Files with PowerShell
My December Mr. Roboto column is now online This month’s tool is a PowerShell WinForm script that uses WMI to compress files. I used PrimalForms 2009 to build the graphical interface. The interface is essentially a wizard that lets you build a WMI query to find files and compress them. Results can be logged to…
Join Me at Techmentor Orlando
I will be presenting several sessions at Techmentor in Orlando, FL March 8-12, 2010. I will be doing the following sessions: Take Back your File Server (learn about Server 2008 file management features) Top 10 Non-PowerShell CLI Tools you MUST Know (learn about other command line tools that can get the job done) Scripting, Error…
Windows PowerShell 1.0: TFM Free-eBook
Now that SAPIEN Press is on the verge of releasing Windows PowerShell 2.0: TFM (http://www.sapienpress.com/powershell3.asp), they are making the first edition version of the book available as a free e-book. While you won’t learn about new features like remoting, there’s still plenty of useful information and you can’t beat the price. You can download the…
Get Disk Quota
During a recent class I was teaching, a student asked about a way to get disk quota reports from Windows file servers. I knew there was a WMI class, Win32_DiskQuota, and had some old VBScript files. However, they were pretty basic and not as robust as I would have liked. So I worked up PowerShell…
Find That Service
Once again, the fine forum members at ScriptingAnswers.com come through and help get my PowerShell idea engine revving. The latest post posed this basic question: “I need to query my servers and find all services using a specific service account.” The poster thought this would be a good opportunity to learn PowerShell and I wholeheartedly…
All Hail Dir UseALot!
Some of you know my relationship with the a command prompt goes back a long, long way. Naturally I became very adept at using the DIR command, fully taking advantage of its switches to tease out hidden information or to quickly get just the information I wanted. When PowerShell first came out, I made the…
The PowerShell Balloon Festival
I trust by now you are realizing how valuable Windows PowerShell is as a management tool. With a one line command you can accomplish an extraordinary amount of work. Sometimes this work may be long running, which is where background jobs come in handy. Or you may simply kick off a long running script and…
Pre-Orders for Windows PowerShell 2.0: TFM
SAPIEN Press is now taking pre-orders for the latest edition of the popular Windows PowerShell: TFM. The new version, Windows PowerShell 2.0: TFM is really the 3rd edition of our original book. Don Jones and I have worked very hard to make this the most comprehensive PowerShell resource you can have on your book shelf….
Get Profiles
Keith Hill posted a bit of PowerShell code a few days ago that piqued my interest. I knew that in PowerShell, the $profile variable would list your current profile. PS C:\> $profile C:\Users\Jeff\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 This is handy because it makes it easy to call up my script editor if I need to make a change. But…
Is It Friday Yet?
Some days the week just seems to drag on and on and on….Like many of you, I can’t wait for the end of the work day on Friday afternoon. But how much longer is it until I can say, in a cliche ridden fashion, “TGIF!” Fortunately I have PowerShell to give me a pretty accurate…
PModem and Folder Listings
PowerShell MVP Oisin Grehan posted a very promising PowerShell module the other day. He calls it the PModem File Transfer Protocol. It is based on the old bulletin board file transfer protocols of the late 20th century, which I have to admit I fondly remember using. Of course Oisin’s work intrigued me and after playing…
PowerPack Challenge 2009 Judge
If you are an active member of the PowerShell community you may have already seen this announcement, but just in case you haven’t, Quest Software and the guys behind PowerGUI are running their annual PowerPack challenge. You could win a $1000 Amazon gift card. The contest ;runs from October 19, 2009 until November 15th 2009,…
Hanging Out My Shingle
Way, way back in the day professionals would hang out a painted shingle indicating they were open for business. Even if your literacy skills were lacking you could distinguish between a doctor and an undertaker. Although I think sometimes he did both, but that’s another story. I thought I should officially hang out my “shingle”….