Several years ago Don Jones and I wrote what we hoped would be the definitive book on PowerShell scripting and toolmaking. The book takes all off our years of experience, not only from writing PowerShell code, to teaching and conference presentations where we hear first hand what people struggle with. We published the book on…
Tag: Scripting
GitHub Scripting Challenge Solution
Earlier this year I appeared on the PowerShell Podcast. I ended the interview with a scripting challenge. The Core Challenge Using whatever tools and techniques you want, write a PowerShell function that will query the Issues section of a GitHub repository and create output showing the number of open issues by label and the percentage…
PowerShell Refresh
The other day on X, I was asked about what things I would setup or configure on a new PowerShell installation. This is something I actually have thought about and face all the time when I setup a new demo virtual machine. I had been meaning to build new tooling to meet this challenge, and…
Discover Enums with Get-TypeMember
Earlier this Spring, I released a new function called Get-TypeMember. The function is in the PSScriptTools module. I wrote about that release here. This command is an alternative to Get-Member that includes more details. The other day I pushed a new version that makes it easier to identify properties that are enumerations. The function has…
Exposing the Mystery of PowerShell Objects
A few weeks ago, I was working on content for a new PowerShell course for Pluralsight. The subject was objects. We all know the importance of working with objects in PowerShell. Hopefully, you also know that the output you get on your screen from running a PowerShell command is not the whole story. Formatted presentation…
Best Practices Make Perfect
This post is a reprint from an article published to my premium PowerShell newsletter Behind the PowerShell Pipeline available on Substack. Subscribers receive 6-8 articles like this a month delivered to their inbox or available on the Substack app. I hope you’ll consider subscribing. Trial subscriptions are available. Over the course of the last several…
Friday Fun: PowerShell Scripting with ChatGPT
I have been trying out the latest AI, ChatGPT. I’ve asked it silly questions. As well as the really important questions. But what I find most fascinating is using ChatGPT to write PowerShell code. I gave the AI this instruction: “Write a PowerShell function that will display “Hello, World” in the center of the screen…
Organizing Chaos with PSWorkItems and PowerShell
I spend my working days living in a PowerShell console. Over the years, I’ve developed many PowerShell modules to help me manage the chaos that is my work life. One area that always demands attention is managing my tasks and To-Dos. For several years I have been using the MyTasks module. This module stored tasks…
The Value of Objects
This is a reprint of an article published earlier this year in my premium PowerShell newsletter, Behind the PowerShell Pipeline. This is a sample of what my subscribers get 6-8 times a month. I expect I will write several articles about PowerShell and its relationship with objects. I know that this is the biggest hurdle…
Using PowerShell Your Way
I’ve often told people that I spend my day in a PowerShell prompt. I run almost my entire day with PowerShell. I’ve shared many of the tools I use daily on Github. Today, I want to share another way I have PowerShell work the way I need it, with minimal effort. This specific task centers…
Better PowerShell Properties
I was chatting with my friend Gladys Kravitz recently about some PowerShell scripting she was doing with Active Directory and the DirectorySearcher object. For a number of reasons, the Active Directory module from Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) is not an option. But that’s fine. Gladys is an experience AD admin and PowerShell scripter. Still,…
An Iron Scripter Warm-Up Solution
We just wrapped up the 2022 edition of the PowerShell+DevOps Global Summit. It was terrific to be with passionate PowerShell professionals again. The culmination of the event is the Iron Scripter Challenge. You can learn more about this year’s event and winner here. But there is more to the Iron Scripter than this event. Throughout…
Introducing PSProjectStatus
I write a lot of PowerShell modules. And probably like you, I am working on more than one project at a time. I was finding it difficult to keep track of what I was working on and what I might be neglecting. So I turned to PowerShell and created a tool that I use to…
I SID You Not!
As usually happens during my day, I get sidetracked to another issue, and before you know it, I have a new PowerShell tool. In this instance, I was looking at event logs using Get-WinEvent. One of the event record properties is a UserID. That’s very nice, but who is this? In this particular instance, the…
Metric Meta PowerShell Scripting
I was fiddling around with PowerShell the other day. I spend my day in front of a PowerShell prompt and am always looking for ways to solve problems or answer questions without taking my hands off the keyboard. For some reason, I started thinking about metric conversions. How many feet are 50 meters? How many…