Borrowing a built-in PowerShell command to create a temporary folder

Sean Kearney April 21, 2021 Apr 21, 2021 04/21/21

Q: Hey I have a question for you. It seems silly and I know I could probably put something together with Get-Random. But can you think of another way to create a temporary folder with a random name in PowerShell? Ideally, I'd like it to be in a user's own "Temporary Folder" is possible. A: We sure can! If Doctor Scripto was sitting here ...

Is a User a Local Administrator?

@DoctorDNS April 15, 2021 Apr 15, 2021 04/15/21

Q: Some of the things we do in our logon scripts require the user to be a local administrator. How can the script tell if the user is a local administrator or not, using PowerShell 7. A: Easy using PowerShell 7 and the LocalAccounts module Local Users and Groups The simple answer is of course, easily. And since you ask, with PowerShell 7! ...

Testing the connection to computers in the Active Directory

@DoctorDNS April 2, 2021 Apr 2, 2021 04/2/21

Q: As an administrator, I often have to do a lot of reporting on the servers in my domain. Is there a simple way to test the connection to every server in my domain or every server or client host in a specific OU? A: Of course you can do this with PowerShell! You can use the Active Directory cmdlets and Test-Connection, although it is not as ...

Can I Enable the Caps Lock Key?

@DoctorDNS March 24, 2021 Mar 24, 2021 03/24/21

Q: I have a script where users enter some information. This information needs to be entered in all capital letters, so my instructions say, “Please make sure the Caps Lock key is on before entering the information.” They don’t always do that, however. Is there a way to turn the Caps Lock key on and off using a script? A: I don't know ...

A Reusable File System Event Watcher for PowerShell

Wolfgang Groß March 18, 2021 Mar 18, 2021 03/18/21

FSWatcherEngineEvent module provides events of file system changes as powershell engine event

Determine if a folder exists

Fabian Baumanis March 13, 2021 Mar 13, 2021 03/13/21

Q: Is there any way to determine whether or not a specific folder exists on a computer? A: There are loads of ways you can do this. The Test-Path Cmdlet The easiest way to do this is to use the Test-Path cmdlet. It looks for a given path and returns True if it exists, otherwise it returns False. You could evaluate the result of the Test-Path...

Reading a text file bottom up

@DoctorDNS March 5, 2021 Mar 5, 2021 03/5/21

Q: I have a log file in which new data is appended to the end of the file. That means the most recent entries are at the end of the file. I’d like to be able to read the file starting with the last line and then ending with the first line, but I can’t figure out how to do that. A: There are loads of ways you can do this. A simple way is ...

Lightning Fast and Easy Provisioning of Git with SSH Key Authentication on Windows

DarwinJS March 1, 2021 Mar 1, 2021 03/1/21

Maybe you have a team of Windows developers that are onboarding for your new Git server installation or maybe you've decided to drop http password authentication to your existing Git server (due to it's many problems). Your next steps may well be into a rough and rocky rabbit hole when you were holding out hope for simplicity (you know the ...

Leveraging XML with New Employee PowerShell Scripts

Sam Turner February 27, 2021 Feb 27, 2021 02/27/21

using XML referencing to bolster up your new employee scripts with information.

Getting Yesterday’s Date

@DoctorDNS February 26, 2021 Feb 26, 2021 02/26/21

Q: How can I get yesterday's date? A: You can use a combination of the Get-Date cmdlet and .NET Time/Date methods. First, let's look at dates in PowerShell and .NET Then we can look at how to calculate yesterday and use that in your scripts. Dates in PowerShell Let's start by looking at how you can deal with dates and times. As you ...