Richard Siddaway's Blog

Here’s how I’d solve the puzzle function get-starttime {     [CmdletBinding()]     param(         [parameter(                 ValueFromPipeline=$true,                 ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)]         [Alias(‘CN’, ‘Computer’)]         [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()]          [string[]]$computername = $env:COMPUTERNAME     )         PROCESS {             foreach ($computer in $computername){             $props = [ordered]@{                 ComputerName = $computer                 StartTime = ”                 ‘UpTime (Days)’ […]

PowerShell in Action, Third Edition is Manning’s Deal of the Day Sunday 31 January 2016   Deal of the Day January 31: Half off Windows PowerShell in Action, Third Edition. Use code dotd013116au at https://www.manning.com/books/windows-powershell-in-action-third-edition   PowerShell in Depth, Second Edition is also available as part of the deal   Deal of the Day January […]

I’ve used the ISE since it first appeared in PowerShell 2.0 but there are a couple of recent annocements that increase your code editing options   ISE previews will become available out of band rather than being tied to WMF/OS releases http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2016/01/20/introducing-the-windows-powershell-ise-preview.aspx   The preview ISE is a module you can download from the PowerShell […]

Get-ADUser has 2 filter parameters. The –Filter takes a PowerShell syntax filter e.g. Get-ADUser -Filter {Name -eq ‘Richard’} The –LDAPfilter takes an LDAP search filter e.g. Get-ADUser -LDAPFilter "(Name=Richard)" Mixing them up will ensure you don’t get the results you want

I received the new Windows Insider Windows 10 build over the wekend and have just discovered that installing it wiped out my IE favourites – or at least those in folders.   I’d copied my favourites to Microsoft Edge when installing Windows 10 so I can copy everything back   IE favourites are stored at […]

How do you find the FQDN of the machine you’re using.  The simplest way is to combine a couple of environmental variables: PS> "$env:COMPUTERNAME.$env:USERDNSDOMAIN" SERVER02.MANTICORE.ORG   If you like using CIM (and who doesn’t) you can try this PS> Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_ComputerSystem | >> select @{N=’FQDN’; E={"$($_.DNSHostName).$($_.Domain)"}} >> FQDN —- server02.Manticore.org   This could easily […]

I was recently asked about adding a filter parameter to a cmdlet created through CDXML. If you’ve not seen it before (see PowerShell and WMI Chapters 18 & 19 from www.manning.com) CDXML allows you to creat ecmdlets by wrapping a WMI class in some simple XML.   The resultaing CDXML (Cmdlet Definition XML) is thn […]

The WMF 4.0 Updates that were released in November 2014 for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are now available for: Windows Server 2012 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Windows 7 SP1   You need WMF 4.0 installed to install the update   Details from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2016/01/19/windows-management-framework-wmf-4-0-update-now-available-for-windows-server-2012-windows-server-2008-r2-sp1-and-windows-7-sp1.aspx

The PDC emaulator in the root domain of your AD forest should point to an external time source. For some odd reason the PDC emulator in my lab wasn’t doing that. Easily remedied: ## ## set external time source ## set server type to NTP Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters -Name Type -Value ‘NTP’ Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config […]

If you follow the PowerShell Team blog – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/ (and if you don’t you should) you’ll know that the WMF 5.0 RTM downloads were pulled just before Christmas. This was due to a bug that reset the module environment.   A comment on the blog – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2015/12/23/windows-management-framework-wmf-5-0-currently-removed-from-download-center.aspx – from the team indicates that it’s likely […]