Last time I showed how to format disks using the Win32_Volume CIM class. If you need to perform this activity on a Windows Server 2012/Windows 8 or later system you can use a couple of cmdlets from the Storage module
Get-Volume | where DriveLetter -ne ‘C’ | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -Confirm:$false –WhatIf
If you’ve not looked at the Storage module before there is a lot of useful cmdlets.
On a Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 system you can install the ServerManager module and use the Get-WindowsFeature cmdlet to discover the installed features. They can be managed with Install-WindowsFeature and Uninstall-WindowsFeature .
These cmdlets don’t exist on Windows 8/8.1
However the Dism (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) module can help out. The Dism module is mainly concerned with managing wim files and virtual disks for deployment scenarios but it also contains these cmdlets:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature
Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature
To discover the installed features
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online | Format-Table –AutoSize
The output looks like this
FeatureName State
———– —–
Microsoft-Hyper-V-All Enabled
Microsoft-Hyper-V-Tools-All Enabled
Microsoft-Hyper-V Enabled
Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-Clients Enabled
Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-PowerShell Enabled
Printing-Foundation-Features Enabled
Printing-Foundation-LPRPortMonitor Disabled
Printing-Foundation-LPDPrintService Disabled
Printing-Foundation-InternetPrinting-Client Enabled
etc
For all of these cmdlets use –Online to access the local machine rather than an image.
Individual features can be enabled or disabled
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName TelnetClient –Online
Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName TelnetClient –Online
Feature names are case sensitive.
Windows 7 shipped with PowerShell 2.0 installed. Windows 8 brought PowerShell 3.0 and Windows 8.1 brings PowerShell 4.0.
Windows 8 and 8.1 also have a lot of modules installed. This extra functionality widens PowerShell reach immensely – the networking modules alone are a significant step forward.
When you install PowerShell 3.0 or 4.0 on Windows 7 you don’t most of the new modules. This has puzzled many people and I’m often asked how those Windows 8/8.1 modules can be made available on Windows 7.
The short answer is that you can’t.
The long answer is that you can’t because, for the most part, those modules are based on CIM (WMI) classes that were introduced in Windows 8 or 8.1. A lot of the system management functionality you see in modern Windows is based on CIM classes that then use the CDXML approach to create PowerShell modules.
Installing the new CIM classes on Windows 7 is not possible – so you can’t get the modules on which they are based.
If you want the new functionality you have to upgrade to Windows 8.1
I need to add an IP address to an adapter. I could use the GUI or WMI but with Windows 8/2012 and above I’ve got all of the nifty networking cmdlets to play with.
Lets start with finding the adapter to use
PS>Get-NetAdapter
will show all of the adapters. Unlike ipconfig it only shows real NICs – thats physical and virtual but not stuff like “Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface”
The one I’m interested in is
Name ifIndex Status
—- ——- ——
Connections 21 Up
You can find the IP addresses associated with this NIC
PS>Get-NetIPAddress -InterfaceIndex 21 -AddressFamily IPv4
IPAddress : 10.0.50.100
InterfaceIndex : 21
InterfaceAlias : Connections
AddressFamily : IPv4
Type : Unicast
PrefixLength : 24
PrefixOrigin : Manual
SuffixOrigin : Manual
AddressState : Preferred
ValidLifetime : Infinite ([TimeSpan]::MaxValue)
PreferredLifetime : Infinite ([TimeSpan]::MaxValue)
SkipAsSource : False
PolicyStore : ActiveStore
To add the IP address use:
New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceIndex 21 -AddressFamily IPv4 -IPAddress 10.0.18.100 -PrefixLength 24
Job done.
If you have to do this on a regular basis you can script finding the adapter and setting the IP address in one pass
The International module has an interesting set of cmdlets:
£> Get-Command -Module International | select Name
Name
—-
Get-WinAcceptLanguageFromLanguageListOptOut
Get-WinCultureFromLanguageListOptOut
Get-WinDefaultInputMethodOverride
Get-WinHomeLocation
Get-WinLanguageBarOption
Get-WinSystemLocale
Get-WinUILanguageOverride
Get-WinUserLanguageList
New-WinUserLanguageList
Set-Culture
Set-WinAcceptLanguageFromLanguageListOptOut
Set-WinCultureFromLanguageListOptOut
Set-WinDefaultInputMethodOverride
Set-WinHomeLocation
Set-WinLanguageBarOption
Set-WinSystemLocale
Set-WinUILanguageOverride
Set-WinUserLanguageList
£> Get-WinHomeLocation | fl *
GeoId : 242
HomeLocation : United Kingdom
£> Get-WinSystemLocale | fl *
Parent : en
LCID : 2057
KeyboardLayoutId : 2057
Name : en-GB
IetfLanguageTag : en-GB
DisplayName : English (United Kingdom)
NativeName : English (United Kingdom)
EnglishName : English (United Kingdom)
TwoLetterISOLanguageName : en
ThreeLetterISOLanguageName : eng
ThreeLetterWindowsLanguageName : ENG
CompareInfo : CompareInfo – en-GB
TextInfo : TextInfo – en-GB
IsNeutralCulture : False
CultureTypes : SpecificCultures, InstalledWin32Cultures, FrameworkCultures
NumberFormat : System.Globalization.NumberFormatInfo
DateTimeFormat : System.Globalization.DateTimeFormatInfo
Calendar : System.Globalization.GregorianCalendar
OptionalCalendars : {System.Globalization.GregorianCalendar, System.Globalization.GregorianCalendar}
UseUserOverride : True
IsReadOnly : False
Digging into the formats and calendars
£> Get-WinSystemLocale | select -ExpandProperty NumberFormat
CurrencyDecimalDigits : 2
CurrencyDecimalSeparator : .
IsReadOnly : False
CurrencyGroupSizes : {3}
NumberGroupSizes : {3}
PercentGroupSizes : {3}
CurrencyGroupSeparator : ,
CurrencySymbol : £
NaNSymbol : NaN
CurrencyNegativePattern : 1
NumberNegativePattern : 1
PercentPositivePattern : 1
PercentNegativePattern : 1
NegativeInfinitySymbol : -Infinity
NegativeSign : –
NumberDecimalDigits : 2
NumberDecimalSeparator : .
NumberGroupSeparator : ,
CurrencyPositivePattern : 0
PositiveInfinitySymbol : Infinity
PositiveSign : +
PercentDecimalDigits : 2
PercentDecimalSeparator : .
PercentGroupSeparator : ,
PercentSymbol : %
PerMilleSymbol : ‰
NativeDigits : {0, 1, 2, 3…}
DigitSubstitution : None
£> Get-WinSystemLocale | select -ExpandProperty DateTimeFormat
AMDesignator : AM
Calendar : System.Globalization.GregorianCalendar
DateSeparator : /
FirstDayOfWeek : Monday
CalendarWeekRule : FirstFourDayWeek
FullDateTimePattern : dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss
LongDatePattern : dd MMMM yyyy
LongTimePattern : HH:mm:ss
MonthDayPattern : d MMMM
PMDesignator : PM
RFC1123Pattern : ddd, dd MMM yyyy HH’:’mm’:’ss ‘GMT’
ShortDatePattern : dd/MM/yyyy
ShortTimePattern : HH:mm
SortableDateTimePattern : yyyy’-‘MM’-‘dd’T’HH’:’mm’:’ss
TimeSeparator : :
UniversalSortableDateTimePattern : yyyy’-‘MM’-‘dd HH’:’mm’:’ss’Z’
YearMonthPattern : MMMM yyyy
AbbreviatedDayNames : {Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed…}
ShortestDayNames : {Su, Mo, Tu, We…}
DayNames : {Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…}
AbbreviatedMonthNames : {Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr…}
MonthNames : {January, February, March, April…}
IsReadOnly : False
NativeCalendarName : Gregorian Calendar
AbbreviatedMonthGenitiveNames : {Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr…}
MonthGenitiveNames : {January, February, March, April…}
£> Get-WinSystemLocale | select -ExpandProperty OptionalCalendars
MinSupportedDateTime : 01/01/0001 00:00:00
MaxSupportedDateTime : 31/12/9999 23:59:59
AlgorithmType : SolarCalendar
CalendarType : Localized
Eras : {1}
TwoDigitYearMax : 2029
IsReadOnly : False
MinSupportedDateTime : 01/01/0001 00:00:00
MaxSupportedDateTime : 31/12/9999 23:59:59
AlgorithmType : SolarCalendar
CalendarType : USEnglish
Eras : {1}
TwoDigitYearMax : 2029
IsReadOnly : False
And finally the language(s)
£> Get-WinUserLanguageList
LanguageTag : en-GB
Autonym : English (United Kingdom)
EnglishName : English
LocalizedName : English (United Kingdom)
ScriptName : Latin script
InputMethodTips : {0809:00000809}
Spellchecking : True
Handwriting : False
Now you know where to go to find the cultural and locale settings are configured. The big question though is do you use the Set-* cmdlets in this module to modify these settings? My suspicion is no because you would to modify a large number of settings to achieve consistency. The cmdlets may be useful for tweaking settings for particular tasks.
Windows Error Reporting (WER) captures software crash and hang data from Windows systems. The data is sent to Microsoft for analysis. The data captured by WER is used to identify those bugs that are affecting customers the most. Fixing those bugs benefits the whole Windows user community.
WER is an optional configuration during the installation of Windows and some other Microsoft products.
How can you tell if WER is configured on your machines?
Windows 8/2012 has a PowerShell module for working with WER configuration.
£> Get-Command -Module WindowsErrorReporting | select Name
You can view the current WER configuration:
£> Get-WindowsErrorReporting
Enabled
You can disable WER:
£> Disable-WindowsErrorReporting
True
£> Get-WindowsErrorReporting
Disabled
And you can enable WER:
£> Enable-WindowsErrorReporting
True
£> Get-WindowsErrorReporting
Enabled
These cmdlets are only available on Windows 8/2012 and above. The module is labelled as a script module but it is actually loaded as a dll so its unlikely to be portable to legacy versions of Windows.
Can you find the network adapter on your machine that’s connected to the Internet? On a Windows 8/2012 machine its fairly simple:
PS> Get-NetConnectionProfile -IPv4Connectivity Internet
Name : NetworkName
InterfaceAlias : AdapterName
InterfaceIndex : 12
NetworkCategory : Private
IPv4Connectivity : Internet
IPv6Connectivity : LocalNetwork
What else can you discover?
The important information is the InterfaceIndex
Get-NetAdapter -InterfaceIndex 12
shows the NIC information such as name, MAC address and speed (similar to Win32_NetworkAdapter)
Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -Name name
shows buffer data
Get-NetAdapterStatistics -Name name
shows transmitted data
Get-NetIPConfiguration -InterfaceIndex 12
pulls the IP configuration
This just scratches the surface to the networking modules in Windows 8/2012
The modules are based on new WMI classes for the most part so you won’t find them on legacy operating systems even with WMF 3 loaded.
I’ve RDPing into a number of servers from different systems recently and the way the screen resolution changes to match your monitor size is annoying. If I use the shortcut to the session I get whatever sizes were set in the last session so often logon, curse when the size isn’t convenient and logoff and reset.
maybe I should just buy a giant monitor?
Last time we saw the Get-NetAdapter cmdlet from the NetAdapter module
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a
Name InterfaceDescription Status
—- ——————– ——
Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up
WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Up
If you look in the module you also find Disable-NetAdapter & Enable-NetAdapter
PS> Disable-NetAdapter -Name Wifi -Confirm:$false
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a
Name InterfaceDescription Status
—- ——————– ——
Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up
WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Disabled
PS> Enable-NetAdapter -Name Wifi -Confirm:$false
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a
Name InterfaceDescription Status
—- ——————– ——
Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up
WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Up
You can also enable/disable based on an Input Object, the alias (-ifalias) or the description (-InterfaceDescription)
PS> Get-NetAdapter -Name Wifi | Disable-NetAdapter -Confirm:$false
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a
Name InterfaceDescription Status
—- ——————– ——
Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up
WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Disabled
PS> Get-NetAdapter -Name Wifi | Enable-NetAdapter -Confirm:$false
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, Status -a
Name InterfaceDescription Status
—- ——————– ——
Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Up
WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter Up
What’s the alias?
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft Name, InterfaceDescription, ifAlias, InterfaceAlias -a
Name InterfaceDescription ifAlias InterfaceAlias
—- ——————– ——- ————–
Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Ethernet Ethernet
WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter WiFi WiFi
If you want to use these cmdlets against remote machines you can run them through a CIMsession
The WMI classes Win32_NetworkAdapter and Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration have seen a lot of use over the years. They can be a bit fiddly to use which is why the NetAdapter module in Windows 8/2012 is a so welcome.
Lets start by looking at basic information gathering
PS> Get-NetAdapter | ft -a
Name InterfaceDescription ifIndex Status MacAddress LinkSpeed
—- ——————– ——- —— ———- ———
Ethernet NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet 13 Up 00-1F-16-63-F5-DF 100 Mbps
WiFi Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter 12 Up 00-24-2B-2F-9C-A5 54 Mbps
We get the Name & description, status, MAC address and link speed as the default display. Contrast with Win32_NetworkAdapter for the same two interfaces
ServiceName : athr
MACAddress : 00:24:2B:2F:9C:A5
AdapterType : Ethernet 802.3
DeviceID : 10
Name : Qualcomm Atheros AR5007 802.11b/g WiFi Adapter
NetworkAddresses :
Speed : 54000000
ServiceName : NVNET
MACAddress : 00:1F:16:63:F5:DF
AdapterType : Ethernet 802.3
DeviceID : 11
Name : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
NetworkAddresses :
Speed : 100000000
Notice the ifIndex from Get-NetAdapter & DeviceId from Win32_NetworkAdapter. Two different numbers to identify the device.
What else can Get-NetAdapter tell us:
PS> Get-NetAdapter -Name Ethernet | fl *
ifAlias : Ethernet
InterfaceAlias : Ethernet
ifIndex : 13
ifDesc : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
ifName : Ethernet_7
DriverVersion : 73.3.0.0
LinkLayerAddress : 00-1F-16-63-F5-DF
MacAddress : 00-1F-16-63-F5-DF
Status : Up
LinkSpeed : 100 Mbps
MediaType : 802.3
PhysicalMediaType : 802.3
AdminStatus : Up
MediaConnectionState : Connected
DriverInformation : Driver Date 2010-03-04 Version 73.3.0.0 NDIS 6.20
DriverFileName : nvmf6232.sys
NdisVersion : 6.20
ifOperStatus : Up
Caption :
Description :
ElementName :
InstanceID : {188C370D-AD90-46F3-8AD2-0C10AFB6490C}
CommunicationStatus :
DetailedStatus :
HealthState :
InstallDate :
Name : Ethernet
OperatingStatus :
OperationalStatus :
PrimaryStatus :
StatusDescriptions :
AvailableRequestedStates :
EnabledDefault : 2
EnabledState : 5
OtherEnabledState :
RequestedState : 12
TimeOfLastStateChange :
TransitioningToState : 12
AdditionalAvailability :
Availability :
CreationClassName : MSFT_NetAdapter
DeviceID : {188C370D-AD90-46F3-8AD2-0C10AFB6490C}
ErrorCleared :
ErrorDescription :
IdentifyingDescriptions :
LastErrorCode :
MaxQuiesceTime :
OtherIdentifyingInfo :
PowerManagementCapabilities :
PowerManagementSupported :
PowerOnHours :
StatusInfo :
SystemCreationClassName : CIM_NetworkPort
SystemName : RSLAPTOP01
TotalPowerOnHours :
MaxSpeed :
OtherPortType :
PortType :
RequestedSpeed :
Speed : 100000000
UsageRestriction :
ActiveMaximumTransmissionUnit : 1500
AutoSense :
FullDuplex : True
LinkTechnology :
NetworkAddresses : {001F1663F5DF}
OtherLinkTechnology :
OtherNetworkPortType :
PermanentAddress : 001F1663F5DF
PortNumber : 0
SupportedMaximumTransmissionUnit :
AdminLocked : False
ComponentID : pci\ven_10de&dev_0760
ConnectorPresent : True
DeviceName : \Device\{188C370D-AD90-46F3-8AD2-0C10AFB6490C}
DeviceWakeUpEnable : False
DriverDate : 2010-03-04
DriverDateData : 129121344000000000
DriverDescription : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
DriverMajorNdisVersion : 6
DriverMinorNdisVersion : 20
DriverName : \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvmf6232.sys
DriverProvider : NVIDIA
DriverVersionString : 73.3.0.0
EndPointInterface : False
HardwareInterface : True
Hidden : False
HigherLayerInterfaceIndices : {26}
IMFilter : False
InterfaceAdminStatus : 1
InterfaceDescription : NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
InterfaceGuid : {188C370D-AD90-46F3-8AD2-0C10AFB6490C}
InterfaceIndex : 13
InterfaceName : Ethernet_7
InterfaceOperationalStatus : 1
InterfaceType : 6
iSCSIInterface : False
LowerLayerInterfaceIndices :
MajorDriverVersion : 73
MediaConnectState : 1
MediaDuplexState : 2
MinorDriverVersion : 30
MtuSize : 1500
NdisMedium : 0
NdisPhysicalMedium : 14
NetLuid : 1688849977704448
NetLuidIndex : 7
NotUserRemovable : False
OperationalStatusDownDefaultPortNotAuthenticated : False
OperationalStatusDownInterfacePaused : False
OperationalStatusDownLowPowerState : False
OperationalStatusDownMediaDisconnected : False
PnPDeviceID : PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0760&SUBSYS_360A103C&REV_A2\3&2411E6FE&0&50
PromiscuousMode : False
ReceiveLinkSpeed : 100000000
State : 2
TransmitLinkSpeed : 100000000
Virtual : False
VlanID :
WdmInterface : False
PSComputerName :
CimClass : ROOT/StandardCimv2:MSFT_NetAdapter
CimInstanceProperties : {Caption, Description, ElementName, InstanceID…}
CimSystemProperties : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties
Notice the CimClass property ROOT/StandardCimv2:MSFT_NetAdapter – this is one of the new WMI classes introduced in Windows 8. Does this class have any methods?
Get-CimClass -Namespace ROOT/StandardCimv2 -ClassName MSFT_NetAdapter | select -ExpandProperty CimClassMethods
Name
—-
RequestStateChange
SetPowerState
Reset
EnableDevice
OnlineDevice
QuiesceDevice
SaveProperties
RestoreProperties
Enable
Disable
Restart
Lock
Unlock
Rename
These will be investigated in other posts – maybe we get cmdlets to work with these as well