SAPIEN Solutions

These are my conference demos from WinConnections Orlando 2008. My sessions were all on PowerShell: Managing Active Directory with PowerShell Managing Servers and Desktops with PowerShell and WMI Powershell and Windows Server 2008 Read the examples thoroughly and test in a non-production environment. If you have questions, please post in…   More »

We've long been advocates of outputting objects, rather than text, and of keeping individual functions very single-task-specific. Here's an ultimate example of these two philosophies: The first function, Get-DriveInventory, emits custom "drive inventory objects" rather than text. The second, Write-DriveInventory, takes these objects and writes their properties to a pre-designed…   More »

This are examples from Don's "Pass Your Next Audit By Using Windows PowerShell" session. They're also great examples of how to use filtering functions and custom objects to produce flexible, customized output with Windows PowerShell. Auditing with PowerShell Examples  …   More »

There's recently been a big discussion on the PowerShell MVP mailing list about Select-Object and its -first parameter, which instructs it to only keep the first "x" objects it's given. The discussion basically goes like this: 1..10000 | select -first 10 In this, a collection of objects numbering 1 to…   More »

 First you'll need a code-signing certificate. If you purchase one, you'll be looking for a "Class III" digital certificate of the "Microsoft Authenticode" variety. This will often come in two parts: An SPC file, which is the Software Publishing Certificate, and a PVK file, which is the corresponding private key.…   More »

 This script assumes you have a text file listing one name per line - could be a computer name or a user name. In the example, which uses WMI, it's a computer name, and the script performs the same operation against each name. There are actually simpler ways, or at…   More »

This is a trick I've used a lot in VBScript - writing debug messages to a browser window. It isn't necessary if you use an editor like PrimalScript, which redirects Write-Debug output to another pane for you. But if you're working in Notepad or something, this can be a good…   More »

 Here's an example of using PowerShell to connect to WMI on a remote computer using alternate credentials. Keep in mind that WMI itself doesn't permit alternate credentials for local connections.   # # ScriptingAnswers.com Essentials # copyright 2006 SAPIEN Technologies, Inc. # # Using alternate credentials with WMI # #…   More »

 Although ADSI Scripting: TFM has a more complete cross-reference, this one's online and free: It shows the basic dialog boxes for AD Users & Computers, and provides the attribute name underneath the various text boxes and check boxes. So if you know how to change something in the GUI, this…   More »