One of the systems administration hurdles of the post-Vista world is figuring out how to make a script run as an administrator. In PowerShell V2, using the Start-Process cmdlet, this is a one liner that will get the job done: Start-Process "$psHome...

With the recent changes in v2 to increase the visibility of the cmdlet design guidelines , we want to make sure we have a solid set of verbs on the approved verb list before we ship v2. We've already talked with a number of partners and customers and...

Jeffry Snover and many other have used Start-Demo in powershell.exe http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2007/03/03/start-demo-help-doing-demos-using-powershell.aspx Continuing the tradition, we now have ISEDemo.psm1 To use it, start ISE and...

I just got a ping on our internal discussion list about how to get at the Performance counters in PowerShell.  In V2, we've got some nifty cmdlets to help read performance counters. Here are a few of quick one liners to get you started: # List all...

ISE has an F1 help feature, where if you press F1 when your caret is over a cmdlet name, context sensitive help opens. Shay Levy has a nice post on F1 help in the ISE here http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/scriptfanatic/archive/2009/01/31/using-help...

If you’re a PowerShell fan, and in the Seattle area, then you should know that Andy Schneider (of Get-PowerShell.com ) will be hosting a Script Club event at the Avanade offices. Script Club is a great way to learn PowerShell.  Ideally, you bring...

Here is a collection of differences between the PowerShell_ise.exe and PowerShell.exe, as well as workarounds and suggestion if you need them (assuming we have them :)) Limited support for interactive console apps, try cmd.exe, then try cmd.exe...

Microsoft is an awesome place to work on languages! Lang.Net is a great language conference that Microsoft holds every year.  We bring in people from all around the industry that are passionate about languages and then race through a set of topics...

Summary In PowerShell v1, we published a set of cmdlet design guidelines that included direction on how to properly name cmdlets. Throughout the v2 cycle, we've seen an increase in cmdlet authors deviating from the standards in unexpected ways. Our...

The features discussed in this blog post depend on PowerShell CTP3 release. Details about PowerShell CTP3 can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2008/12/23/early-christmas-present-from-powershell-team-community-technology-preview-3-ctp3...

The people over on WMI, WinRM, and BITS have started up a blog to share their systems management expertise with the world.  Check it out: http://blogs.msdn.com/wmi/ Here are some fun posts to get you started: Accessing WMI Data via WinRM Let’s Troubleshoot...

I recently read an email where someone was asking how they could check in their function if a value had been provided to one of the parameters. Consider for example, 001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 function foo { param ( $x ) #If...

The Network Location feature was introduced in Windows Vista. It provides an easy way to customize your firewall settings based on whether you trust or don’t trust the computers around you. There are three Network Location types - Private, Public and...

There are many ways to set a variable's value. I just learnt one more yesterday. If you have others, please add comments # Simple # $ gets the variable, and = will assign it $a = 1 # With Variable Scope # The prepend is the scope, and could be...

The other week, I showed a Get-ProgID function that I used to help someone at Microsoft Research find a good object to talk to images. A few comments jumped to one of the possible solutions, which is to use the .NET Drawing assembly (which I have to load...

Windows Server 2008 R2 doesn’t just add ADPowershell – it also adds Active Directory Administrative Center (or ADAC), a new GUI tool for AD administrators. Read about it on TechNet . What’s more, while you can’t tell just from looking at it, ADAC is implemented...

Have you ever created scriptblocks on the fly, say in a foreach loop, and they totally mess up because they all have the same value? This is something sort of advanced, and typically used when you’re proxying an object. The most basic example would...

With Add-Type and $executioncontext you can add special varibles that have tied values. I made $random, and $now add-type @" using System; using System.Management.Automation; public class RandomVariable : PSVariable { Random r; public RandomVariable...

The other day, a friend over in Microsoft Research wanted to figure out how to get out the width and height of an image in PowerShell.  There are many ways that you can approach this particular problem.  I knew three right off of the top of...

AD team has started a new blog for their PowerShell Cmdlets.. In their own words "We are here to answer any questions about AD Powershell, share some tips and tricks, discuss the history behind certain decisions and features and hear your feedback on...

Check it out:  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/de/snover/default.mspx One of the biggest Snoopy Dance moments of my life!   BTW - this is really a reflection of how important Microsoft views PowerShell. I'd love to say more but I've...

In cmd, listing files based on attributes was simple: only directories dir /a:d only files (no directories) dir /a:-d only hidden files dir /a:h In PowerShell, it’s not so easy: only directories dir ...

A couple months ago we asked our MVPs how they felt about reserving keywords in V2. We received some excellent but mixed feedback, so we’d like to open the discussion up a bit wider. There are keywords we hope to use in a future version of PowerShell...

It has been more than one year since we updated Out-GridView feature with you. In case you are not familiar with Out-GridView yet, it is a unique PowerShell cmdlet that users can pipe command output to a separate window, and it enables users organize...

Today someone in Xbox Live Operations (the folks that keep xBox Live alive and well) pinged me with a simple question about PowerShell with a complicated answer: “How do I create a class in PowerShell?” There’s two scenarios I find where...