How to use the Secret modules

October 25, 2021 Oct 25, 2021 10/25/21
@DoctorDNS
Q: I have a bunch of scripts we use in production that make use of Windows credentials. In some cases, these scripts have an actual password in plain text, while others read the password from an XML file. Is there a better way? A: Scripts with high-privilege account passwords in plain text is not a good idea. There are several methods you can...

A closer look at the Crescendo configuration

October 14, 2021 Oct 14, 2021 10/14/21
Sean Wheeler
In my previous post, I looked at the details of a Crescendo output handler from my VssAdmin module. In this post, I explain the details of a cmdlet definition in the Crescendo JSON configuration file. The purpose of the configuration The structure for the interface of a cmdlet is a reasonably predictable thing. The pattern of the ...

A closer look at the parsing code of a Crescendo output handler

October 11, 2021 Oct 11, 2021 10/11/21
Sean Wheeler
In my previous post, I showed you how to parse the output from the netstat command. The output of netstat is not very complex. The goal of the post was to introduce some parsing strategies that you can use to create a full Crescendo module. In this post, I explain the details of a more complex parsing function that I created for my VssAdmin ...

Converting string output to objects

October 4, 2021 Oct 4, 2021 10/4/21
Sean Wheeler
In my previous post, I talked about using Crescendo to create a PowerShell module for the vssadmin.exe command in Windows. As I explained, you have to write Output Handler code that parses the output of the command you are using. But if you never written a parser like this, where do you start? In this post I show you how to parse the output ...

Understanding Get-ACL and AD Drive Output

September 30, 2021 Sep 30, 2021 09/30/21
Faris Malaeb
Understanding Active Directory ACL using PowerShell can be a bit tricky. There are no out-of-the-box cmdlets with ActiveDirectory PowerShell module to help in settings the permission quickly. While there are no cmdlets, you can nevertheless manage AD permissions using the AD PowerShell drive. In this post, I will try to simplify Active ...

My Crescendo journey

September 27, 2021 Sep 27, 2021 09/27/21
Sean Wheeler
In a recent PowerShell Users Group meeting I was thinking that it might be good to talk about the new Crescendo module and how to use it. I was going to ask Jason Helmick if he would do a presentation for us. Then, in an unrelated conversation, someone mentioned using vssadmin.exe for some project. This got me thinking: vssadmin is a perfect ...

How to Make Use Of PowerShell Profile Files

September 21, 2021 Sep 21, 2021 09/21/21
@DoctorDNS
Q: I would like to personalize the way that PowerShell works. I have heard that I can use a thing called a profile to do this, but when I try to find information about profiles, I come up blank. There is no New-Profile cmdlet, so I do not see how to create such a thing. Can you help me, please? A: Profiles are a powerful part of PowerShell ...

How can I be notified any time a service goes down?

August 10, 2021 Aug 10, 2021 08/10/21
Faris Malaeb
Q: How can I be notified any time a service goes down? A: The short quick answer to utilizing WMI and PowerShell 7. You use PowerShell to create temporary event monitoring using WMI. Then WMI monitors any service changes and generates an alert once it detects a change. Basic Requirement To achieve this, you need Windows ...

How to Update or Add a Registry Key Value with PowerShell

July 30, 2021 Jul 30, 2021 07/30/21
@DoctorDNS
Q: I am having a problem trying to update the registry. I am using the New-ItemProperty cmdlet, but it fails if the registry key does not exist. I added the –Force parameter, but it still does not create the registry key. The error message says that it cannot find the path because it does not exist. Is there something I am not doing? I ...

How to Change the Start Page for the Edge Browser

June 21, 2021 Jun 21, 2021 06/21/21
@DoctorDNS
Q: How can I change the Edge startup page? A: You can change the start page easily using PowerShell. Edge and It's Start Page I am basing this article on the latest incarnation of the Edge browser, aka Edge Chromium. The settings in this article seem to work fine on the latest versions of Windows 10 and Server 2022. Other browsers can have ...