Scripting Blog

A place to learn about PowerShell and share stories of automation

How Can I Determine the Executable File Corresponding to a Shortcut?

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine the executable file name corresponding to a .lnk shortcut file?-- AM Hey, DE. We’re glad you asked this question; unlike some questions we get (like, “How do I use a script to disable File and Print Sharing on my Windows 2000 computers?”), this happens to be one we have an answer for. As it ...

How Can I Return a List of All My Computers Except Those in a Specified OU?

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to get back a list of all the computers in my domain, except for the computers which are in our Test Lab OU. How do I do that?-- AM Hey, AM. This seems to be one of the hot new trends in the IT world: in the past two weeks we’ve gotten three similar emails, all involving administrators who want to exclude a ...

How Can I Assign a New UPN to All My Users?

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I assign a new UPN to all my users?-- CH Hey, CH. The UPN (or User Principal Name) provides an alternate way of logging on to a domain. Typically you log onto a domain by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete, typing in your user name, domain name, and password, and then pressing ENTER. With a UPN, you don’t enter separate ...

How Can I Determine the SID for a User Account?

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine the SID for a user account?-- MD Hey, MD. For those of you whose eyes glaze over any time they see an acronym (not that we blame you), SID is short for Security Identifier. A SID is a unique ID string (e.g., S-1-5-21-1454471165-1004336348-1606980848-5555) that is assigned to each account created in a ...

How Can I Prevent a Local User From Changing His or Her Password?

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I configure a local user account so that the user can’t change his or her password?-- DC Hey, DC. The secret here lies in the mysterious userFlags attribute. We’ll show you how to set a user account so that the user can’t change his or her password, then we’ll fill you in on some of the other local user ...