In Active Directory (AD), the PasswordLastSet and pwdLastSet attributes refer to the same property of an AD object – the time and date when the password for that object was last changed. This attribute is used to enforce password policies and track when a password was last changed. This quick post helps you understand these... The post Understanding PasswordLastSet and PwdLastSet Using PowerShell appeared first on Faris Malaeb.

This week I got the news that my latest PowerShell book has been published and is available for order:You can order it today from all the usual places, including https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Windows-Server-Automation-PowerShell-Cookbook/dp/1804614238.This book updates earlier editions and covers, specifically, PowerShell 7.2 (as an LTS release) and Windows Server 2022. It should also be useful if you are using PowerShell 7 on earlier versions of Windows Server too.

I like using MarkDown to format text and Obsidian to save my notes, and sometimes you want to export the output from cmdlets or scripts for future reference. This blog post will show you how to easily save that output to a new or existing MarkDown file.

I think a lot of you use the SysInternals tools on your machine. They are great tools at your disposal and have helped me a lot! You can install it using the Microsoft Store method, it will be updated like that too, but for your management server, it's nice to have an installer that works without the Microsoft Store :) In this blog post, I will show you a way to install or update your SysInternals Suite.

ChatGPT API allows developers to integrate the capabilities of ChatGPT into their applications easily. OpenAI provides the ChatGPT API, which can be accessed via an API key. The API endpoint allows you to send a prompt and receive a generated response. With its ability to understand and develop human-like text, the ChatGPT API is a... The post Interact with ChatGPT API Using Postman or PowerShell appeared first on Faris Malaeb.

Unlike my last post, this one is a naked attempt to get clicks. See, today Google emailed me with a suggestion to try it's "experimental" content ideas, saying that I could "get inspiration for new content from Google" for a limited time only. I'm unclear on whether this is Google saying, "Blog about this and … Continue reading "What does $() mean in PowerShell?" The post What does $() mean in PowerShell? first appeared on Thinking aloud.

Retrieving objects in your scripts is something that you do regularly. It takes a long time to download and process in larger environments, wasting CPU and time. This blog post will explain how to speed up scripts by filtering server-side before downloading all results and filtering afterward.

They say there is a first time for everything. For me, it's how to download and upload files to Azure Blog Storage using Connection String. Recently I was given Connection String, Container name and had to download some files from Azur Blog Storage. After some research and trying Connect-AzAccount, I found that the proper way to go is thru New-AzStorageContext. The post Upload and Download files from Azure Blob Storage using Connection String appeared first on Evotec.

Should PowerShell devs worry about AI replacing them? The post Will ChatGPT replace PowerShell developers? first appeared on Thinking aloud.

Running PowerShell inside ChatGPT And the PowerShell Console Executing PowerShell inside ChatGPT displays its remarkable ability to comprehend and evaluate PowerShell commands for you. Chat #1 Act as a PowerShell REPL. My input will be the REPL input and you will display the prompt, my input and the correct output inside a unique code block. $a = 5 $b = 18 ($a, $b, ($a+$b), ($a-$b)) Chat #2 Act as a PowerShell REPL.

Why would Microsoft ship Windows PowerShell 5.1 on ARM? The post Windows PowerShell on ARM first appeared on Thinking aloud.

It's just a beautiful Friday 13th due to a Windows Defender update that removed shortcuts from many machines with Attack Surface Reduction enabled for Macros. (Work-around "Setdefender ASR rule 92e97fa1-2edf-4476-bdd6-9dd0b4dddc7b to audit only unit issue is resolved.") This blog post describes how you can recreate the missing shortcuts and deploy this using Intune or run it manually on the affected system(s).

Microsoft released a new security Update for Exchange in January 2023. Installation is the known process using same methods as former updates. One difference comparing former updates is that Exchange 2016 CU23 is exclusivly supported, so upgrade your old exchanges. Some information about the update can be found here. Download links can be found here: … Read more "Exchange SU January 2023 with PowerShell Serialization Payload Signing" Articel Exchange SU January 2023 with PowerShell Serialization Payload Signing available first on IT koehler blog.

This post is a reprint from an article published to my premium PowerShell newsletter Behind the PowerShell Pipeline available on Substack. Subscribers receive 6-8 articles like this a month delivered to their inbox or available on the Substack app. I hope you’ll consider subscribing. Trial subscriptions are available. Over the course of the last several...

Every script I write has variables in it, but there are different types of variables. This short blog post will show a few types you can use in your scripts.

My Parameter input is not recognized as a cmdlet in Azure Automation Nowadays, we roll out Azure and workplace features via a WebApp, such as Conditional Access or Privileged Identity Management for customers that need them. This speeds up the process of onboarding customers. We have adapted our WebApp in such a way that you … Continue reading FIX: Parameter input shown as not recognized as a cmdlet in Azure Automation The post FIX: Parameter input shown as not recognized as a cmdlet in Azure Automation appeared first on Bas Wijdenes.

Not all software comes with built-in update support or notifications. And even if it does, it takes time, and it's always a good idea to automate things, of course :) In this blog post, I will show you a short PowerShell function that will update your software if it's WinGet compatible. (More and more software is added to its database every week)

When I created ImagePlayground, I thought about how to show its usefulness to the general community. On how to deliver what PowerShell can do. Then I saw on some forum people asking BGInfo to expand and allow running PowerShell scripts so that the data on the BGInfo Wallpaper can be gathered from PowerShell rather than VBS. I thought this was a great idea to create BGInfo using PowerShell without the necessity of using BGInfo at all.

ImagePlayground is a PowerShell module that works in PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7+. It works partially on Linux and should work on macOS, except for charts. That means it's partially cross-platform, but the end goal is to make it work fully on all platforms. So what can this module do? The post Image Manipulation, Image Resize, Image Combine and more with PowerShell appeared first on Evotec.

Best wishes to you all, and have a great 2023!

PowerShell ScottPlot Uses Polyglot Interactive Notebooks to demonstrate the capabilities of ScottPlot via PowerShell. Repo: https://github.com/dfinke/PowerShellScottPlot Check out the video This walks through creating data visualizations with PowerShell and ScottPlot in the interactive notebook rendering visualizations inline. ScottPlot Is a free and open-source plotting library for .NET that makes it easy to interactively display large datasets.

It's almost the end of the year, and always a time to reflect on the year. In this blog post, I will list the blog posts that were read the most :)

Today the powershellisfun website reached 50.000 views! Did not expect it to grow that fast, on September 19th of this year it reached 25.000 views and so it doubled in almost three months! Thanks for all the comments and likes here and in the Tech Community forum, I like sharing things and helping out people with IT-related things :) At the end of this year, two weeks from now, I will put a list together of the most popular topics and posts of this year.

I have been trying out the latest AI, ChatGPT. I’ve asked it silly questions. As well as the really important questions. But what I find most fascinating is using ChatGPT to write PowerShell code. I gave the AI this instruction: “Write a PowerShell function that will display “Hello, World” in the center of the screen...

Social media has been a great asset to my career. It has helped me build new relationships, keep on top of trends in IT, and generally be that co-worker sitting across from me. I have worked from home for at least as long as I worked from an office. I often miss the social aspect...

Keep your PowerShell modules updated! We will do all of this with Azure Automation and PowerShell, you can also do this in a ci / cd pipeline, but that’s up to you. Disclaimer: Everything will be simplified, these are steps you can follow, but you must modify before it works in your own environment. What … Continue reading How to import a custom PS module in a VM or Azure Automation The post How to import a custom PS module in a VM or Azure Automation appeared first on Bas Wijdenes.

It's always nice to have some screen output while running scripts interactively, in this blog post I will show you a few ways to do that.

Do you know how to write a PowerShell script? If the answer is no, let me introduce you to your new friend OpenAI Chat GPT 3. OpenAI Chat GPT uses a human-spoken natural language to generate your desired code. So all you need to do is describe what you want your script to do, and... The post OpenAI Chat GPT 3 Can Write Your PowerShell Script appeared first on Faris Malaeb.

Mastodon In light of recent events with Twitter, you may have heard about a different micro-blogging site called Mastodon. It has been around for a few years, 2016 to be exact, so it’s definitely not new. And it’s technically not a site, as the heart and possibly the main draw of Mastodon is that it has multiple instances all run by individuals, typically not large corporations. Each instance can establish its own Code of Conduct and Terms of Services.

After 20+ years, and 5+ positions in education (K-12 and higher ed), I’ve taken a new position. It’s still Information Technology at the end of the day, but now I’ll be working in the healthcare industry. There’s plenty of reasons to be excited. One is that I’ll be better positioned to use my PowerShell and […] The post A Return to PowerShell appeared first on tommymaynard.

Azure Automation, Start-AutomationRunbook, parameters, & CliXml… I’m not going to explain what Clixml is, or what it means, nor am I going to explain exactly why this issue is happening (mainly because I don’t have a clear answer for you). I’ll give you the solution and a possible way to make this easier for you. … Continue reading How to fix ‘CliXml’ in parameter input Azure Automation The post How to fix ‘CliXml’ in parameter input Azure Automation appeared first on Bas Wijdenes.

The objective in this post is simply to use Terraform to deploy learning environments for VMware vSphere 7.x and 8 soon. To deploy VMware vSphere Lab with ESXI servers, a Vyos-based router that will serve as a DHCP server on both LANs and of course an internet access. For the DNS server I created an appliance based on PhotonOs and for the iSCSI Storage I used my TrueNas Core based appliance to make my iSCSI targets for my ESXI.

It’s not going to be a surprise that I’ve been working with Decentralized Identity over the last couple of years. A common thing I find myself doing is checking/debugging DID documents. Like many others I started with tools like the ION Network Explorer for the ION network and pasting in DID Web URLs into a browser.… keep reading The post Decentralized Identity Searcher PowerShell Module appeared first on darrenjrobinson - Bespoke Identity and Access Management Solutions.

I’ve just published v1.1.6 of the SailPoint IdentityNow PowerShell Module to both GitHub and the PowerShell Gallery. Release 1.1.6 of the SailPoint IdentityNow PowerShell Module is the result of updates by Sean McGovern, Yannick Beot, David Minnelli and myself.… keep reading The post Release 1.1.6 SailPoint IdentityNow PowerShell Module appeared first on darrenjrobinson - Bespoke Identity and Access Management Solutions.

Imagine never needing to worry about drivers during Windows Operating System deployment ever again. No need to manually download drivers. No need to maintain driver folders on your deployment shares. No need to update drivers whenever something breaks… The Problem Every Windows deployment environment seems to manage OS drivers differently. Whether it’s dumping every driver into a single folder in your deployment share, one driver folder per OS, or one driver folder per model, these all require manual maintenance of your deployment share.

Can’t we just use a logarithm? Objective Background Prerequisites The Script The Break Down We Kind of Need These It’s Strippin’ Time Trim the Fat Errors Will Be Errors Grab the Glue Conclusion Related Links Objective SCCM log files follow a standard schema that we can use to parse these log files for the data we’re interested in (timestamp, log data, etc.

Last year I released a PowerShell module called PSClock. The module contains a command to create a transparent WPF form displaying a clock. Shortly after, someone posted a request for a countdown timer. Not an unreasonable request and one I finally got around to implementing. However, I already had a module with a number of...

In this post I detail a module I’ve just published that is another of those I’ve done this before, but how do I find it again moments. Converting from Windows and Unix timestamps with PowerShell. A number of the PowerShell Modules I’ve published do contain the Unix timestamp conversion, but I couldn’t find Windows timestamp conversion as a function that I know I’ve previously written.

When you're using Office 365 and want to send an email, you have two choices SMTP or Microsoft Graph API, which is a "new" kid on the block. For some time, I've used Microsoft Graph exclusively to send emails in favor of SMTP as it's much easier to manage and generally works over HTTPS. If you type in google "Send email graph API PowerShell," you will get lots of hits as bloggers, and Microsoft has already covered this topic.

Words: 567 Time to read: ~ 3 minutes Skip This for Your Sanity I have created a module cause nobody wants to do timesheets no more; they want PowerShell to do it for ya. Well, if this is what you need, then this is what I’ll give ya. (Ahem, apologies about that, songs get stuck … Continue reading "Publishing PSTimeSheets To The PSGallery"

Approximately five years ago I rolled through a number of Identity and Access lifecycle management projects that used SAP SuccessFactors as the source of authority for user data. It isn’t uncommon to use a HRM solution to source identity data, but it is never a one way street.… keep reading The post Updating and setting primary attributes in SuccessFactors with PowerShell appeared first on darrenjrobinson - Bespoke Identity and Access Management Solutions.

Simple script to check your installed modules against the PSGallery

Some handy tips to add extra functionality to your PowerShell session

Introduction I published my first article here over 4 years ago. Well, not exactly here, but we’ll get to that in a few. It had been over a year since I published any article prior to the end of August. A myriad of reasons all claim a part of “why didn’t I”. Perhaps ironically (for a technical site), one of the reasons was purely technical. As discussed in an early article, How I Blog, this site is a generated static site powered by Jekyll.

Introduction About a week ago, I commented on a PowerShell forum post and the poster struck up a conversation in my DMs. He is starting his own PowerShell blog and wanted to ask me a few questions. (Insert self-deprecating comment here.) I thought that the questions and my responses may help provide some insight for others. 1. What is your writing process? Do you write on subjects you are currently learning about or want to research more? Sometimes the writing is the easy part.

Recently the Exchange Online Module v2 came out with support for connecting to Exchange Online via a managed identity. The module has several parameters: ManagedIdentity ManagedIdentityAccountId Organization When using the ManagedIdentity parameter you must also call the Organization parameter which is the initial, or ‘.onmicrosoft’ domain. What You Will Need PowerShell Az PowerShell Module (install-module az) The Microsoft Graph SDK (install-module Microsoft.

In this write-up I will be creating a basic off-boarding automation that uses SharePoint as the front end, and PowerShell, the Graph API, and Azure Runbooks as the back-end. HR will input the users UPN or Email, offboard date/time, and a forwarding address to forward email to. Once the off-boarding datetime is within 1hr the automation will check the user in Azure AD to ensure its valid, the forwarding user is valid in Azure AD, document in SharePoint the users e-mail address, any and all licenses, and all group memberships.

Tips and Tricks to improve your PowerShell experience

Okay, Microsoft Graph API is cool, but sometimes it’s boring to deal with all these hashtables and arrays. The Send-MgUserMail is a great graph cmdlet to send Emails using the Graph API endpoint. In a previous post, I explained the details and parameters for the Send-MgUserMail. Read more in Send-MgUserMail BodyParameter Explained. Going through the... The post PowerShell Script to Simplify Send-MgUserMail appeared first on Faris Malaeb.

Today I want to show a small function which just checks whether an user is member of a group or not. This may be helpful if you want to check user inside a azure ad powershell script. Normally the script (if all parameters are set correctly) the script return TRUE or FALSE. Whats the ability … Read more "AzureAD PowerShell Check if user is member of group" Articel AzureAD PowerShell Check if user is member of group available first on IT koehler blog.