How to specify encoding when creating Powershell text file using Out-file

Question: I've deployed a Powershell script - which includes a process to dump out a resultset to a csv file. I'm having an issue where the file is saved with encoding type Unicode - whereas I want the file to be saved as ANSI . This is a Powershell code snippet , using the Powershell cmdlet Out-File (some_input) | select * -ExcludeProperty RowError, RowState, HasErrors, Name, Table, ItemArray | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation | Select-Object -Skip 1| Out-File -filepath myoutputfile.txt When I open the file in Notepad - and attempt a Save As - the encoding displays as Unicode . How can... Read more →

How to execute a SQL batch multiple times with GO

Question: I'd like to execute a batch sql statement through SQL Server management studio multiple times and avoid using a loop statement or other similar constructs . I'm doing some testing requiring multiple returns of recordsets and would like a simple approach - for ad hoc queries Answer: Looking at the SQL Server documentation for the sql server utility GO - indicates the syntax is GO [count]. This means the queries triggered as part of the batch executed will execute the amount of times listed after GO. By default it's 1 , but if you specify a positive integer -... Read more →

How to get the Active Directory groups membership for user with Powershell

Question: How can I get the Active Directory groups for a specific user using Powershell? I'm facing a problem where a user is getting a failed login to a SQL Server. This SQL Server has multiple Active Directory groups attached to it - but I don't have visibility to the members of the groups. I know I can use the Get-ADGroupMember powershell cmdlet , which would give the member list of a specified Active Directory group, but this would be time - consuming . Is there a Powershell based method to specify the domain user and return the list of... Read more →

How to list Windows users with Powershell

Question: How can I use Powershell to list out Windows users? Are there Powershell cmdlets which can report on Windows users ? Answer: There are "out of the box" Powershell cmdlets which will support the requirement . How you apply the powershell cmdlets will depend on how much detail is required. Here are some examples: --return local groups Get-localgroup --return all members of a group - in this example the Administrator group Get-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" --Get the local users Get-Local User --SID of a local group (Get-Localgroup Administrators).SID These are some basic examples to extract Windows users information with Powershell.... Read more →

How to fix error - The database cannot be opened because it is version 852. This server supports version 706 and earlier

Question:A vendor sent me some detached MDF files from a SQL Server and asked me to attach. I attempted the ATTACH without a log file option and got this error The database 'mydb' cannot be opened because it is version 852. This server supports version 706 and earlier. A downgrade path is not supported. The error message details are obvious i.e attempt to attach a database with a version level higher than the current version of the current SQL Server. The SQL error message says the current server is version 706 and attempting to connect a database of version 852.... Read more →