Find Recycle Bin location and clear down with Powershell

Question: I use Powershell extensively to manage SQL Server and the Windows OS. A common problem is to identify location of the Windows Recycle Bin and clear the contents down - particuarly if there is a space issue. How can I locate the Windows Recycle Bin and clear it down? Answer: This Powershell code will iterate through every local drive and identify if a Recycle Bin exists, and display the location. It's handy to iterate through all drives as the RecycleBin can be located on multiple drives . Typically - it's a hidden file so they can be configured across... Read more →

How to secure Powershell

I use Powershell extensively in supporting SQL Server & other applications .Powershell is a significant component of the Windows operating system. I won't go into detail but there is also the progress of Powershell Core - which is the multiplatform option Recently there has been rising concern about fileless malware access exploiting Powershell . There are significant benefits in exploiting Powershell - one of the main reason being that Powershell allows a deep access to Windows core. The very aspect of Powershell which makes it so valuable and effective in managing SQL Server and other Windows services also potentially opens... Read more →

How To Check SQL Windows Services Stopped Time And Who Stopped with powerhsell

Question: I want to create a report using Powershell where the Stop & Start times of SQL Server related windows services are reported. As well as the username (if available) Answer: The Powerhsell Get-EventLog cmdlet is one method to get these results. There are other ways - but the flexibility for piping and access to the logs is far more effective. This example will return a Grid view with 3 columns : message , timegenerated, user, with a filter on the keyword "SQL" get-eventlog -source "Service Control manager" -LogName System | select-object message,timegenerated,user|Where-Object{$_.message -like "*SQL*"}| Out-GridView This is the sort... Read more →

How to extract Active Directory users with Get-ADGroup and Get-ADGroupMember

Question: I have a large list of Active Directory Groups and would like to extract the users from these Active Directory Groups. How can I script to iterate through a large list of Active Directory Group and list users using Powershell? Answer: Powershell has a very effective set of Active Directory modules. Within the set of AD modules , it is possible to achieve listing AD group members , group per group , combining Powershell Get-ADGroup and Get-ADGroupMember The basic flow is to extract the AD groups - place them into a DataTable and then iterate through the DataTable rows... Read more →

How to get all Domain Controllers in Active Directory Forest with Powershell

Question: I need to configure some applications to use some Domain Controllers . To establish the address - I need to list the Domain Controllers within the Active Directory Forest. Is there a method in Powershell to create a list of Domain Controllers ? Answer: Powershell has a flexible group of Powershell cmdlets to get information about the Active Directory . Combining Get-ADForest and Get-ADDomainController will create a recordset Here is a sample code snippet : (Get-ADForest).Domains | % { Get-ADDomainController -Discover -DomainName $_ } | % { Get-ADDomainController -server $_.Name -filter * } | Select Name, Domain, Forest, IPv4Address,... Read more →