Here are two quick functions which I have recently found useful. The first tests whether a user account exists. It takes the Domain and Identity as arguments. Using the “Stop” error action with Try/Catch keeps it from showing any errors. You can do this with any of the AD cmdlets, such as Get-ADOrganizationalUnit, Get-ADComputer and…
Author: Alan
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Outlook 2013 Contacts Don’t have People App Entries
Like most people, I find the Windows 8.x Apps to be mostly useless. But when I installed Office 365 / Outlook 2013 I did expect to see the data from the app appear in the address book. I was wrong. There is not way to use the information there as an address book. Some time…
Microsoft Updates on Windows 8.x
I sold my iPad and my laptop, using the proceeds to help me get a Surface Pro 3. I bought a subscription for our household to Office 365, because of my familiarity with the Microsoft Office suite of products. After the most recent suite of updates, I noticed that I have never gotten updates for…
Get IE Zone Information
Like most large enterprises, we use a group policies to manage Internet Explorer settings. We manage the security settings, and we enforce which sites are in Trusted Sites and the other internet zones. The user cannot change the list, or even view the list. This creates a problem for troubleshooting when a user has opened…
Skype and PowerShell – Toggle Mute, Export Participants
Updated September 2018. Note that this code works with Lync 2010 and Skype for Business, and that some of the scripts have been updated. I spend a lot of time in Skype (formerly Lync) conferences. There are two things about the Lync 2010 client which drove me nuts. The first is that there was no…
A Really Recursive Group Enumeration
Get-GroupHierarchy.ps1 gets a fully recursive listing of group membership. The script is based on a script by the same name posted at https://powershell.com/cs/forums/t/9588.aspx. I made a large number of changes to the original code. This script takes the SamAccountName of a group, such as Domain\MyGroupName, and then gives you all the members of the group. …
Reviewed Broken Links
I have reviewed my broken links. I updated them when I could, deleted some old posts, and removed the hyperlink for others. My oldest posts used Technorati for tagging, so you will see some Tag remarks at the bottom of some posts. I hope this leaves you with a lot less 404’s, but drop me…
Create Import file for Remote Desktop Connection Manager 2.7
Remote Desktop Connection Manager 2.7, “manages multiple remote desktop connections. It is useful for managing server labs or large server farms where you need regular access to each machine such as automated check-in systems and data centers. It is similar to the built-in MMC Remote Desktops snap-in, but more flexible.” If you have been disappointed…
Export PowerShell script output to Text with Out-Notepad
Out-Notepad.ps1 lets you redirect the output of a PowerShell command or script into Notepad. There are a couple of interesting things here. In Line 23, I use [System.IO.Path] to get a random file name. In line 34 I use [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction] to shell out to Notepad and wait for it to close before deleting the file….
Export DNS Server Records with PowerShell
I am frequently asked to export DNS records, such as, “Give me the list of A, MX and CName records in DNSZone1 and DNSZZone2”. Server 2012 has got some nice cmdlets, but I wanted something more universal with a GUI. Export-DNSEntries.ps1 uses a combination of Out-GridView and a custom from to allow you to pick…