Skip to main content

Useful PowerShell Commands

Placeholder

Select-String is the Grep equivalent

Examples:

# Searching for multiple patterns at the same time
Select-String -Path "*.txt" -Pattern "Pattern1","Pattern2","Pattern3"

# Only return the first 10 results
Select-String -Path "*.txt" -Pattern "Pattern1","Pattern2","Pattern3" | Select-Object -First 10

# Searching for IP addresses
Select-String -Path "*.log" -Pattern '\b\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\b' | Select-Object -First 10

Uptime

 The script below will give you the uptime in any version of PowerShell.

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | Select LastBootUpTime

The Get-Uptime cmdlet was introduced in PowerShell 6.0.

Get-Uptime

Format processes by start date

This command will show a lot of errors if you're not running PowerShell as Administrator.

Get-Process | Sort-Object StartTime | Format-Table -View StartTime

Active Directory Account Information

This command will show you the date of the last password set for a user.

Get-ADUser -Identity [USERNAME] -properties * | select accountexpirationdate, accountexpires, accountlockouttime, badlogoncount, padpwdcount, lastbadpasswordattempt, lastlogondate, lockedout, passwordexpired, passwordlastset, pwdlastset | format-list

Sources:
PowerShell Format-Table

Active Directory Account Password Expiration

The old way:

net use userName /domain

The PowerShell way:

Get-ADUser -identity userName –Properties "DisplayName", "msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed" |
Select-Object -Property "Displayname",@{Name="ExpiryDate";Expression={[datetime]::FromFileTime($_."msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed")}}

Active Directory OU Account Password Expiration

Get-ADUser -filter * -SearchBase "OU=Management,OU=ADPRO Users,DC=ad,DC=activedirectorypro,DC=com" –Properties "DisplayName", "msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed" | Select-Object -Property "Displayname",@{Name="ExpiryDate";Expression={[datetime]::FromFileTime($_."msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed")}}

View physical network interfaces

# Show all physical devices
Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Sort-Object -Property MediaType,Name | Format-Table ifIndex,MediaType,InterfaceMetric,Name,InterfaceDescription,Status,MacAddress,LinkSpeed

Get interface metrics

# IPv4 - Display interfaces sorted by metric and alias
Get-NetIPInterface -AddressFamily IPv4 | Sort InterfaceMetric,InterfaceAlias

# IPv6 - Display interfaces sorted by metric and alias
Get-NetIPInterface -AddressFamily IPv6 | Sort InterfaceMetric,InterfaceAlias

# All - Display interfaces sorted by metric and alias
Get-NetIPInterface | Sort InterfaceMetric,InterfaceAlias

Set interface metrics

The following commands will set Ethernet interfaces to be preferred over wireless interfaces by manipulating the InterfaceMetric of each device. If there are more than one Ethernet and/or Wireless interface on the machine, you may want to adjust these metrics further to provide a more detailed use order.

Ethernet first, then wireless:

# Set Ethernet devices interface metric to 11
Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Where {$_.MediaType -eq "802.3"} | Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceMetric 11

# Set Wireless devices interface metric to 12
Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Where {$_.MediaType -eq "Native 802.11"} | Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceMetric 12

Wireless first, then Ethernet:

# Set Wireless devices interface metric to 12
Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Where {$_.MediaType -eq "Native 802.11"} | Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceMetric 12

# Set Ethernet devices interface metric to 11
Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Where {$_.MediaType -eq "802.3"} | Set-NetIPInterface -InterfaceMetric 13


Is your Office installation 32 or 64 bit?

# .platform value will be either x86 for 32-bit or x64 for 64-bit
$officeCheck = (Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration").platform

if ($officeCheck -eq 'x64'){
    Write-Output "Office is 64 bit."
}
else {
    Write-Output "Office is 32 bit."
}

Exporting Event Logs using Out-HTMLView

You can use the Out-HTMLView module to view or save and view later.

$executionPolicy = Get-ExecutionPolicy
#Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Force
Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force

try { Import-Module -Name PSWriteHTML }
catch {
  Install-Module -Name PSWriteHTML
  Import-Module -Name PSWriteHTML
}  

$lastHours = -4
$timeStamp = (Get-Date).ToString('yyyyMMdd_HHmmss')
$systemEventLogFile = ("$($env:TEMP)\$($timeStamp)_eventlogs_system_Out-HTMLView.html")
$applicationEventLogFile = ("$($env:TEMP)\$($timeStamp)_eventlogs_system_Out-HTMLView.html")


Get-EventLog -LogName System -After (Get-Date).AddHours($lastHours) | Out-HTMLView -FilePath $systemEventLogFile
Get-EventLog -LogName Application -After (Get-Date).AddHours($lastHours) | Out-HTMLView -FilePath $applicationEventLogFile

Write-Host ("Event Logs for the last $($lastHours) hours saved to the following files:")
Write-Host ("$($systemEventLogFile)")
Write-Host ("$($applicationEventLogFile)")

#end

List installed Windows Features

 

CPU utilization

Source

Get-Counter -ComputerName localhost '\Process(*)\% Processor Time' `
    | Select-Object -ExpandProperty countersamples `
    | Select-Object -Property instancename, cookedvalue `
    | Sort-Object -Property cookedvalue -Descending | Select-Object -First 20 `
    | ft InstanceName,@{L='CPU';E={($_.Cookedvalue/100).toString('P')}} -AutoSize

 

Back to top