Show Active Directory colored computerlist

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 Randy van de LaakWebsite status

This is a way to display all computer objects in Active Directory of the type “Server”. If the server is reachable, then display the name in green, otherwise red.

Get-ADComputer -filter 'OperatingSystem -like "*Server*"' -SearchBase 'dc=laakie,dc=local' | 
ForEach-Object {
  $rtn = Test-Connection -CN $_.dnshostname -Count 1 -BufferSize 16 -Quiet
  IF($rtn -match 'True') {write-host -ForegroundColor green $_.dnshostname}
  ELSE { Write-host -ForegroundColor red $_.dnshostname }
}

Get-ADComputer -filter 'OperatingSystem -like "*Server*"' -SearchBase 'dc=laakie,dc=local' |

ForEach-Object {

$rtn = Test-Connection -CN $_.dnshostname -Count 1 -BufferSize 16 -Quiet

IF($rtn -match 'True') {write-host -ForegroundColor green $_.dnshostname}

ELSE { Write-host -ForegroundColor red $_.dnshostname }

}

Backup Bitlocker key to Active Directory

November 21, 2017 Randy van de LaakPowerShell

If for some reason the Bitlocker key of your hard drive is missing in Active Directory, then you can execute the following commands to still backup the Bitlocker key.

# Select the drive that is encrypted with bitlocker
$drive = Get-BitLockerVolume | ?{$_.KeyProtector | ?{$_.KeyProtectorType -eq 'RecoveryPassword'}} | Select-Object -f 1

# Get the bitlocker key from the selected drive
$key = $drive | Select-Object -exp KeyProtector | ?{$_.KeyProtectorType -eq 'RecoveryPassword'} | Select-Object -f 1

# Write the bitlocker key to the Active Directory
Backup-BitLockerKeyProtector $drive.MountPoint $key.KeyProtectorId

# Show message on screen when running manually
Write-Host "Backing up drive $drive, key $($key.KeyProtectorId), password $($key.RecoveryPassword)"

# Select the drive that is encrypted with bitlocker

$drive = Get-BitLockerVolume | ?{$_.KeyProtector | ?{$_.KeyProtectorType -eq 'RecoveryPassword'}} | Select-Object -f 1

# Get the bitlocker key from the selected drive

$key = $drive | Select-Object -exp KeyProtector | ?{$_.KeyProtectorType -eq 'RecoveryPassword'} | Select-Object -f 1

# Write the bitlocker key to the Active Directory

Backup-BitLockerKeyProtector $drive.MountPoint $key.KeyProtectorId

# Show message on screen when running manually

Write-Host "Backing up drive $drive, key $($key.KeyProtectorId), password $($key.RecoveryPassword)"

Mail overview of snapshots to owners

September 26, 2017September 26, 2017 Randy van de LaakPowerCLI

When you allow users to create and delete snapshots for Virtual Machines, it can become very time consuming reminding them of cleaning up their own snapshots in case they forgot to do it themselves. This script can help you out here by sending an email reminder to them for you. You can create a scheduled […]

Using PowerShell to read large logfiles

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 Randy van de LaakWebsite status

Sometimes logfiles can become very large and difficult to open. If you only need to see the end of the logfile, for instance the last 100 lines, then you can use PowerShell to show just these lines. In this example you can view the last 100 lines of the very large logfile called C:\Log\VeryLargeLogFile.log.

Get-Content C:\Log\VeryLargeLogFile.log -Tail 100

1	Get-Content C:\Log\VeryLargeLogFile.log -Tail 100

Using Powershell to extract archive files

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 Randy van de LaakPowerShell

Powershell can be used to extract archive files like .zip. The following example extracts a file called c:\archive.zip to the directory c:\extracted.

Expand-Archive c:\archive.zip -DestinationPath c:\extracted

1	Expand-Archive c:\archive.zip -DestinationPath c:\extracted

Extract icon from executable with PowerShell

September 12, 2017 Randy van de LaakPowerShell

PowerShell can be used to extract icons from executables. Here you’ll find a script that extracts the icons from all the executables in a given directory. In this example the script is saved as Get-Icon.ps1.

<#
.SYNOPSIS
Get-Icon extracts the icon image from an exe file
and saves it as a .ico file in the same directory as
the .exe file.

.DESCRIPTION
Get-Icon will run on every .exe file in the specified
directory by the folder PARAMETER then save a .ico file for
every .exe discovered.

.PARAMETER folder
The directory containing the .exe files.

.EXAMPLE
Get-Icon -folder c:\temp 
#>

[CmdletBinding()]

Param ( 
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,HelpMessage="Enter the location (directory) of the .EXE file")]
[string]$folder
)

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.Drawing')  | Out-Null

md $folder -ea 0 | Out-Null

dir $folder *.exe -ea 0 -rec |
    ForEach-Object { 
    $baseName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($_.FullName)
    Write-Progress "Extracting Icon" $basename
    [System.Drawing.Icon]::ExtractAssociatedIcon($_.FullName).ToBitmap().Save("$folder\$basename.ico")
}

.SYNOPSIS

Get-Icon extracts the icon image from an exe file

and saves it as a .ico file in the same directory as

the .exe file.

.DESCRIPTION

Get-Icon will run on every .exe file in the specified

directory by the folder PARAMETER then save a .ico file for

every .exe discovered.

.PARAMETER folder

The directory containing the .exe files.

.EXAMPLE

Get-Icon -folder c:\temp

[CmdletBinding()]

Param (

[Parameter(Mandatory=$True,HelpMessage="Enter the location (directory) of the .EXE file")]

[string]$folder

)

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.Drawing') | Out-Null

md $folder -ea 0 | Out-Null

dir $folder *.exe -ea 0 -rec |

ForEach-Object {

$baseName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($_.FullName)

Write-Progress "Extracting Icon" $basename

[System.Drawing.Icon]::ExtractAssociatedIcon($_.FullName).ToBitmap().Save("$folder\$basename.ico")

}

Add Windows firewall rules via PowerShell

September 12, 2017September 12, 2017 Randy van de LaakPowerShell

You can use PowerShell to add rules to the Windows firewall. Here you can see an example of adding firewall rules for the application called Lego Mindstorms. This script allows all incoming UDP and TCP traffic to be sent to the executable MindstormsEV3.exe.

# First try to find out if there is already an existing firewall rule
try {
    Get-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3" -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-Host "Rule found"
}

catch [Exception] {
    # If something went wrong then let us know
    write-host $_.Exception.message

    New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3" -Description "LEGO_EV3_UDP_Exception" -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -Protocol UDP -Program "C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Software\LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition\MindstormsEV3.exe"
    New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3" -Description "LEGO_EV3_TCP_Exception" -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -Protocol TCP -Program "C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Software\LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition\MindstormsEV3.exe"
}

# First try to find out if there is already an existing firewall rule

try {

Get-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3" -ErrorAction Stop

Write-Host "Rule found"

}

catch [Exception] {

# If something went wrong then let us know

write-host $_.Exception.message

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3" -Description "LEGO_EV3_UDP_Exception" -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -Protocol UDP -Program "C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Software\LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition\MindstormsEV3.exe"

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3" -Description "LEGO_EV3_TCP_Exception" -Direction Inbound -Action Allow -Protocol TCP -Program "C:\Program Files (x86)\LEGO Software\LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition\MindstormsEV3.exe"

}

WiFi troubleshooting Windows 10

August 1, 2016August 3, 2016 Randy van de LaakWindows Tips & Tricks

Sometimes it can be difficult to find out what’s wrong with the WiFi connection on your computer. Windows 10 has a built in method to generate a WiFi report that can be used to find the cause of the problem. In Windows 10 you can create a WiFi report the following way. Open a command […]

Reboot remote computer via PowerShell

April 4, 2014April 4, 2014 Randy van de LaakPowerShell

Whenever you want to reboot a remote computer via PowerShell, you can execure the following command.

Restart-Computer -Computername remotecomputer.mydomain.com -Force

1	Restart-Computer -Computername remotecomputer.mydomain.com -Force

The -Force parameter is used in case a user is currently logged in to the remote computer.

RDP smart sizing

April 4, 2014April 4, 2014 Randy van de LaakWindows Tips & Tricks

Whenever you connect to a remote server via RDP, you will automatically get the last session’s resolution. When your own RDP resolution is higher than the last one, then the new RDP session resolution will increase to match your own resolution. However, when the last RDP session was created with a higher resolution, then you […]