Do you find the urge to just make things happen?   the Desire to launch a Powershell console and see where it will take you?

Do you occasionally find yourself singing out loud in the office about Powershell much to your coworkers dismay?

THEN THE 2012 SCRIPTING GAMES are for you!

Register now at http://2012sg.poshcode.org and see where your skills take you.     Judged by celebrity Powershell judges from the worldwide community and Microsoft, it is a chance for the Enthusiast to gain practice in real time scenarios.  It's the opportunity for the Specialist to stand up and shine amongst their peers.

It's a chance to haul out some bragging rights for some kick butt one liners!

Oh heck, just sign up and try, it's a great way to learn.

....Rumor has it there might even be fabulous PRIZES!

So register now at http://2011sg.poshcode.org for the 2012 Scripting Games.   Join us all together.

For in the 2012 Scripting Games... WE WILL SCRIPT IT!

Do you find the urge to just make things happen?   the Desire to launch a Powershell console and see where it will take you?

Do you occasionally find yourself singing out loud in the office about Powershell much to your coworkers dismay?

THEN THE 2012 SCRIPTING GAMES are for you!

Register now at http://2012sg.poshcode.org and see where your skills take you.     Judged by celebrity Powershell judges from the worldwide community and Microsoft, it is a chance for the Enthusiast to gain practice in real time scenarios.  It's the opportunity for the Specialist to stand up and shine amongst their peers.

It's a chance to haul out some bragging rights for some kick butt one liners!

Oh heck, just sign up and try, it's a great way to learn.

....Rumor has it there might even be fabulous PRIZES!

So register now at http://2011sg.poshcode.org for the 2012 Scripting Games.   Join us all together.

For in the 2012 Scripting Games... WE WILL SCRIPT IT!

And the summit began.   A normal flight after massive warnings of some crazy snow storm across Ontario I got lucky and NOTHING.  Yet my poor roommate Cory “SyntaxC4” got stuck with some Air Canada Hell for 28 hours.   Bummer.

First day in was Saturday and an opportunity for MVP’s worldwide to give back through www.geekgive.org .   Over 50+ people pulled together bagging food for Northwest Harvest in Seattle Washington.   The Passion and Energy flowed from them all in a massive stream.   7500 pounds of beans bagged in one hour.   All available product was done, and far faster than expected.

Then forward we had a gap in time where I spent the day learning about Seattle with fellow Powershell MVP’s Bartek Bierslawski, Shane Hoey and Azure MVP Cory Fowler.   We had an interesting tour of the lost underground city in Seattle, Washington after a run on the Monorail.    As a tribute to the coffee gods, we had to visit the original Starbucks in Pike’s Place Market of course.  (All praise the coffee gods…)

Then of course it all started to roll in,  the content the information the……. “RESPECT THE NDA! RESPECT THE NDA!” *klik*

A good part of this I cannot share, but I CAN share a few things I learned outside of technical stuff you’re not allowed to hear

Getting your friends together for a Karaoke session can be a great idea, perfect example of community.

The Highway to Powershell–Live at MVP Summit 2012–Dr. Scripto and the Cmdlets

Unlocked Cell Phones are a potential for Great amusement

When armed with large Brass Instruments Microsofties TRULY Release their passions and ROCK the Joint! (By the way, TROMBONES ROCK!)

At Microsoft they sell a PROPER size coffee cup!

…and bringing a group of people from different countries, religions, races and creeds can be one of the most inspirational events you will ever encounter

And of course NEVER EVER leave an unattended photobooth around with Powershell MVPs on the loose…

Yes…. Summit was a time to learn both technical know how and grow more as people and a community.   I will never forget the 2012 Summit for the rest of my days.  Thanks for the opportunity Microsoft.

Sean
The Energized Tech

I’m pretty certain of that.  I don’t claim to have mastered Regular Expressions.   But I had a simple need today.   Converting cases of words in Powershell.

In my case I had a list of data that was in ALL UPPERCASE and since that feels a bit like shouting I wanted to do something with it.

In Powershell we have many built in methods to manipulate string data.   There are three I’m going to play with today, toupper, tolower and substring.

For example if I have this string….

$Sonnet=“There once was a Canadian Nerd, WHO saNG like an OFFKEY Bird…”

I can switch all of the characters to lowercase by using this method

$Sonnet.tolower()

Which will give us the following output

there once was a canadian nerd, who sang like an offkey bird…

If I would like to make it look like I’m shouting so everybody in Texas can hear me I can switch it all to uppercase

$Sonnet.toupper()

Which (Cover your ears as I’ll now be shouting) looks like this.

THERE ONCE WAS A CANADIAN NERD, WHO SANG LIKE AN OFFKEY BIRD…

Sorry that was a bit loud.   But you can see switching cases is quite trivial.   But here’s the fun.  What if you have to ensure a word is just Capitalized?

For that bit of trickery we can leverage Powershell and the magic substring command.

First let’s take a look at this loud and abusive word.

$ScaryThing=“JABBERWOCKY”

If we’d to present our good friend with JUST the name capitalized, we can grab the first character with a substring, pop it into uppercase like so

$ScaryThing.substring(0,1).toupper()

J

The audience “Oooohs” and “Ahhhs” in the background.    Without knowing the length of the word, we can use substring to grab all characters from the second character to the end and switch to lowercase

$ScaryThing.substring(1).tolower()

abberwocky

….More gasping from the audience…

And so with a wave of my hand and the magic words “Snoopy Dance”

$ScaryThing.substring(0,1).toupper()+$Scarystring.substring(1)

Jabberwocky

Now our good friend will appear less frightening to the general public.  Of course I’m having a bit of fun here but I had a situation where I had a list of full names that were in all uppercase.   Yes it was my own fault, a bad accident between an auto user generator for a Demo environment and an overly caffeinated “toupper()” method (or a broken CAPSlock key, the details are fuzzy).  So in my case I had a perfectly good list of names like

Name
ANDRE GRANT
ALTHEA DOWNS
AUDRA HANEY
CHASITY MCMILLAN
CHASITY KENNEDY
CRYSTAL BURGESS
BRUCE SHEPPARD
CHRISTI MCINTYRE
CHERIE TERRY

Perfectly good, except they were all SHOUTING!

What to do? Just grab each name, split ‘em and use my new evil powers before creating their names in my demo system

$fl=$_.Name;$first=fl[0];$last=$fl[1];

$first=$first.substring(0,1)+$first.substring(1).tolower();$last=$last.substring(0,1)+$last.substring(1).tolower();

Ok, maybe it’s partially useful and the gods of Regex will probably smite me down, but I’m an ITPro.

Have mercy on me.

Sean
The Energized Tech

The Power of Shell is in YOU

The problem I stumbled across was starting the Hyper-V virtual machine up ended up with an “Access Denied” error almost every time.   The reason for this is simple.   Your VHD file does not have the correct permissions.

But how does one fix that?   It does inherit the folder permissions properly but the issue at hand is the VHD file is assigned a full access write to a SID.   That SID is specific to your Virtual machine and you will probably watch your brain explode.  Or you will go about chewing on your own socks for an answer.

The Cheat (and I stress “Cheat”) to this is to just grant the “Everyone” group full access to the file and…

Oh right…. That smells like a “Security Hole”.  Here, let me just do that to the rest of my files, it’s such a wonderful idea.

While the file is relatively isolated, granting the “Everyone” group access to a critical file is about as dumb as juggling a family of rabid skunks.

But the answer is easier than you think.  Use Powershell

Let’s say you’re looking a virtual machine folder with a file you need to replace (for whatever reason) and it contains the file “CDRIVE.VHD”.  If you need to overwrite CDRIVE.VHD with a restored copy AND retain the original permissions just Rename it and store the ACL’s presently applied to it in a Powershell variable using GET-ACL.

RENAME-ITEM CDRIVE.VHD OLDCDRIVE.VHD

$Permissions=GET-ACL OLDCDRIVE.VHD

Then restore the new file in place giving it the name of the original file.   To place the correct permissions on there, just execute

SET-ACL CDRIVE.VHD –aclobject $Permissions

Now your restored virtual machine will start without any complaints.

.. and you won’t be considered “Dumber than a bag of Hammers” by applying “Everyone” to a critical system file.

The Power of Shell is in YOU

Sean
The Energized Tech

Last time we took a quick look into making an RTF or “Rich Text Format” file from Powershell.  We discovered that all we need to get started is a header and some basic information for the start of the file as well as a Terminator at the end of all the text

So now the “challenge part”, making this into a useful script that could actual like a tiny Word Mail Merge.  

So in Windows Powershell we all know that if you place a variable within a quoted string, it will expand internally.

$Name=”Ernie”
$SillyString=”Hello $Ernie”
WRITE-HOST $SillyString

This will produce the following output

Hello Ernie

Knowing this feature is something we can leverage within Windows Powershell and create a simple Mail Merge type script.   In our case, I would actually like to produce an RTF document where I can substitute the needed data and produce the new document.   Just where am I going with this?  WATCH

First let’s get the script started.  A simple script prompting for a filename and we’ll supply some static variables to drop into the script.

param (
[string]$Filename,
)

# Static Variables

$Firstname=”John”
$Lastname=”Smith”
$Accountname="CONTOSO\\jsmith"
$Password="LousyPass123"

Now like before we’re going to define our header content for the RTF file.  I’ve made some additions.  You’ll note that each line ends with

`r`n

There are certain parts of an RTF that MUST end with a “Carriage Return / Line Feed” combination.   If you remember what a typewriter was and … (Oh oh! Just dated myself!)

Suffice it to say without embarrassing myself further that certain lines in the header MUST (and I mean MUST MUST MUST) end with a Carriage Return / LineFeed.   Also each line within your message must terminate with this sequence.

You’ll also note that rather than adding individual lines, I’m building a single string of content for the ADD-CONTENT Cmdlet

# Our RTF Header using a Consolas font

$Header+="{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\nouicompat\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Consolas;}}`r`n"
$Header+="{\*\generator Riched20 6.2.8102}\viewkind4\uc1 `r`n"
$Header+="\pard\sl276\slmult1\f0\fs22\lang9 \par`r`n"

As before, your paragraph for an RTF must end with “\par” and again each new line must also terminate with `r`n (Carriage Return / Linefeed) in the string.

$Message+="Hello $Firstname $Lastname and Welcome to ABC\par`r`n"
$Message+="Corporation.\par`r`n"
$Message+="\par`r`n"
$Message+="Your User ID is $Accountname\par`r`n"
$Message+="Your Temporary Password is $Password\par`r`n"
$Message+="\par`r`n"
$Message+="Do not share this information and remember,\par`r`n"
$Message+="We are watching....\par`r`n"
$Message+="`r`n"

And of course we add the footer

# And finally our footer to the RTF file

$Footer="}`r`n"

We need now add the variables together into a single string.

# Build the content together

$Content=$Header+$Message+$Footer

Now we’ll take this and place it into a single file, the name was provided by the $Filename parameter

ADD-CONTENT -path $Filename -value $Content –force

When you’re done you’ll end up with this simple script

param (
[string]$Filename,
)

# Static Variables

$Firstname=”John”
$Lastname=”Smith”
$Accountname="CONTOSO\\jsmith"
$Password="LousyPass123"

# Our RTF Header using a Consolas font

$Header+="{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\nouicompat\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Consolas;}}`r`n"
$Header+="{\*\generator Riched20 6.2.8102}\viewkind4\uc1 `r`n"
$Header+="\pard\sl276\slmult1\f0\fs22\lang9 \par`r`n"

# the Content of the message

$Message+="Hello $Firstname $Lastname and Welcome to ABC\par`r`n"
$Message+="Corporation.\par`r`n"
$Message+="\par`r`n"
$Message+="Your User ID is $Accountname\par`r`n"
$Message+="Your Temporary Password is $Password\par`r`n"
$Message+="\par`r`n"
$Message+="Do not share this information and remember,\par`r`n"
$Message+="We are watching....\par`r`n"
$Message+="`r`n"

$Footer="}`r`n"

# Build the content together

$Content=$Header+$Message+$Footer

ADD-CONTENT -path $Filename -value $Content –force

Run this script with a parameter of test123.rtf for the filename.

./NEWRTFFILE.PS1 –filename test123.rtf

Here is the exact document it will produce.

Hello John Smith and Welcome to ABC
Corporation.

Your User ID is CONTOSO\jsmith
Your Temporary Password is LousyPass123

Do not share this information and remember,
We are watching....

Can you picture using this in your organization now?  As you create new staff within Windows Powershell, a lovely letter to hand off to the manager.  Or perhaps you have a system that needs to generate reports?  Within Windows Powershell you can leverage a well recognized format like RTF to produce very GUI looking documents from with the native Windows Powershell environment.

You’ll also notice one other thing I did.  Take a look at the variable $Accountname

$Accountname=”CONTOSO\\jsmith”

Did you see the double backslash?  That’s intentional.  It is a part of the specifications for an RTF document.   Much like there are certain characters that require an “Escape” to be seen in Windows Powershell, certain characters like the backslash are important to the RTF interpreter and must be preceded by a backslash to be seen in the actual document.

Play with this and see what you can do with it.   I know what I’m doing at work tomorrow!

The Power of Shell is in YOU

Sean
The Energized Tech

When you do GET-HELP on some cmdlets, especially ones with a LARGE abundance of available parameters, they might appear a little daunting.

I used to do a little trick by copying the output under “SYNTAX” on the GET-HELP. I would then paste it into my favorite Word processor (Microsoft Word 2010 naturally) and do two quick Search/Replace operations to pull the lines together and then split based upon the display of the brackets “[]” in the display.

That little trick would give me a nice viewable and easy to understand list of the parameters available.

I am now more comfortable with sticking my fingers under the hood (and not getting burned or snipped by spinning Radiator fans) with Powershell and decided there HAD to (I mean with a big giant Heaping CAPITAL H) HAD TO be a Powershell way.

I played with the properties exposed from GET-HELP. I made the incorrect presumption the output was string. Then I forgot Rule 1 in Powershell.

“All output is an Object”

Turned out the Object in question had some interesting properties available, namely one called “SYNTAX”. On a whim, I wondered if the Syntax NoteProperty was the “How to use Powershell Syntax” from GET-HELP. So I popped it open

(GET-HELP GET-QADUSER).Syntax

“Jumpin’ June Bugs!” I screamed out. It was! So again another “GET-MEMBER” to see what this might yield.

(GET-HELP GET-QADUSER).Syntax | GET-MEMBER

“SyntaxItem” now…. but it was a NoteProperty. I wanted to see just what it would expose. So a quick “SELECT-OBJECT” out of my sleeve later

(GET-HELP GET-QADUSER).Syntax | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty SyntaxItem

“AHA! There’s the tricky fellow hiding inside!” So another piece to open up with SELECT-OBJECT…

(GET-HELP GET-QADUSER).Syntax | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty SyntaxItem | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty parameter

WHOOOOOOSH!!! The screen filled with the familiar “Detailed” data from help. But again, I learned … run a GET-MEMBER to see what the object is exposing….

(GET-HELP GET-QADUSER).Syntax | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty SyntaxItem | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty parameter | GET-MEMBER

I took a shot that “Name” might be the parameter name, so yet one more SELECT-OBJECT and the fingers crossed…

(GET-HELP GET-QADUSER).Syntax | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty SyntaxItem | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty parameter | SELECT-OBJECT name

JACKPOT! I had it! An easier way to view the names! Now to make this into something useful! A regular script to pull the data out. The only parameter I was really supplying would be the results of a GET-HELP on any Cmdlet I had.

-------- Begin Script --------

param($HelpData)

($HelpData).Syntax | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty SyntaxItem | SELECT-OBJECT –ExpandProperty parameter | SELECT-OBJECT name

------- EndScript -------

So most of the time I’m ok reading with a GET-HELP, but now for those cmdlets with more parameters than I can imagine, I can at least get them out in a nice clean list to see what I can work with. Now to find out all I have to do is run my script like so

./LISTPARAMETERS.PS1 –HelpData (GET-HELP GET-CHILDITEM)

To get all the parameters in a nice list from GET-CHILDITEM. I’m thinking this should make working with the WPF stuff a little easier. Now those, THOSE have some parameters

Remember, the Power of Shell is in YOU

Sean
The Energized Tech

Where to start? How about how I finished 2010?

I was asked to pull together a little article or two for the Holidays last year for "Hey Scripting Guy". What I ended up placing online for the Holiday Season was the FIRST EVER Holiday Special done by a computer company. Simply titled 'A Powershell Carol' it was a 7 day long series (Complete with Podcasted episodes) about a mythical Character called "Ebenezer Script" complete with a Holiday theme song. It ended appropriately on December 25th 2010.

From that, well things just started getting crazy. I had several events I had to present for the Springboard Technical Experts Program. During all of this I scrambled to sort out my paperwork so I could finally make my first International flight in late February to (*gasp*) Redmond Washington to the MVP Conference.

Setting a goal and pursuing your dreams, if anybody asks you it is highly worth it. I actually found myself on my Birthday standing in the entryway to Microsoft with a good friend and fellow MVP Ragnar Harper. Ragnar is now with Microsoft but at the time, Crayon a cool Norweigan company that redid "Highway to Powershell" in the Heroes Happen Here launch in 2008.

Ragnar (like many people I have met online and recently) is a good friend I am glad I've met up with.

He took my picture in front of the Microsoft Logo where I nearly broke down in tears for the joy of it.

As many of you who know me well, I decided long ago to try and pursue Microsoft as a career. I have not given up, but the pursuit of that dream has led me towards engaging the community in my own unique way. It has also seen my career grow as left the world of Small Business into stepping into a small Division in a Fortune 15 corporation. Helping encourage others to pursue their own and helping others out in Powershell and learning far more about the larger world.

Many years ago I just pictured Microsoft as "some mythical place I would never see". It was so far away at the time, I couldn't even afford the flight. I turned down my dreams of working there since I didn't have the money make the flight. I actually believed at one point I couldn't do it and would never stand in that doorway.

Then I saw myself in that hallway, heard the voices, saw the magic floating in the air. I broke down realizing that Redmond was EXACTLY the wonderful place I always thought it was. I so happy, even not working there, to stand in such a beautiful place which co-existed happily with nature itself. All the words and the descriptions from everybody on the team at Microsoft Jobs Blog, it paled to the actual site that was the head Office for Microsoft.

While there, I met many of the Powershell MVP's and the team themselves, saw Steve Ballmer on stage, Proudly Chanted with the rest of the Canadian contingent and sang "O Canada" as loud as I could. Also while on campus I was interviewed by Dmitry Sotnikov of Quest software. My voice was barely recovering after the cheering and screaming from earlier that morning. I even met a friend I taken to recently, Shane Hoey one of the newest MVP's in Windows Powershell. Even Ed "Hey Scripting Guy" and Theresa made it to the conference!

Of course my good friend Adam (AdamBomb00) Carter passed along a little token of his esteem for my Birthday.

And as pictures will show, I did not want to leave. I'm not making it up. Just search this blog for my "Long Road to Redmond" posts in March and you will see my genuine reaction to Redmond! It's not just "Geeky" cool. It is an amazing place beyond just intelligence; it is one of THE most collaborative and multicultural places I have ever encountered or imagined!

A short bit after the conference I went and did something I always wanted to do, for my own interest, for charity, because it was there. I climbed the CN Tower. Finished it in just under 30 minutes too. (Which isn't bad for a fat overweight 190 pound IT Pro that doesn't exercise!) By the way, I encourage anyone out there who is interested, give it a shot. It's tall, tiring and the most exhilarating feeling you'll get when you finish!

From there I went on to preparing and presenting a presentation at the first ever Powershell Deep Dive in Las Vegas Nevada. I had some interesting events occur. The flight goofed and had to move me on a different plane which was (cough cough cough) unfortunately FIRST CLASS ! But of course the Yin comes with the Yang (namely my reservation being cancelled at the Red Rock Casino that MORNING while I was on the plane, SHAME ON YOU Red Rock!) but to my rescue came a person I believe should be an MVP right now, Steven Murawski. "Hey, I have an extra bed here, wanna crash?" was his Tweet in a split second.

I was floored. A person who I'd only know online coming to my aid. Not knowing or caring at the moment if I smelled like a fried bag of Big Macs, he just took a chance to help somebody out.

I'd like to publicly tip my hat to Steve, If you're ever in Canada, you just call ! If I ever had to be locked in a hotel in Vegas judging thousands of Scripts for the 2011 Scripting Games, glad it was you man.

During the Deep Dive I did something I've done a few times (and contrary to popular belief it IS rare). It was a "Release of the Kraken" to the audience, exuberance, joy, passion before tearing into my Deep Dive on Powershell with the Legacy. I got the audience to wish my good buddy Hal Rottenberg (with the help of his co-host Jon Walz of the Powerscripting Podcast) a Happy Birthday. We of course naturally had it posted to Youtube.

Oh and did I mention just WHO I opened for? None other than THE (pant pant faint faint) BRUCE PAYETTE! If Jeffrey Snover is the father of Powershell, Bruce is certainly it's Mothe....er Grandfather? ... Or maybe Godfather is a cooler term. Yeah, I opened for the GODFATHER of POWERSHELL! "I feel SHELL!, yeah y'know you can Tell! I feel SHELL!"

As well I posted so much on "Hey Scripting Guy" between my series on "Working with the Legacy in Powershell" as well as "BATCHman" and Cmdlet" I became one of the first ever "Honorary Scripting Guys" on Technet!

I got the opportunity to present my Powershell sessions on working with Legacy systems at the first ever Powershell pre Conference via Live Meeting at Teched Australia (Thanks Shane Hoey and Chris Brownie) with great Presenters such as Richard Siddaway and Ed "Hey Scripting Guy where's my Tilley Hat" Wilson.

Of course the year didn't finish there. Techdays Toronto 2011 happened with MORE POWERSHELL as well as presenting some more Live Meeting sessions online. Oh I LOVE DOING this stuff!

I feel like I'm skipping on so much, and it's possible as so much happened in the year. I've seen friends pursuing their dreams achieve them, other friends grow in ways their never perceived and watched the world about myself change.

Near the end of the year were two more complete series on "Hey Scripting Guy" on MDT (Which actually got read by the Architect of MDT, Michael Niehaus!) and the Second ever Holiday Special "How Mr. Finch Learned Scripting". On top of that there was a complete nine days (possibly the beginning of more) on Canadian IT Professionals called "Powershell on the Way to Work", a series targeted at the 100% beginner.

Oh did I mention the icing? The COOLEST Part of all? The Part I am still slapping myself in the face saying "W000t! W000t! W0000t!"

I mean OTHER than getting to spend the DAY with friends like Ed and Theresa Wilson (Scripting Guy and Scripting Wife) and Mitch Garvis (probably the Best presenter out there and more skilled on Virtualization than most people). Oh no, this is MARGINALLY better than that even!

This is just a weeeeeeee bit better. I am writing my first ever book. I'm keeping my lips tight on the details but I can and will say "It's Powershell related" and DAMN will I be busy!

*KLUNK*

All this because I started believing in myself and went for my dreams. This year was too much to believe.

I have pass along thanks to so many that were my encouragement and inspiration over the years; Rodney, Rick, Damir, Mitch, Ruth, Adam, (Oh HELL! EVERY FREAKING Microsoft DPE worldwide and their managers especially John Oxley of Microsoft Canada), the Powershell team, Jeffrey Snover, all the MVP's everybody in the community including all of you egging me on in Twitter. Oh yes, Cory, Steve and Cameron you too

....and most importantly my family. None of this would or could have happened without their help.

Of course, the only thing that could top 2011 if my dreams were to be realized in 2012. (*hint hint poke the beast poke the beast*)

Maybe someday get to work with as a "Hey Scripting Guy" or Evangelize Microsoft Technology for the rest of my life for Microsoft, or possibly become a presenter as good as my buddy Mitch (*sigh, you're allowed to dream y'know *)

All I can say for 2012 is this. You'd better prepare yourself, get the chains ready, bolt down the furniture and hide the expensive cookies. There's an MVP conference in barely two months. I have tasted what Redmond is, I'm not about to step away anymore.

Because the KRAKEN of Passion will be Released and there is NO holding me back now. You can note this for 2012.

It WILL be "The Year of the Kraken" - LOOK OUT MICROSOFT!

"W000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Sean
The Energized Tech

There is no catch.

Powershell Inside, the company that SELLS NetCmdlets is presently offering their NetCmdlets for free until December 25th. This is normally a $99 package. In addition the Server based version is on for $199 (Normally $399)

If you're interested the LAST DAY is Christmas Day, December 25th 2011. All you need to do is click on the link below and fill out the form. You will receive your license via email later.

Free NETCmdlets from Powershell Inside for the Holidays

What have you got to lose? Even if you don't know deep levels of Powershell, take advantage of their generosity during this Holiday Season!

A $99 package for free?

What a GREAT Holiday Present!

Why RTF? RTF is "Rich Text Format". If you haven't ever looked at the format of one, the file content is actually 100% ASCII. Even though an RTF when presented through Word holds fonts and formatting it is actually a pure ASCII file.

Nice! So it would be possible to generate files with nice fonts and formatting. Sure we could do it with Dcom and Microsoft Word but the advantage to an RTF is it could be generated as a report on a server with NO additional software, no changes to the system

So here's a sample RTF file using a Consolas 11 point font with a simple one line of 'Test'

Test Test Test
Test Test Test
Test Test Test

Viewing the document in the natural RTF code it appears like this

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\nouicompat\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Consolas;}}
{\*\generator Riched20 6.2.8102}\viewkind4\uc1
\pard\sa200\sl276\slmult1\f0\fs22\lang9 Test\tab Test \tab Test\par
Test\tab Test \tab Test\par
Test\tab Test \tab Test\par
}

Online Microsoft has a large document called "Word 2007: Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification, version 1.9.1" which details all the nuances of this language. Believe me, it IS a language.

Really for a very basis RTF file we need a header, some content and the termination at the end. Looking in the document we can find out there are three key types of data within the document without getting too far into the mud. Control words, Control Symbols and Groups.

If you REALLY want to have some deep reading, dig into the document. But for today we'll show you all you need to make a Basic RTF Document.

Looking at this particular document we can see the words Test separated by \tab and ending with a \par for each line. Really this isn't much of a guess to figure out that \par is the ending of a paragraph and \tab are fields separated by Tabs.

So let's think, if this is pure text, all we need to do to create a Basic RTF is to grab everything BEFORE our content and looking at the bottom terminate it with a Parentheses }

$RTFHeader='{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\nouicompat\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fcharset0 Consolas;}}{\*\generator Riched20 6.2.8102}\viewkind4\uc1 \pard\sa200\sl276\slmult1\f0\fs22\lang9 '

$RTFFooter='}'

So a basic RTF document could be created using a very simple ADD-CONTENT like this

ADD-CONTENT C:\Powershell\Filename.rtf -value $RTFHeader -force

ADD-CONTENT C:\Powershell\Filename.rtf -value $RTFFooter

There that's pretty simple. Now that means all we need is place text in the middle and end each line with a '\par ' for a basic line.

ADD-CONTENT C:\Powershell\Filename.rtf -value $RTFHeader -force

ADD-CONTENT C:\Powershell\Filename.rtf -value "This is a line in the RTF document\par"
ADD-CONTENT C:\Powershell\Filename.rtf -value "This is another line\tab separated by a tab\par "
ADD-CONTENT C:\Powershell\Filename.rtf -value "And one more\par"

ADD-CONTENT C:\Powershell\Filename.rtf -value $RTFFooter

Nice! A Simple RTF file. Of course we can do more, and we'll play a bit tomorrow

Sean
The Energized Tech

Yes the blog has been quiet but not for bad reasons.  I’ll keep you updated on some things in my life.

Work has been…. for lack of any other word…. BUSY!

But what job isn’t?  It Professionals know that we have slow times and busy times.  Our consolation we can always keep in mind is that “If I was bad at the job I’d have better and shorter hours, so we must be doing something right”

So I’m in a busy point right now along with writing some new material for “Hey Scripting Guy” for the Holiday season along with a new series for December for Canadian IT Professionals called “Powershell on the Way to Work”.  It’s intended for the IT Professional that is only comfortable with the GUI and needs to know the REAL basics on Powershell.

The series on www.scriptingguys.com is from December 19th to December 23rd called “How Mr. Finch Learned Scripting”.   The Series on CanITPro is from Dec 12th to Dec 22nd.

There’s also this fun little sing-a-long whipped together for www.scriptingguys.com series called “The Scripting Song”

December 19th to December 23rd–www.scriptingguys.com

Plus something else popped along.   A book.

I can’t reveal any of the details other than it IS Powershell related and that I am writing it.    It will take time and effort, but nothing worth doing ever took a short time to do. 

I have this one song stuck in my head because of it.   Karl Prosser keeps saying I should re-write it as “I’m writing a script, I’m writing a script” but for me I keep thinking “I’m writing a book, I’m writing a book”

Well I’ll be putting together more in the new year, asking Santa Claus if Mr. Ballmer could bring me in and generally diving into more Powershell.  You DID all hear that CTP2 (Community Technology Preview) of the Windows Management Framework 3.0 is available right?  If you haven’t it’s the coolest Christmas present ever

I’ll see you all in 2012!  I can sense somehow this will be an amazing year for all of us

Sean
The Energized Tech

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Techdays. Because there's always more to learn...

Free resources from Microsoft for Help and Support, Antivirus and a way to answer all those questions that roam across your mind.

How can you lose? It’s Free!

1) Help and Support from Microsoft

Have you ever wondered where to go to get help with your common, everyday IT challenges? 

Based on feedback and constructive criticism, Microsoft Canada identifies key areas where they can improve and help you by providing better resources to answer your questions, solve your real world problems and help you achieve your business goals.  Maybe it’s just ensuring you know you have a voice – or just making your life a little easier at the end of the day – whatever it takes, Microsoft is listening.

One of the areas Microsoft has received feedback on is Help and Support. Let's face it, you may not have a direct contact person from Microsoft that you can call up when you have a problem and with the pace of technology today, you just can't wait for things to sort themselves out. So you either commit you or your teams' time and energy to fixing that issue, or you hire someone to come in and fix it. But what if I told you there were some great Microsoft Resources available for support that you could use? I've put together a list below. This is by no means exhaustive, but it should give you a great start when you need to tackle your next IT challenge.

Help and Resources

· Microsoft Product Solution Center – Get product support information for the majority of Microsoft products. · Microsoft Answers – Ask questions and get answers from real people, or search for answers others have received. · Microsoft Fix it Solution Center – Find automated solutions for your issues. · @MicrosoftHelps – Follow Microsoft Customer Service and Support on Twitter. Experienced customer service agents respond to your questions in real-time tweets. · Enterprise Business Center – Access resources for enterprise customers. · Microsoft Small Business Center – Find resources for small and medium-sized businesses.

Other Resources You May Find Useful

• Microsoft Virtual Academy - For Free Training To Help Improve Your IT Skill Set.
• TechNet Evaluation Center - Try some of the latest Microsoft products like Office 365, Windows Intune or System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 for free, before you buy.
• TechNet Newsletter - Sign Up To Receive The Latest IT News and Developments, Product Releases, Expert Insights and Support Services with Microsoft's complimentary biweekly newsletter for industry professionals.

2) Security – How to Help Keep Your PC Protected

Have you ever wondered how you can help keep your PC protected? 

Based on feedback and constructive criticism, Microsoft Canada identifies key areas where they can improve and help you by providing better resources to answer your questions, solve your real world problems and help you achieve your business goals.  Maybe it’s just ensuring you know you have a voice – or just making your life a little easier at the end of the day – whatever it takes, Microsoft is listening.

One of the areas Microsoft has received feedback on is Security, specifically how to help keep your PC protected. Whether it's at work or at home, I've been told that it can be hard to make sense of what's important, which updates should be installed and how best to protect your PC. Microsoft has a resource center for their Monthly updates listed below – it's something you should check out every second Tuesday of the month. If you prefer to listen to a podcast – they've created one that's easy to listen to and not too technical called Security Bulletins for the Regular IT Guy.
Recently there have been a growing number of Phone Scams from individuals claiming to be from Microsoft asking you about the security of your PC. You should be suspicious of unsolicited calls about security of your systems. Don't give out financial details, visit websites, allow anyone to remote control your system or install software from unsolicited callers. If you feel your system has been compromised or has a computer virus – you can call Microsoft's Security and Virus FREE support line at 1-866-727-2338.

Security Resources

· Microsoft Security Essentials – Free Anti-Malware software from Microsoft, great for Small Businesses and Home PCs alike.

· Security Bulletins by the Regular IT Guy – A monthly podcast to help simplify details about the monthly Security patch releases.

· Security TechCenter – Find top tasks, get the latest news, find a wiki article or download a featured tool.

· Windows Update Services – Businesses of all sizes can help manage and control the rollout of updates in their organizations.

Other Resources You May Find Useful

· Springboard Series - Your destination for technical resources, free tools and expert guidance to ease the deployment and management of your Windows-based client infrastructure.

· AlignIT Manager Tech Talk Series - A monthly streamed video series with a range of topics for both infrastructure and development managers. Ask questions and participate real-time or watch the on-demand recording.

· Microsoft Virtual Academy - For Free Training To Help Improve Your IT Skill Set.

· TechNet Evaluation Center - Try some of the latest Microsoft products like Office 365, Windows Intune or System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 for free, before you buy.

3) Licensing Simplified – at Home and at Work

Have you ever wondered if there’s an easier way to understand licensing, for both home and business use?

Based on feedback and constructive criticism, Microsoft Canada identifies key areas where they can improve and help you by providing better resources to answer your questions, solve your real world problems and help you achieve your business goals.  Maybe it’s just ensuring you know you have a voice – or just making your life a little easier at the end of the day – whatever it takes, Microsoft is listening.

One of the areas Microsoft has received feedback on is Licensing.  Whether you need to buy one license from a traditional retail store or explore options for a more flexible volume licensing program, it can be confusing and sometimes downright intimidating to figure out what you need.  After doing a little digging - I’ve highlighted some resources you can use to help figure out exactly what you need when you talk with your software reseller.

Speaking of licensing – I often get asked if I can back up our claims at a more cost effective Virtualization solution for your server rooms.  I dug up a great – no nonsense breakdown on recent licensing changes in the industry and how our offering stacks up.

Licensing Resources

· Licensing FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions About Product Licensing

· The SMB How to Buy Portal:  receive clear purchasing and licensing information that is easy to understand in order to help facilitate quick decision making.

· Microsoft License Advisor (MLA): Use MLA to research Microsoft Volume Licensing products, programs and pricing.  

· Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) – Already have a volume License? Use the VLSC to get you easy access to all your licensing information in one location.

· Windows 7 Comparison: Compare versions of Windows and find out which one is right for you

· Office 2010 Comparison: Find out which Office suite is right for you.

Other Resources You May Find Useful

· TechNet Cloud Hub - Get the latest news and find great resources to help you jump into the Cloud.

· TechNet Evaluation Center - Try some of the latest Microsoft products like Office 365, Windows Intune or System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 for free, before you buy.

· Microsoft Virtual Academy - For free training to help improve your IT skill set.

4) Free Online Training and Resources from Microsoft

Have you ever wondered how you can help build your IT skill set?

Based on feedback and constructive criticism, Microsoft Canada identifies key areas where they can improve and help you by providing better resources to answer your questions, solve your real world problems and help you achieve your business goals.  Maybe it’s just ensuring you know you have a voice – or just making your life a little easier at the end of the day – whatever it takes, Microsoft is listening.

Microsoft has a number of great resources to help you in areas of professional development and access to software.  The Microsoft Virtual Academy contains some fantastic FREE online training on hot topics for IT Professionals.  Once you’ve stopped by and tried out a course or two — head on over to the Microsoft Eval Center to download copies of their server products to try out in your lab environment.  And while you’re at it, check out this free Microsoft Office 365 ebook by Katherine Murray, it shows you how you can use cloud computing to help get more done and help improve ease of collaboration.

No DVD or ability to BOOT from DVD

No USB Booting ability

but

CPU was x64 capable

So in this scenario, normally you would scrap using Server 2008R2 or Server 2008 x64 because the media only exists on DVD format.  The alternate is to boot from USB but since the server can’t do that, forget it.

But if you have Windows Deployment Server at your finger tips and MDT 2010 none of this is a problem. Just create that image and awaaaaay you go.

“But Sean, what happens if it breaks?  I’m stuck right?”

Funny thing is … NO.

I was playing this weekend and if you learn how to build a standalone WinRE x64 or have access the DART and can build THAT image, the both fit on a Standard CDrom, with room to spare (which many older x64 servers DO in fact have, Cdroms)

I know this because my test environment was running off an older Dell server which (as my coworker would say) “Hacked up a hairball”, I lost my Domain (Yes, I was building new and hadn’t added my secondary and tertiary DC’s)

So to resolve this, I created a WinRE Cdrom from my x64 Windows 7 and repaired the environment from that.

Ok…. for production maybe NOT a GOOD idea (or maybe it is?  Trying to extend the budget on some older equipment?  Repurpose it as an RODC?)

Just food for thought.   But all of this was possible thanks for MDT (Free) and WDS (Just a free role in the Server 2008R2)

This blog post brought to you by the letter “M”

Sean
The Energized Tech

“Install this software before you leave.” Of course the software just happens to be the one application you CAN’T just push.  It needs a local install.  “UGH!” your brain says to the world.

No problem.  As long as the computer is on your network, you can enable Remote Desktop access.

First you need to have local Administrative rights on the computer in question.

Launch REGEDIT and Choose File/Connect Network Registry

In the provided box, enter in the name of the computer

Once connected you’ll have a new option near the bottom.

Under the “2nd” HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (which is that nasty remote computer) Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Current Control Set\Control\TerminalServer

Edit the value called fDenyTSConnections and change from 1 to 0

change from 1 to 0

Now if you’re running Windows XP, you’re probably done and can happily remote in. 

With Windows 7 and Windows Vista there’s an extra step, you need to enable two rules on the Firewall

Navigate to the following registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Current Control Set\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules

You’ll see a pile of values.  Find the one named “RemoteDesktop-In-TCP”

You’ll see a LOOOOOOOONNNNNG string of data in there.  Near the very beginning it will read something along the lines of what you see below

Edit the Active=FALSE to ACTIVE=TRUE so it reads as in the box below.  Click OK

Then execute the following command in a command prompt.

SHUTDOWN –f –r –t 0 –m \\COMPUTERNAME

Where “COMPUTERNAME” is the NETBIOS name of the PC

or

SHUTDOWN –f –r –t 0 –m x.x.x.x

Where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the computer

Now you COULD probably trigger this via GPO and Preferences too.  But on the Enterprise why would you? Baaaaaad!

But in Small Business environments I have seen the need for this, so it COULD be set in those instances.   Of course you’ll have to remember add anybody who SHOULD be remoting to the local computer group “Remote Desktop Users”

A handy thing to know how to do, especially if you are effectively “Locked away” from physical access to a managed machine.

Sean
The Energized Tech