Hello everyone! I'd to invite you to the next RTPSUG PowerShell meeting on Wednesday, August 2nd at 8 pm. We'll be discussing a new module built by James Brundage named POSH. It brings smart color formatting to areas of your PowerShell console in ways that you haven't seen before. Commands like Get-Member and Get-Command present data differently when the important aspects are thoughtfully highlighted with color. Imagine how much easier XML is to read with subtle color enhancements. James has incorporated color into the console in a way that totally makes sense and helps with readability. Jame ..read more

The developers behind PowerShell released a handful of tools and new functionality to improve how you work with PowerShell. I write about four additions you should consider for your everyday PowerShell usage over at the TechTarget website. The extensibility aspect of PowerShell is among its many strengths. These PowerShell add-ons can help you be more efficient and offer many customization options. The new features range from user-interface tweaks, such as adding color, to opening up the PowerShell prompt to the artificial intelligence capabilities of the Azure cloud for easier script develop ..read more

I'll be giving a demo on how to deploy a WebJEA scripts portal this week at the RTPSUG meeting this Wednesday. The meeting is a hybrid event. We're meeting in person for people in the Raleigh area and we offer a remote Teams link for people outside the local area. Maybe you're wondering what WebJEA is? WebJEA is a web portal that allows you to dynamically build web forms for any PowerShell script. WebJEA automatically parses the script at page load for description, parameters and validation, then dynamically builds a form to take input and display formatted output. What you end up with is ..read more

Hey PowerShell family..... this is just a short blog post to share that I have expanded my original blog post on Get-ADUser Syntax and Examples. The refreshed blog post is just under 3000 words and contains 15 different Get-ADuser examples that may be useful in your day to day admin tasks. This post has been one of my most successful posts since the website was setup. My goal was to make it even better. Also, sometime this week, I will start recording video content for the website and this post will serve as the basis for my first video. I'll hope you'll stop by and take alook and let me kn ..read more

Earlier in March I appeared on a new podcast called "The PowerShell Podcast" which is presented by PDQ.com and hosted by Jordan Hammond and Andrew Pla. This podcast is just getting off the ground and I am honored to be invited to chat with the guys in episode 4. The podcast is trying to capture the pulse of the community in podcast form and so far I think they have done an excellent job with the guests they have had on and the topics they have covered. In my episode, we discuss community involvement, sharing your code, and being ok with the code you write. I talk about how coding is a con ..read more

I have changed the name of my website to CommandLine.Ninja ! I'll have a matching YouTube channel with video demos soon as well. Why the name change? The old website name was one that I liked, but I always felt like the name had nothing to do with the actual content I produce. To me, the name networkadm.in felt like it would be great for someone focused on networking and switching. I had bought some other domain names, but I never was 100% in love with any of the domains I bought. PowerShell Summit 2021 and a Community Joke Last year, I served as a virtual host along with Steven Judd for a vi ..read more

? I wrote this article for the IPSwitch website in Oct 2019. For archival purposes, I am posting it here. I have reformatted it for readability and grammar. PowerShell provides two similar management interfaces for accessing data on a computer: WMI and CIM. Sysadmins have been using WMI for years, and then Microsoft gave us data access via CIM with the rollout of PowerShell v3.0. What's the difference between these management interfaces? Which one should you use, and why? Table of Contents A History lesson on WMI and CIM WMI and CIM Network Requirements What's In A Name Which Management In ..read more

I am so excited to get back together with my local IT PowerShell pros here in Raleigh, North Carolina! It's been a helluva long time since we last met in person (Feb 19, 2020 to be exact... 756 days!!!). COVID19 has changed our world Alot has changed since our last meeting.... obviously COVID19 wrecked havoc on people and communities around the world. Many people (including myself) changed jobs and worked from home for extended periods. People's outlook on life and what's important has changed forever as well. In North Carolina, we have finally been cleared for in-person events that don't re ..read more

The AdminCount of accounts in Active Directory is often a misunderstood or foreign concept to many admins. If you would like to learn what it is, what use it serves and how to set it correctly, then please check out this recent article I wrote for TechTarget. The article is a thorough analysis of all things related to AdminCount and what you need to pay attention to. All Active Directory objects have a hidden attribute called AdminCount, which is set to Null by default. Accounts considered special have the AdminCount value set to 1, which disables inheritance on the object and sets the securi ..read more

? I wrote this article for the IPSwitch website on Nov 2020. I am posting it here for archival purposes. I have reformatted it for readability and grammar. Active Directory is a directory service that maintains information about users, computers and related objects. It is a database of relational information that needs periodic maintenance to remain useful and relevant. A directory will have accounts no longer used. Finding those accounts in Active Directory is not as easy as it sounds at first glance. Let's walk through finding inactive user accounts and automating removing them. Table of ..read more