All posts in PowerShell

One of my pet hates when receiving a new laptop or device is reinstalling all the common modules that I use to complete my work. So in good old Blogabout.Cloud fashion I have created a script that installs the following

• Azure
• AzureAD
• Microsoft Teams
• MSOnline
• SharePoint Online
• CloudConnect
• ORCA

This script will also check if the module installed and if a newer version is available within the PSGallery. I have made this script available on GitHub for your downloading pleasure;

https://github.com/TheWatcherNode/blogaboutcloud/blob/master/Get-CommonModules.ps1

Regards
The Author – Blogabout.Cloud

A common mistake made in a lot of PowerShell scripts is that not all cmdlets are supported across all installed versions of PowerShell.

So how do you ensure that the script you have created can only be executed on a machine that supports the cmdlets? Simple!!!

By using one of the below will ensure that the client must met that version or be high;
#Requires -Version 3.0
#Requires -Version 4.0
#Requires -Version 5.0

So here is an example of a cmdlet that is only supported in version 5, it provides a horrible error message which doesn’t help the end-user.

And heres is an example of the same cmdlet but with #Requires -version 5.0

With this simple line you can prevent your scripts from being executed against machines that dont have the require PowerShell version installed.

Regards
The Author @ Blogabout.Cloud

Recently, I was trying to use Install-Module cmdlet to install a required module for some testing on a client machine however I ran into the following error

Install-Module: The term ‘Install-Module’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1Install-Module MSOnline. CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (Install-Module:String) [], CommandNotFoundException FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

The error looks like below:

Install-Module : The term ‘Install-Module’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program

The error usually comes, if your PowerShell is not upto date. The major version of PowerShell should be equal or greater than 5. You can run the below cmdlets to check the PowerShell version.

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$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

My PowerShell major version was 4.

To solve the error the following steps was taken to resolve the issue.

Download Windows Management Framework 5.1

Here make sure to choose Win8.1AndW2K12R2-KB3191564-x64.msu if you have Windows server 2012 or 2012 R2 machine.

Download and install Download Windows Management Framework 5.1, then it will ask to restart the machine-like below:

Regards
The Author – Blogabout.Cloud

In recent times I have been playing with a number of PowerShell modules and now decided to have a bit of a clean up or in the world of PowerShell and Marvel Install-Thanos

This process couldnt be any easier if I try,

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$Array = @(Get-InstalledModule)



   Foreach ($Module in $Array)

   {

     $ModuleCheck = Get-InstalledModule -name $Module.Name -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue   



     if ($ModuleCheck) {

     Write-Host 'Info: Detected an installation of the',$Module.Name,'Module' -ForegroundColor Green

     $Module = Get-Module -Name $Module.Name -ListAvailable

       

     # Identify modules with multiple versions installed

     Write-Host 'Info: Removing',$Module.Name,'Module' -ForegroundColor Yellow

     Uninstall-Module -Name $Module.Name -Force

   }

   }

And just like magic, all your PowerShell Modules should disappear like the Spiderman.

Regards
The Author – Blogabout.Cloud

In this post, I will look at how to modify the required Registry Keys for Windows Server 2012R2 / 2016 Update settings using PowerShell. PowerShell is one of the gems within Microsoft and enables us to work with systems without the help of a GUI.

Windows always looks at registry keys located in the following hive:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Typically there is a key named ‘NoAutoUpdate’ with a value in the range 2-5, and have the following meaning:

– 1 = Disable Updates – Only supported on Windows 2012 R2.
– 2 = Notify before download.
– 3 = Automatically download and notify of installation.
– 4 = Automatically download and schedule installation. Only valid if values exist for ScheduledInstallDay and ScheduledInstallTime.
– 5 = Automatic Updates is required and users can configure it.

But if there is a ‘NoAutoUpdate’ key with the value of ‘1’, no updates will be processed by Windows.

You can change the registry key with the help of Powershell directly:

Regards
The Author – Blogabout.Cloud