Multiple PowerShell runspaces in PowerGUI Editor

By default, PowerGUI Script Editor is a single instance application – all scripts get opened as different tabs on the same window, and all the scripts and interactive commands in the same PowerShell session. They “see” the same variables and so on.

This however is very easy to change. Just go to Tools / Options and clear the Allow only one instance of the application to run – and you can have as many PowerGUI Script Editor windows as you like.

Each window will have its own PowerShell runspace – totally isolated from other windows (but still shared within the tabs of the same window).

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PowerGUI.org on Twitter

PowerGUI has long been a Twitter tool, but today we got to the next level – its community site PowerGUI.org has started tweeting.

Each time a new question gets posted to any of its major 4 discussion forums: Active Directory and PowerShell, Virtualization and PowerShell, Request a Script, or PowerGUI user discussions – there’s a tweet with a link posted by @PowerGUIorg.

Forums at PowerGUI.org are very active and there is a great community of enthusiasts there helping other every day. I hope that publishing new threads on Twitter will help people get answers even faster – which is what everyone really appreciates when he or she gets stuck with a script. 😉

Please follow @PowerGUIorg and spend a few minutes helping others each time you see a topic which you know well.

Kirk and Hal in Hanselminutes

Kirk “Poshoholic” Munro and Hal “TechProsaic” Rottenberg got guest-starred in Hanselminutes – one of the most influential technical podcasts out there:

Scott’s at TechEd and bumps into Hal Rottenberg and Kirk Munro. Hal’s a Powershell IT guy and Kirk’s a Powershell-focused Dev. What’s new in Powershell 2.0 and what’s in it for the .NET developer or Windows power user?

Check out the podcast here.

PowerShell training camp in Ohio

Jeffery Hicks is giving two great PowerShell trainings this July in Columbus, Ohio:

• July 27-29, 2009 – comprehensive three day training from PowerShell basics to advanced real-life scripting.
• July 30-31, 2009 – advanced PowerShell training including advanced work with registry, permissions, databases, and a full day of Active Directory management!

Jeffery is the author of the one and only AD PowerShell management book, and multiple other books and training courses on PowerShell, and a PowerShell MVP. So if you can make it to any (or both) of these trainings I would highly recommend that you do.

See more details as well as a sign-up link here.

Tags: AD, AD cmdlets, Active Directory, PowerShell, training
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Remote WMI defrag with PowerShell and PowerGUI

Jean Louw has shared his fantastic free remote defragmentation utility built entirely on PowerGUI and PowerShell.

The PowerPack lets you add your servers to the console and then remotely defragment any of their volumes. It also creates neat html reports (based on the great work which Alan Renouf previously shared).

Not only is this a very useful tool, as usual you can see all the PowerShell code behind it – so you can grab it and reuse it in your scripts later on.

Great job from Jean! Really looking forward to his next packs.

Get more information and download the PowerPack here.

Tags: Freeware, PowerGUI, PowerPack, PowerShell
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The usergroup is tomorrow

UK PowerShell usergroup with myself and Darin Pendergraft presenting the latest developments on PowerGUI and AD cmdlets is happening tomorrow (Tuesday, May 19) on Microsoft campus in Reading, UK from 6:30 till 9 pm.

I really hope to see a lot of you there or have you join over LiveMeeting if you cannot make it. The LiveMeeting details are here.

Tags: AD cmdlets, Active Directory, PowerGUI, PowerShell, get-psuguk
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TechEd Online: Hal and Kirk on PowerGUI

For PowerShell fans who could not make it to the TechEd this year TechEd Online lets you get some of the action from the comfort of you office (or home).

Hal and Kirk sat together and did an online demo of PowerGUI as well as had a general discussion of PowerGUI and PowerShell. Check it out here:

Creating the Customized Administrative Console Using PowerShell: A How-To Guide

(If the link does not work, log into TechEd Online and try the link again.)

Tags: Conferences, Demo, PowerGUI, PowerShell, TechEd, Webcast
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PowerShell Dinner at TechEd 2009

Here are the pictures from yesterday’s PowerShell Dinner we had at TechEd (courtesy of Ibrahim). The dinner was a great event with the key members of the Microsoft PowerShell team, PowerShell partners (Compellent, Global Knowledge, /n Software, Quest, Sapien, SpecOps), PowerShellCommunity.org, Scripting Center, and PowerShell MVPs.

To me, these dinners are a highlight of every major conference and a great place to discuss where PowerShell is going with like-minded geeks. See the whole album here and join us at the next event!

Tags: Conferences, PowerShell, TechEd
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AD cmdlets for object undelete

Another great new feature in Quest’s free AD cmdlets 1.2 is ability to locate deleted (tombstoned) Active Directory objects and restore them back.

Locating is very straight-forward: you just add the -Tombstone switch to the Get-* cmdlet of your choice and now your query searches deleted rather than live objects.

Restoring is even easier – all you need is pipeline the deleted objects into Restore-QADDeletedObject.

And the best thing of all is that this works great with Windows 2003 Active Directory – so you can start taking advantage of the feature right away!

For example:

# List all tombstoned user accounts
Get-QADUser -Tombstone

# Restore accounts deleted from a specific OU
Get-QADUser -Tombstone -LastKnownParent 'OU=People,DC=company,dc=local' | Restore-QADDeletedObject

# Restore accounts deleted today
Get-QADUser -Tombstone –LastChangedOn (get-date) | Restore-QADDeletedObject

# Restore a specific deleted user
Get-QADUser -Tombstone –Name 'John Smith*' | Restore-QADDeletedObject

One gotcha to keep in mind is that when objects are tombstoned computer and user objects are stored in AD exactly the same way. This makes Get-QADUser actually return both user and computer objects. Shay found this workaround to make sure that only user objects are returned:

# Return all tombstoned user accounts but no computer objects
Get-QADUser -Tombstone -SizeLimit 0 -ldap '(&(!samAccountName=*$))'

Other Get-* cmdlets which now have these -Tombstone and -LastKnownParent parameters are:

• Get-QADComputer
• Get-QADGroup
• Get-QADObject
• Get-QADPasswordSettingsObject

For more information on what a tombstoned object is and how tombstone-based undelete is different from full recovery see Gil’s article here.

Dmitry to present at UK PowerShell Usergroup

May 19, 2009 I will be presenting to one of my favorite PowerShell groups – UK PowerShell Usergroup. I will talk about PowerGUI and AD cmdlets, demo the latest changes, answer any questions, and so on. Darin Pendregraft (Product Manager for PowerGUI will also be there to commit to any dates or features ;)).

Please let Richard know if you are planning to attend in person (which I really hope!) or use LiveMeeting to join via internet.

See Richard’s blog post for all details.

Tags: AD cmdlets, Active Directory, PowerGUI, PowerShell, get-psuguk
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