When windows performs it’s updates, often but not always some of the hot fixes leave backup files so that you can later uninstall those hot fixes should they themselves be a problem. Normally these backup files present no issue and can simply be ignored. On the occasions where this is not the case and you need or simply want that space back, there is a free tool to help.
Author Archives: brettw
PowerShell tutorial 7
There are many free scripts on the net you can use with powershell, but the real power comes in making your own cmdlets. To begin, first start by enabling scripts.
Remote Desktop – overview of Microsoft’s Remote Desktop client.
Microsoft’s Remote Desktop is a decent application for allowing you to remotely control a networked windows computer. The Remote Desktop client which is included with Windows XP and Vista is only a small part of the larger Terminal Services package which is included with Windows Server. This tutorial will introduce you to the Remote Desktop client application.
PowerShell tutorial 6
PowerShell providers are .NET programs that provide a data access layer between powershell and the data. Providers abstract data so that the same mechanisms within powershell can access the various data stores. A number of built-in providers are included with powershell.
PowerShell tutorial 5
You will undoubtedly need to use variables in your PowerShell scripts from time to time fortunately PowerShell has you covered. There are many built-in variables you can use to provide such information as the home folder ($pshome) or the current working folder ($pwd). If you would like to see a list of the built in and user defined variables available to the current session type;
PowerShell tutorial part 4
Almost all of your PowerShell statements are going to include string values. Most of the time these strings are simply passed to cmdlets as arguments, but in a few cases, those strings are enclosed in either double or single quotes. The rules that govern when to use single or double quotes are referred to as quoting rules. This tutorial will attempt to explain those rules.
PowerShell tutorial part 3
In this tutorial we are going to focus on how to use Powershell’s operators and wildcards. We’ve learned that we can connect cmdlets together using the pipe (|) to pipeline results to the Where-Object cmdlet, which filters objects passed down that pipline. In this example;
too cool for Cuil?
Well there is a new search engine on the block. It’s name is Cuil and its built by ex-Google engineers. Similar to Google the initial search page is simplistic and very reminiscent of early Google. I wanted to compare the two though to see what kind of results they return, and that is when the most obvious differences come to light.
Tail command for windows
The other day, one of my tech friends who is more familiar with linux then I, was talking about being unable to tail log files in windows. A command to do so didn’t immediately come to mind so I got to poking around on the inter tubes for a solution. As it turns out the tail command isn’t installed by default with windows but is available for download. The Microsoft downloads site offers the tail command with the Windows 2003 Resource Kit along with many other tools for administrating Active Directory, cleaning memory, raid configuration and lots more. I installed this kit and immediately noticed that when I typed tail /? at the command prompt I got an error. This error was due to windows not knowing where to find that particular command, so I had to add its location to my path. I right clicked my computer and then clicked properties. then I clicked advanced, then I clicked the button labeled “Environment Variables”. In the section labled “user variable for myusername ” I first clicked path and then clicked edit. I already had a variable in my path statement so I simply added the path to the resource kit install directory with this
;%SystemRoot%C:Program FilesWindows Resource KitsTools
then I clicked ok all the way back out, and then tested by typing tail /? which gave me the syntax to use when tailing a file.
PowerShell tutorial part 2.
This weeks PowerShell tutorial covers how to create pipelines and output management. Powershell pipelines are a series of cmdlets that pass objects from one to another. Each cmdlet generates an object and passes it to the next cmdlet via the pipeline. The receiving cmdlet uses that object as input and generates its own object as output. Connecting pipelines is done by using the pipe character (|).