PowerShell Utility
Image Factory Utility - Update 21.12.02
· ☕ 1 min read
Automate Creation of WIM Files This is the initial release of a new version of my Image Factory Utility with support for Oracle Virtual Box. I’ve tested it myself, but there may be issues on other setups, so I’d be interested in hearing if anyone has problems when using Virtual Box. 2021-12-02: Version 21.12.01 Added option to use Oracle Virtual Box instead of Hyper-V. Configured logs path now is created, if it does not exist.

On-Prem AD User Creator Utility - Update 21.09.20
· ☕ 2 min read
Configurable Script for Creating On-Prem Active Directory User Accounts I’ve completely re-written this utility to make it easier and simpler to use. You can now configure multiple groups for the users to be added to on creation and the sam account names are generated randomly from the names list CSV file. The utility is intended to create a lot of users very quickly. By default usernames are first name and a three digit number and passwords are also generated randomly by the script.

Hyper-V Backup Utility - Update 21.08.10
· ☕ 1 min read
Flexible Hyper-V Backup Utility I’ve (finally) added the option to specify the port for the SMTP server. If not configured it will use the default of port 25. 2021-08-10: Version 21.08.10 Added an option to specify the Port for SMTP communication. Hyper-V Backup Utility can be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here. Support My Work If you would like to support me, please check out the link below.

Hyper-V Backup Utility - Update 21.07.02
· ☕ 1 min read
Flexible Hyper-V Backup Utility Since implementing support for 7-Zip it has added a whole load of additional possibilities to test for. This has created some difficulties for me, however I have been hard at work and have believe I’ve tackled the problem by introducing a formal testing process (and mostly automated it) in order to test some popular possible configs. You should be able to use any option that 7-zip supports, although currently the only options I’ve tested fully are ‘-t’ archive type, ‘-p’ password and ‘-v’ split files.

Image Factory Utility - Update 21.06.22
· ☕ 1 min read
Automate Creation of WIM Files Just a small update to this utility. Some tidying up of code and added a progression bar so you can see at a glance how far through the list of TS ID’s the script is. 2021-06-22: Version 21.06.22 Added a progression bar display. Changed a variable to prevent conflicts with future PowerShell versions. Image Factory Utility can be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here.

Hyper-V Backup Utility - Update 21.06.14
· ☕ 1 min read
Flexible Hyper-V Backup Utility Just a small update to add the ability to use any 7-zip command line option with the utility. 2021-06-14: Version 21.06.14 Replaced -Sz* specific options with -SzOptions which will support any option that 7-zip supports. Hyper-V Backup Utility can be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here. Support My Work If you would like to support me, please check out the link below.

Hyper-V Backup Utility - Update 21.06.02
· ☕ 1 min read
Flexible Hyper-V Backup Utility A bug fix update. When using archive types other than zip, the backup files were not being moved from the working directory to the final backup location. Thanks to @gabfot1 on Twitter for the bug report. 2021-06-02: Version 21.06.02 Fixed an error where file types which are not .zip were not being moved from the working directory to the final backup location. Hyper-V Backup Utility can be downloaded from:

Hyper-V Backup Utility - Update 21.05.30
· ☕ 2 min read
Flexible Hyper-V Backup Utility Another substantial update. I’ve added the ability to support 7-Zip’s split file function and due to wanting to support for 7-Zip’s other file formats I’ve had to make the difficult decision to alter how the configuration switches are handled. This means that this updated script may not be a simple drop in replacement if you are using a previous version with 7-Zip features. The biggest change is that when using 7-Zip features you will need to add an additional hyphen ‘-’ to the configuration.

Log Manager Utility - Update 20.07.27
· ☕ 1 min read
Flexible clean up and backup of log files Just a small update to add the improved error capturing and reporting that I’ve also put in the Hyper-V Backup Utility. 2020-07-30: Version 20.07.27 Added improved error handling and reporting. Log Manager Utility can also be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here. If you would like to support me, please check out the link below.

Hyper-V Backup Utility - Update 20.07.13
· ☕ 1 min read
Flexible Hyper-V Backup Utility A substantial update in terms of changes made under the hood, but I’ve also added a few new options requested by users. The biggest change is that errors are now handled properly and reported to the user in a reliable manner. All the changes are summarized below. Version 20.07.13 Added -ShortDate option. This will create backups with only the Year, Month, Day as the file name.

Log Manager Utility - Update 20.03.23
· ☕ 1 min read
Flexible clean up and backup of log files A user reported an issue where wildcards would not work with the -LogsPath switch. This was due to me adding incorrect validation to that option. To fix this I have removed the validation and should now accept wildcards as before. Please accept my apologies for this error, it should have been caught during testing but I missed it. I’ll take steps in future to prevent this type of problem from occurring in future.

WSUS Maintenance Utility - Update 20.03.20
· ☕ 1 min read
Clean up your WSUS I’ve overhauled WSUS Maintenance Utility and have added some new features which were long overdue. It also includes all the same improvements that the other refactored utilities have. 2020-03-20: Version 20.03.20 Added code contribution from [email protected]. Individual clean-up jobs now run separately. Improved reporting. Made slight improvements to documentation. WSUS Maintenance Utility can also be downloaded from: The Microsoft PowerShell Gallery GitHub See the full documentation available here.