Update 2018-11-04: I’ve evolved the script in this post into a more friendly utility which I’ve posted about here. If you are familiar with my other PowerShell scripts/utilities this isn’t as complete or polished as them, but it get’s the job done, and that’s all we can really ask for right? Let’s say it’s in early beta. The purpose of this script is to automate the process of setting the location and Office 365 license for users, using a local Active Directory to specify the users.

In a previous post I wrote about my Image Factory PowerShell script for MDT. This post is about a script derived from that which I setup to test my images and my deployment task sequences. Since this script is only an edit of the previous one I don’t intend to release it “officially” on the TechNet Gallery or the PowerShell Gallery. To explain succinctly what this script does, it turns Task Sequences into Virtual Machines.

In my previous scripts I’ve included a function to send log files to an on-premises Exchange server. I’ve now put together an example script to improve this function to send emails to external e-mail providers, for example: Office 365, Outlook.com or GMail.com. This new code is designed to support many different requirements: No logging at all. Logging but with no e-mail. Logging with e-mail. E-mail with username & password authentication, with SSL.

At the time of writing (2017-07-18) the latest PowerShell available is PowerShell 5.1 which is a part of Windows 10 1607 and Windows Server 2016. To find which version of PowerShell you have, type this command into PowerShell: 1 $PSVersionTable.PSVersion To upgrade PowerShell, you’ll need the latest Windows Remote Management for your version of Windows. You might also need to upgrade WinRM to remotely manage servers using the Server Manager tool, which comes with Windows Server and is a part of RSAT for Windows 10 version 1607 and later.

When deploying Windows 10/11 you might want to remove some of the included Microsoft Store Apps to help speed up the login process, save storage space, bandwidth etc. Important note! A “provisioned app” is an app that is a part of the Windows 10/11 installation and will be available for all users. Otherwise the app is only installed for the currently logged on user. To remove apps for all future users and the currently logged on user, you must remove both types of app.

UPDATE: This post is old and intended as a walk through on how my original script was put together for those wishing to learn PowerShell. For the finished, up-to-date script please check out this post and you can download the script from my TechNet profile. I previously posted a quick and dirty Hyper-V backup script that was very basic but did the job required at the time. I always wanted to revisit it and improve it.

Here’s a quick update on an option I missed in my previous post about how to customise the Start Menu and Taskbar for new Windows 10 1607/1703 installs. Update 2017-05-02: This also works with Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) The method that I used in my previous post would not be suitable for other environments where you would still want users to have some control over apps that were pinned to the Start Menu.

In my There’s PowerShell In My Marzicraft! post I shared my script that creates a backup of the server and then uses OneDrive to upload it offsite. In this post, I’ll share my script to backup a Minecraft server that’s on shared hosting and therefore I only have limited access to. The server in question has a web admin front end and FTP access. I have no access to the terminal or desktop.

This week I’ve gone pretty deep down the rabbit hole of automating the Start Menu and Taskbar layouts during an MDT Task Sequence. Update 2017-05-02 This also works with Windows 10 1703 (Creators Update) As every device I’m deploying will have the same customisation I wanted to automate it during the build or deploy Task Sequence, rather than applying it via domain Group Policy to reduce limited network bandwidth, keep Group Policy as light as possible and reduce login times as much as possible.

I’ve replaced this script with a much more robust script that will backup each VM, including checkpoints/snapshots. You can find that post here. Let’s celebrate the holiday season with a quick PowerShell script to backup a Hyper-V server…or maybe you just need a quick and dirty, belt and braces backup script for your Hyper-V based VMs. It’s a small, quick script leveraging Hyper-V’s PowerShell module and some traditional command line utilities, like robocopy.

Today’s post is another PowerShell script I wrote with a very specific task in mind. Chatty is a popular chat application for streaming site Twitch.tv. It is generally used for interacting in channel chat rooms as well as logging, running scripts, and live statistics. Some users run it 24/7. One problem that exists is that the logs don’t get separated, even if the program is restarted, the log continues on in the same file.

One of the servers I manage is a Minecraft server for a friend. It’s called Marzicraft, it has a candy theme, and it’s delightful, even if I do say so myself. :) I recently replaced the .bat scripts I wrote to maintain it with a single PowerShell script. Even if you aren’t supporting a Minecraft server, hopefully there’s some useful information here for your own work. If you are intending to use this script for your own Minecraft server, please be aware that I’ve put this together with a dedicated server in mind.