Automation

Software inventory is one of those jobs that sounds simple until you need to do it across many Windows machines. For audits, license checks, cleanup work, or troubleshooting, I want a repeatable way to answer one question: what is installed, and where? This post uses PowerShell to build that report. The workflow is: get a target computer list from DNS, connect to each machine, read installed-app registry keys, and export the result to CSV. ...

These are the PowerShell basics I use most often when writing scripts that need to survive outside a one-off terminal session: pipeline operators, null handling, objects, CSV/JSON output, and script-relative paths. None of these features are complicated by themselves, but using them consistently makes scripts easier to read and easier to troubleshoot. Quick answer Good PowerShell scripts depend on a few fundamentals: use pipeline chain operators for simple success and failure flow, use null-coalescing operators for defaults, pass objects instead of formatted text, export data as CSV or JSON when another tool needs it, and build file paths from $PSScriptRoot so scripts run correctly from any working directory. ...

For a long time, PowerShell remoting usually meant WinRM. That is still true in many Windows domains. With PowerShell 7 and OpenSSH, SSH is now a practical option too, especially when Linux or mixed environments are involved. So, which protocol should you use? WinRM or SSH? There is no single best protocol. The right choice depends on the machines, authentication model, firewall rules, and whether you need rich PowerShell objects or simple cross-platform access. ...

When I need to move large files between Windows systems, I do not pick a tool by habit. LAN copies, WAN copies, and PowerShell remoting copies behave very differently. This post compares SCP (OpenSSH), Robocopy (SMB), and Copy-Item (WinRM) for the kinds of transfers I actually run. The short version: Robocopy is usually best on a LAN, SCP or rsync is usually safer across untrusted or unstable networks, and Copy-Item is convenient for small files inside an existing PowerShell remoting workflow. ...

Standardizing the Windows taskbar sounds like a small desktop task, but it gets awkward fast when you need to automate it. Windows does not provide a clean built-in command for managing pinned items, partly to stop applications from pinning themselves without user consent. The methods below are the ones I use when I need to inspect or clean up pinned taskbar items with PowerShell. Quick answer Windows stores user-pinned taskbar shortcuts under the user’s profile, but it does not provide a clean supported cmdlet for fully managing pins. With PowerShell, you can list pinned .lnk files from the TaskBar folder and remove unwanted shortcuts. After changes, restart Explorer for the taskbar to refresh. Test this per Windows version because taskbar behavior changes across releases. ...