Ben Benavides

Exporting a Device Driver with PowerShell

This should help with finding and exporting a device driver should you need to test a version from one machine on a different machine. # Get a list of all installed drivers $drivers = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_PnPSignedDriver | Select-Object DeviceName, Description, DeviceID, DriverVersion, InfName # Display the drivers in a Grid-View and allow

Windows Health (Checking/Restoring)

Checking and Restoring Windows Health Check the Disk chkdsk c: REM use the /f option to force fix any errors chkdsk c: /f c:\Windows\System32>chkdsk c: /f The type of the file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive. Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in

Clearing File Associations

# Clear file association for .PDF files $extension = ".pdf" $progId = "" # Remove the file association Remove-Item "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\$extension" -Recurse # Clear the user choice Remove-ItemProperty "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\$extension\UserChoice" -Name ProgId -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue # Set

WinPE Custom Image Creation

####This mounts the WinPE Image Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:"D:\WinPE\media\sources\boot.wim" /Index:1 /MountDir:"D:\WinPE\mount" ####This will add PowerShell to the WinPE image Dism /Add-Package /Image:"D:\WinPE\mount" /PackagePath:"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment

Creating a Dual Partition Flash Drive

Using CMD launch DiskPart and then type the following commands List disk select disk X (where X is your USB drive) clean create partition primary size=2048 active format fs=FAT32 quick label="WinPE" assign letter=P create partition primary format fs=NTFS quick label="Images"

Windows Imaging

Prerequisites * Windows ADK with Deployment Tools, Configuration Designer, and the Windows PE add-on installed * Download the ADK for the version of Windows that you will be working on. * Download and install the Windows ADK | Microsoft Learn [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install] * A Virtualized Environment * Hyper-V Manager and

Installing .Net Framework 3.5 with a Windows ISO

Step 1 Download and mount the Windows ISO and take note of the drive letter. Use the path (d:\sources\sxs) replacing D: with the drive letter the ISO was mounted to. Alternatively, you should be able to extract just the sxs folder to a tempory location like (c:\temp\

Cheat Sheet for LVM Management

Recently encountered some tricky issues with extending LVMs on CentOS7. Partly because of a not so good understanding of how it works. So I've compiled a list of resources to better understand how it works. Dan's LVM Cheat Sheet - Quick Command Reference for LVM [https:

How to add drivers to a WinPE Flash Drive

First create a folder to temporarily mount the existing image. Then create a folder to unzip the drivers too. Take note of the full path of your temporary folder and your driver folder. In this example I am adding the Intel VMD/RST driver. #Mount the WinPE image from the

Removing user profiles in Windows

#Self elevate powershell to BuiltIn administrator account if (!([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole] "Administrator")) { Start-Process powershell.exe "-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File `"$PSCommandPath`"" -Verb RunAs; exit } #List of the profiles that we need to keep $profilesToKeep='Public'

Exporting Scheduled Tasks Using PowerShell

If you need to rapidly export all the currently scheduled tasks for re-import on another machine, the following can be used to do that. $TaskList = (Get-ScheduledTask) foreach ($Task in $TaskList){ Export-ScheduledTask -TaskName "$($Task.TaskName)" -TaskPath $($Task.TaskPath) | Out-File "C:\Tasks\$($Task.TaskName).xml" }

Automating Formatting a Disk with PowerShell

Recently I've had a request to format a drive and create multiple partitions of varying sizes. Instead of using Disk Manager or Disk Part. I wanted to go for a more automated solution using PowerShell. The first step is to list all the available disks on the system

Remotely Managing Server 2019

After installation of Windows Server 2019, I found that it's helpful to enable these settings for remote configuration and access. Server Manager and PS Remoting To use remote PowerShell features and Windows Server Manager, use the below commands to view and update the existing status. #To view current

Domain Join Errors and KB5020276

Recently I had to re-image and re-join some Server 2019 virtual machines to the domain and I came across this error while attempting to join the domain. > Error 0xaac (2732): NERR_AccountReuseBlockedByPolicy: “An account with the same name exists in Active Directory. Re-using the account was blocked by security

PowerShell

Stop and Disable a Service - PowerShell

This script/function will list all the services using Grid-View and allow you to select one to stop and disable it. function DisableStopServ($tService){ #The object will be loaded from the variable passed to it. #Check to see if the target service is running and try to stop it. if(

Force Delete File using Powershell

Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\filename.txt" -Force

How to activate Windows Server 2019 EVAL to Server 2019 Standard using MAK/VLSC

In the case that you lost your original Server 2019 VLSC ISO, you can download the EVAL ISO directly from Microsoft and install as normal. Once installed run the below two commands in command prompt to get and select an edition to activate. I will be activating standard. Replace Set-Edition

Windows Control Panel Commands

These commands can bring up various Control Panel items on a whim. They can be ran by using the Run menu item or from a PowerShell or Command Prompt terminal. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Network Connections Window #Can be run using either of these two commands ncpa.cpl #Or this one control.exe

Add Local Admin Account using Windows Recovery

This trick should still be valid for most builds of Win10 and Win11 and will help you in gaining administrative access to a local PC should you happen to forget the default password. Step 1: Create a Windows installation USB drive using the Windows media creation tool. Note: Add the

PsExec Service Incompatibility

In the slight chance that PsExec is not able to be started with the below error... The PsExec service running on is an incompatible version. Local version: 200 Remote version: 200 Run the below commands from CMD *SC \ComputerName stop PsEXESVC *SC \ComputerName delete PsEXESVC Now remote back into the

PowerShell

Re-Save the BitLocker key of a Local or Remote PC to AD

Remote PC #Remember to save this file as a .ps1 PowerShell script for easy access. #Create cmpName variable and prompt for computer name $CmpName = Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter Computer Name: ' #create a variable to store the contents of the protectors / keys available $currentProtectors = manage-bde -protectors C: -cn $CmpName -get

Windows CMD Tricks

Find the serial number of a PC :: For a local PC, use the following to get the serial number wmic bios get serialnumber ::On a remote PC, use the following to get the serial number wmic /node:remotePCname bios get serialnumber

PowerShell

PowerShell Scripts and One-Liners

Posted here will be some super short and useful scripts to gather info or do basic tasks. Windows Updates #How to get a list of installed updates from the local computer. get-hotfix #How to get a list of installed updates from a remote computer. get-hotfix -cn ComputerName BitLocker Drive Encryption

PowerShell

Simple PowerShell Concepts

PowerShell variables always start with the dollar sign ($) character. $myVariable = 1