Tuesday, March 5, 2019

PowerShell Resources

Since its release waaay back in November of 2006, PowerShell usefulness has continued to grow.

With all the different modules, capabilities and properties, it's hard to keep up with the language. Luckily there are numerous resources available to us.

Since I often use my own blog as a resource, here's a list of sites to keep me and you successful and informed.

Microsoft PowerShell - From the "mothership"

Idera Community - Nice group, lots of info

PowerShell Scripts Blog - A few hundred scripts to choose from

Get-PowerShell - A little crusty, but over one hundred examples

A Taste of PowerShell - Quite crusty, but lots of useful examples

Also don't forget Spiceworks and Experts Exchange for tutorials and problem solving.

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Resetting a Lost Windows Password

So, you need to get into an old Windows system with a forgotten password, or perhaps you're helping out a hapless friend.

Luckily all you need is a bootable Windows disk, preferably Windows 7 or newer.

Note: If this is an encrypted system, you are likely hosed.

There's only a handful of steps to get you logged back in...

1. Once booted into the Install screen, choose Repair my computer

2. Choose Open a Command Window

3. Find the drive that contains Windows, usually C: or D:

4. cd to Windows\System32, then you need two commands

5. copy Utilman.exe \  (this is to preserve the file if you to restore it later)

6. copy Cmd.exe Utilman.exe  (Overwrite confirm: Yes)

7. Exit and Reboot

8. On login screen, click the accessibility app (now Cmd.exe)

9. Reset the administrator password:  net user administrator YourCoolP@ssword

10. Enable the administrator account:  net user administrator /active: yes

11. Now go to the login prompt (may need to choose Other User), and enter .\administrator (to use the local administrator account) and your newly reset password.

12. High-fives all around!

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Windows Broken Program Installs

We've all been there, not able to install, update, or remove a program because there is something else installed that is damaged or didn't properly clean up after itself.

That happened to me again recently with a Visual C++ Runtime, but this time I found this little updated gem from Microsoft.

It removes corrupted Registry entries, errant file entries in Programs and Features, plus I'm sure more they don't even mention.


Friday, January 18, 2019

Using Diskpart for a Bootable USB

Q: How many systems come with CD or DVD drives these days?

A: Close to nil.


If you need to create a bootable USB drive, Diskpart can get the job done for you. You can then dump whatever it is you need to run onto the remainder of the free space.


  1. Open a Cmd window as Administrator
  2. Run diskpart
  3. Type list disk, this will show which one is your USB drive
  4. Type select disk # where # is the USB drive from Step 3
  5. Type clean, hit enter
  6. Type create part pri + enter, then select part 1 + enter
  7. Type format fs=ntfs quick + enter (for UEFI systems, use format fs=fat32 quick)
  8. Type active + enter, then exit.
  9. Optional: Copy your files onto the USB drive, i.e. the contents of an ISO