Ramblings, ideas, problems, and solutions

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  • PowerShell: Pipe output to CSV file

    Last week, I showed you how to get specific properties for all users in a given OU. Knowing that the output of that query quickly gets hard to navigate, wanting to remove the extraneous data that the customer didn’t request, and assuming that they wanted to manipulate the data, I decided to return the results as a CSV-file.

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  • PowerShell: Getting properties for all user objects in a given OU

    Two weeks ago, I showed you how I got some specific properties for a specific user. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the next request from my customer was a similar dump from a specific OU. While the Identity parameter works well when you’re dealing with a specific user, it doesn’t help when you want all users.

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  • Would I like to link to your spammy article? Let me think…

    Hi there! You are most likely here because I sent you a link to this post in response to an email from you which probably sounded something like this:

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  • Powershell: Retrieving all properties for a given user object

    I was asked to provide an overview of all available properties in an Active Directory user object for an upcoming project. As it turns out, that is very easily accomplished. Unsurprisingly, PowerShell has an applet for this. We use the Get-ADUser applet, with the parameters Identity to identify the user in question and Properties with a wildcard to return all properties.

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  • Look up AD User Password expiration date

    A little while ago, I had a user call in and ask when their password would expire. Luckily, this information is readily accessible if you know where – and how – to look. Here’s how:

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  • PowerShell: Look up all direct reports

    In the Organisation tab of a user object in Active Directory, you have the option to set who is the manager of a given user. While this may seem unnecessary, I have found it very useful when supporting a customer where I don’t know the reporting lines, as it gives me a one-stop place to go to find that information.

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  • Effective collaboration tools

    Last week, I wrote about the importance of establishing a routine, and of keeping in touch with your team. I did not, however, talk about specific tools. This is the post where I do that. Without further ado, here are the tools I’ve been using:

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  • Work in the time of Corona

    I am sure I am not alone in working from home these days. For veteran telecommuters, this is nothing new. To the rest of us, however, it can be a little challenging. Drawing on my experiences of the past week or so, here are some things that have worked well for me:

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  • PowerShell: Count enabled user accounts

    A few weeks ago, I showed you how to get a list of all enabled user accounts in PowerShell. Perhaps unsurprisingly, after having presented this to my customer, it transpired that what they really wanted, was to know how many enabled user accounts existed in Active Directory.

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  • The importance of Service Level Agreements

    Most IT operations shops establish some sort of service level agreement (SLA) with their users and customers. To my mind, these are equal parts commitment and expectation management. To a commercial vendor, the former is usually the focus, whereas the latter is typically the focus for an in-house vendor.

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  • SCCM: Find client BIOS information

    With some regularity, I find myself needing to fetch information from the BIOS of a client computer, preferably without having to go onsite to do so. This may be because I need to know what BIOS version the client is running, the serial number of the computer, or when it was manufactured. If you’re running SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager), this is relatively easily done. Here’s how:

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