Fix: Clipboard is not working + Restart-Process with PowerShell →

24460391384_1668f05155_m Sometimes it happens that the clipboard stops working. The routine of copy and paste we all rely on so many times a day suddenly refuses to do its job. The reason this happens is usually an application blocking the keyboard, making it impossible for other applications to get access to the clipboard. In order to fix this, one needs to find out which application is the culprit and either stop or restart the respective process in order to “free up” the clipboard. I put together a small PowerShell function (Clear-Clipboard), that does just that:

~1 min read

Retrieve UninstallStrings to fix installer issues →

24356667904_413b3b0856_m Recently I have encountered several installer related issues on my machine. Most of them seemed to be caused by insufficient privileges. This kind of issue can be usually fixed by running the installer “As Administrator”. In case the issue is in relation to an already installed software packet, it’s sometimes not so easy to locate the respective uninstaller/MSI packet, though. For that purpose, I’ve written a small PowerShell function that scans the registry (it turned out that if you are using PowerShell v5, there is a better way of doing this. See below for more details) (have a look here on why I didn’t want to use WMI Win32_Product instead) for the information. The function has the following features:

1 min read

Use PowerShell to set Exchange Out of Office status from any PC →

24549821590_a4ce2a15cd_m I’m sure this has also happened already several times to you. You finish up your work to start into your well deserved holidays and only after you arrive at home do you realize that you forgot about to set your “Out of Office” status (considering that you actually do that). Usually, this would mean that you need to use your company device in order to connect back to work and set it up. If your company is running Exchange mail servers there is actually another option available which enables you to do the same from any PC that is connected to the Internet. The EWS Managed API is the technology that enables this. I’ve written a module that uses the API in order to set an Out of Office message. The function has the following features:

1 min read

WMI query filters with PowerShell syntax instead of WQL →

2465120031_ebb0a49e45_m PowerShell comes already with tight integration to WMI with its built-in Get-WmiObject and Get-CimInstance cmdlets. One of the things that people already familiar with PowerShell syntax bothers about WMI is that it comes with its very own query language WQL. While WQL is very similar to SQL. Wouldn’t it be nicer if we could use the same operators and wild-card patterns we are already familiar with? Well, for myself the answer is Yes:

1 min read