January, 2009

Hey, Scripting Guy! With the release of the Community Technology Preview (CTP) 3 for Windows PowerShell, some of our staff have gone ahead and updated their computers. I am now beginning to worry that I need to check the version of Windows PowerShell...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I don't know about you, but I love Microsoft Office Excel macros. Come Valentine's Day , my computer gets a card. Office Excel macros save me so much time, it is just unbelievable. There is just one problem, and that is that I have...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Why does it feel like every single default setting in Microsoft Windows is wrong? It is so frustrating to me to spend five minutes changing all the defaults. For example, I open Internet Explorer and there are no system files. I look...

How Can I Return File Names of Files Created in Less Than an Hour from the Current Time? Hey, Scripting Guy! I am attempting to write a script that looks at the creation dates of all files in a certain directory. If the files were created less...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to find out how many e-mail messages are in my Junk folder. I found a script that does this with VBScript, but I need to be able to do it in Windows PowerShell. I do not want to delete the junk e-mail, because there are times...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I live and I die by my Office Outlook calendar. But Office Outlook sometimes seems to be rather slow when I am logging on first thing in the morning. When I have to boot up my laptop, log on to the network, start Office Outlook, and...

How Can I Automatically Open and Monitor Web Sites? Hey, Scripting Guy! I enjoyed reading your Quick-Hits Friday article that talked about opening multiple Web sites in different browser tabs, and that got me thinking. Our company has a number of...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to be notified when a process begins. I would like to use Windows PowerShell to do this, but it does not seem to work. While I could do this in VBScript, I prefer to use Windows PowerShell. Can this be done? - NL Hi NL, ...

How Do I Compress Files? Hey, Scripting Guy! After some time without needing help, I've run into a problem about which I have been unable to discover any information. Perhaps you can aid me. Assume you have (1) a single file, and (2) a folder that...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a file that I would like to copy a number of times. This file is basically a template. I have an Excel spreadsheet that contains a list of names that I would like to use for the newly copied files. Can you help me? - PR Hi...

Hey, Scripting Guy! We have this application that is supposed to run all the time. It is constantly giving us headaches and crashing. The applications vendor evidently expects it to crash all the time and has a thread that will restart it three times...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a problem. I am trying to script the backup of a data folder used by our database application. The problem is that as long as the database service is running, the files that are used are locked, and I am unable to copy them...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need some help. There is a stupid process that launches every time I turn on my computer. I cannot find where it is starting from. I have looked in all the usual places, but I can't find it. This process was installed when I installed...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I just found out that Internet Explorer 7 and even Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 allows you to have multiple home pages. This is like soooo cool. I would like to be able to write a script that uses Windows PowerShell to change the start...

Hey, Scripting Guy! You know, it just dawned on me that Windows PowerShell uses the old-fashioned Fred Flintstone cmd console for its host application. Because this thing has been around forever, are there any registry settings I can use to configure...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to add some data to an Excel spreadsheet. After I have done that, I would like to add a function to the bottom that will add up all the information in the columns above that. I have seen examples of plugging data into cells...

How Can I Tell the Status of Services on a Computer? Hey, Scripting Guy! I’m wondering if you can help me before I tear all my hair out. I’m trying to write a script using WMI that checks for a few core services such as antivirus, remote desktop...

How Do I Set Process Affinity? Hey, Scripting Guy! I have this application that I would like to set process affinity for. I know I can use Task Manager, right-click the process, and choose to set affinity, but I would like to be able to do this...

Hey, Scripting Guy! The Pointy Headed Boss (PHB) just got back from some kind of stupid management summit, and he has decided he needs to track our work activities more closely. As a result, we now have to give him a weekly progress report. Seems to me...

Hey, Scripting Guy! My users seem to think that once they delete an e-mail message, it is gone. Most do not have the concept of going and emptying their Deleted Items folder. Using Windows PowerShell on Exchange, I can easily obtain a report from the...

Hey, Scripting Guy! When I add data to an Office Excel spreadsheet, it always seems to put stuff on the right side of the column. I would like to know how to center the contents of a column. I do not think it should be that hard, but I just cannot figure...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a simple question for you: How can I modify the footers in an Office Excel spreadsheet? - MN Hi MN, I have a simple answer for you as well. You assign a value to the appropriate footer property of the pagesetup object...