Javascript Object Notation (JSON) is the light-weight structure which is easy to read by human and simple to parse and understand by machine. Although the name contains the Javascript, both Javascript and JSON are different and they have syntax and structure is different as well.You can get more information about JSONhttps://www.json.org/json-en.htmlIts basic structure is Key-Value pair but both are separated by a colon ‘:’. It has an almost similar structure as a hashtable, PSCustomObjecct. For example, {    "Name": "Albert Don" }If you have multiple Key-Value pairs, you can separate them with a comma. For example, {    "Name": "Albert ... Read More

In PowerShell when you create a complex script or function then it should be essential to create help for the end-users to easily understand your script functionality. Writing comment-based help or XML-based help, at the end is similar to Get-Help syntax for cmdlets or function which is the online version of help.For Example, Just open the PowerShell console and run the command below.Get-Help Get-WmiObjectAnd you can see the various help sections in the output like NAME, SYNOPSIS, SYNTAX, DESCRIPTION, PARAMETER, LINK. These are called Keywords. We can include all of them in the script of function manually to get the ... Read More

We can remove connected RDP sessions using PowerShell and for that, we can use the cmd command “reset session” in PowerShell.  Let’s see the supported parameters for it.ExamplePS C:\> reset session /? Reset the session subsytem hardware and software to known initial values. RESET SESSION {sessionname | sessionid} [/SERVER:servername] [/V] sessionname         Identifies the session with name sessionname. sessionid           Identifies the session with ID sessionid. /SERVER:servername  The server containing the session (default is current). /V                  Display additional information.We can provide here session ... Read More

To get the user sessions on the remote computers using PowerShell, we need to use the cmd query command. First of all, we will get the user sessions on the local computer using the below command.Examplequery sessionOutputLet’s see what are other supported parameters for the query session command.ExamplePS C:\> query session /? Display information about Remote Desktop Services sessions. QUERY SESSION [sessionname | username | sessionid]               [/SERVER:servername] [/MODE] [/FLOW] [/CONNECT] [/COUNTER] [/VM] sessionname         Identifies the session named sessionname. username            Identifies the session ... Read More

Like any other data type conversion in PowerShell, we can convert Dictionary to hashtable in a similar way.  We have a below Dictionary for the example called $CityData.Key     Value ---     ----- India      91 Austria    43Its datatype is Dictionary,ExamplePS C:\> $citydata.GetType() | ft -AutoSizeOutputIsPublic IsSerial Name         BaseType -------- -------- ----         -------- True     True     Dictionary`2 System.ObjectTo convert it to the hashtable,$hash = [Hashtable]$citydataOr$hash = [System.Collections.Hashtable]$CityDataDatatype:PS C:\> $hash | ft -AutoSizeOutputName    Value ----    ----- Austria 43 India   91

PowerShell programmers generally prefer the Hashtable over the Dictionary although there are some advantages of using Dictionary. See the difference below.a. Hashtable is easy to declare while the Dictionary is a little complex compared to Hashtable. For example, To create a hashtable, $hash = @{    'Country' = 'India'    'Code' = '91' }To create a Dictionary, $citydata = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary"[String, Int]" $citydata.Add('India', 91) b. Hashtable is included in the namespace called Collections while Dictionary is included in the namespace called System.Collections.Generic namespace. Hashtable is non-generic so it can be a collection of different data types and Dictionary belongs to a generic class so it is ... Read More

To create a dictionary in the PowerShell we need to use the class Dictionary from the .Net namespace System.Collections.Generic. It has TKey and TValue. Its basic syntax isDictionaryTo learn more about this .Net namespace check the link below.https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.collections.generic.dictionary-2?view=net-5.0To create a dictionary we will first create the object for the dictionary object class with the datatypes. In the below example, we need to add the Country name and the country code. So we need String and Int.$countrydata = New-Object System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary"[String, Int]"Once we check the type of the $countrydata variable, it should be the dictionary. For example, ExamplePS C:\> $Countrydata.GetType() | ft -AutoSizeOutputIsPublic ... Read More

To convert the JSON file to the CSV file using PowerShell, we need to use the ConvertTo-CSV command as a pipeline.For example, we have a JSON file called PatchingServer.JSON stored at C:\temp and its content is as below.ExamplePS C:\> Get-Content C:\Temp\PatchingServer.json {    "Port": "9000",    "ApplicationName": "TestApp",    "MaintenanceWindow": "Every Saturday",    "BusinessUnit": "IT",    "AppOwner": "Josh",    "AppID": "1jj2221-223443s",    "Location": "EastUS" }We need to convert the above file to the CSV file so we will use the ConvertTo-CSV command but before that, we need the JSON file need to be converted from JSON format to table format using ... Read More

Windows Product key can be retrieved using PowerShell or CMD. To retrieve the product key using PowerShell, we need to query SoftwareLicesingService class and there is a property called OA3xOriginalProductKey which stores the product key.ExampleGet-WmiObject -query `select * from SoftwareLicensingService' | Select OA3xOriginalProductKeyOutputOA3xOriginalProductKey ---------------------- BBBBB-CSDSC-EESSR-KKIDS-AAAAAWe can also query this WMI class using cmd as shown below.wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKeyCaution: It may or may not work for all the Windows OS. The above is tested in Windows 10.

Generally, Product serial numbers are available at the back of the laptop on the company sticker and we can use the Third-party or manufacturer software to find the Product details. The product serial number can also be found using the BIOS utility or command. We can either use the BIOS command for the cmd or using PowerShell.To get the product serial number using PowerShell, we can use WMI or CIMInstance command. For example, ExampleGet-CimInstance Win32_BIOSWe can also use the WMI command. For example, ExampleGet-WmiObject Win32_BIOSOutputSMBIOSBIOSVersion : F.13 Manufacturer      : AMI Name              : ... Read More