{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1", "title": "Blog", "home_page_url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog", "feed_url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/index.feed.json", "description": "Technical articles, tutorials, and insights on PowerShell, .NET, Active Directory, and enterprise IT automation.", "items": [ { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/supercharging-your-network-diagnostics-with-globalping-for-net", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/supercharging-your-network-diagnostics-with-globalping-for-net", "title": "Supercharging Your Network Diagnostics with Globalping for NET", "summary": "Ever wondered how to run network diagnostics like Ping, Traceroute, or DNS queries from probes scattered across the globe? Enter Globalping.NET, a powerful library that makes it effortless to interact with the Globalping API using C#. Whether you\u2019re debugging latency issues or exploring packet routes, this library has you covered.", "date_published": "2025-06-15T19:52:52.0000000Z", "tags": [ ".NET Products", "csharp", "globalping", "library" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/automating-network-diagnostics-with-globalping-powershell-module", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/automating-network-diagnostics-with-globalping-powershell-module", "title": "Automating Network Diagnostics with Globalping PowerShell Module", "summary": "Are you tired of manually running network diagnostics like Ping, Traceroute, or DNS queries? The Globalping PowerShell Module is here to save the day! With its easy-to-use cmdlets, you can automate measurements from probes distributed across the globe.", "date_published": "2025-06-15T19:52:50.0000000Z", "tags": [ "PowerShell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/enhanced-dashboards-with-pswritehtml-introducing-infocards-and-density-options", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/enhanced-dashboards-with-pswritehtml-introducing-infocards-and-density-options", "title": "Enhanced Dashboards with PSWriteHTML \u2013 Introducing InfoCards and Density Options", "summary": "Discover new features in the PSWriteHTML PowerShell module \u2013 including New-HTMLInfoCard, improved layout controls with the -Density parameter, and customizable shadows for clean, modern dashboards and reports.", "date_published": "2025-06-04T13:54:28.0000000Z", "tags": [ "css", "html", "js", "PowerShell", "pswritehtml", "reporting" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/mastering-active-directory-hygiene-automating-sidhistory-cleanup-with-cleanupmonster", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/mastering-active-directory-hygiene-automating-sidhistory-cleanup-with-cleanupmonster", "title": "Mastering Active Directory Hygiene: Automating SIDHistory Cleanup with CleanupMonster", "summary": "Security Identifier (SID) History is a useful mechanism in Active Directory (AD) migrations. It allows users and groups in a new domain to retain access to resources that still rely on permissions from the old domain. However, once migrations are completed, these historical SIDs can become clutter, posing both security and administrative challenges. While it\u2019s best to remove unnecessary SID History as soon as you\u2019re done migrating, many environments skip this step. Over time, decommissioned or broken trusts make cleanup more difficult, and domain objects can accrue so many old entries that you lose track of what is still required.", "date_published": "2025-03-16T18:47:45.0000000Z", "tags": [ "Active Directory", "activedirectory", "cleanup", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/upgrade-azure-active-directory-connect-fails-with-unexpected-error", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/upgrade-azure-active-directory-connect-fails-with-unexpected-error", "title": "Upgrade Azure Active Directory Connect fails with unexpected error", "summary": "Today, I made the decision to upgrade my test environment and update the version of Azure AD Connect to the latest one. The process is usually simple: download a new MSI, run it, click next a few times, enter the credentials for your Global Admin, and you\u2019re finished. However, this time, I encountered an error.", "date_published": "2024-10-02T12:17:34.0000000Z", "tags": [ "azure ad", "azure adconnect", "error", "errors", "Office 365", "office365" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/mastering-active-directory-hygiene-automating-stale-computer-cleanup-with-cleanupmonster", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/mastering-active-directory-hygiene-automating-stale-computer-cleanup-with-cleanupmonster", "title": "Mastering Active Directory Hygiene: Automating Stale Computer Cleanup with CleanupMonster", "summary": "Have you ever looked at your Active Directory and wondered, \u201CWhy do I still have computers listed that haven\u2019t been turned on since World Cup 2016?\u201D Yeah, we\u2019ve all been there. Keeping AD clean and up-to-date is like trying to organize your garage\u2014it\u2019s easy to put off until it becomes a total mess.", "date_published": "2024-08-25T13:14:39.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "ad", "cleanup", "intune", "microsoft entra", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/active-directory-replication-summary-to-your-email", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/active-directory-replication-summary-to-your-email", "title": "Active Directory Replication Summary to your Email or Microsoft Teams", "summary": "Active Directory replication is a critical process that ensures the consistent and up-to-date state of directory information across all domain controllers in a domain. Monitoring this process is important as it helps identify any issues that may arise and resolve them quickly. One way to monitor Active Directory replication is by using the Repadmin command-line tool. Repadmin provides a wealth of information about the replication status and health of a domain. However, manually checking the Repadmin output can be time-consuming and tedious, and running it manually every 30 minutes just to check if everything is great doesn\u2019t seem like a great idea. While PowerShell has its own commands around replication I\u2019ve not found something as fast and reliable as repadmin /replsummary.", "date_published": "2024-04-17T19:25:32.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "powershell", "replication" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/syncing-global-address-list-gal-to-personal-contacts-and-between-office-365-tenants-with-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/syncing-global-address-list-gal-to-personal-contacts-and-between-office-365-tenants-with-powershell", "title": "Syncing Global Address List (GAL) to personal contacts and between Office 365 tenants with PowerShell", "summary": "Hey there! Today, I wanted to introduce you to one of the small but excellent module I\u2019ve created called the O365Synchronizer. This module focuses on synchronizing contacts and users. If you\u2019ve ever been tasked with synchronizing Global Address Lists (GAL) across different Office 365 tenants or just wanted to sync GAL with user mailboxes so they can access contacts directly on their phones, this tool is for you.", "date_published": "2023-12-03T16:32:13.0000000Z", "tags": [ "api", "exchange", "microsoft graph", "office 365", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/active-directory-health-check-using-microsoft-entra-connect-health-service", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/active-directory-health-check-using-microsoft-entra-connect-health-service", "title": "Active Directory Health Check using Microsoft Entra Connect Health Service", "summary": "Active Directory (AD) is crucial in managing identities and resources within an organization. Ensuring its health is pivotal for the seamless operation of various services. Today, I decided to look at Microsoft Entra Connect Health (Azure AD Connect Health) service, which allows monitoring Azure AD Connect, ADFS, and Active Directory. This means that under a single umbrella, you can have an overview of three services health. But is it worth it?", "date_published": "2023-10-08T14:36:57.0000000Z", "tags": [ "Active Directory", "Azure", "azure ad", "health checks", "microsoft entra", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/unlocking-seamless-html-report-creation-harness-the-power-of-markdown-with-pswritehtml-powershell-module", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/unlocking-seamless-html-report-creation-harness-the-power-of-markdown-with-pswritehtml-powershell-module", "title": "Seamless HTML Report Creation: Harness the Power of Markdown with PSWriteHTML PowerShell Module", "summary": "In today\u2019s digital age, the ability to create compelling and informative HTML reports and documents is a crucial skill for professionals in various fields. Whether you\u2019re a data analyst, a system administrator, a developer, or simply someone who wants to present information in an organized and visually appealing manner, having the right tools at your disposal can make all the difference. That\u2019s where the PSWriteHTML PowerShell module steps in, offering an array of possibilities to suit your reporting needs.", "date_published": "2023-09-03T16:59:27.0000000Z", "tags": [ "css", "html", "markdown", "powershell", "powershell module", "pswritehtml" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/how-to-efficiently-remove-comments-from-your-powershell-script", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/how-to-efficiently-remove-comments-from-your-powershell-script", "title": "How to Efficiently Remove Comments from Your PowerShell Script", "summary": "As part of my daily development, I create lots of code that I subsequently comment on and leave to ensure I understand what I tried, what worked, and what didn\u2019t. This is my usual method of solving a problem. Sure, I could commit it to git and then look it up, and I do that, but that doesn\u2019t change my behavior where I happen to have lots of \u201Cjunk\u201D inside of my functions that stay commented out. While this works for me, and I\u2019ve accepted this as part of my process, I don\u2019t believe this should be part of the production code on PowerShellGallery or when the code is deployed.", "date_published": "2023-08-20T15:43:09.0000000Z", "tags": [ "cleanup", "comment", "powershell", "remove", "script" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/unlocking-powershell-magic-different-approach-to-creating-empty-pscustomobjects", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/unlocking-powershell-magic-different-approach-to-creating-empty-pscustomobjects", "title": "Unlocking PowerShell Magic: Different Approach to Creating \u2018Empty\u2019 PSCustomObjects", "summary": "Today I saw an article from Christian Ritter, \u201CPowerShell: Creating an \u201Cempty\u201D PSCustomObject\u201D on X that got me curious. Do people create empty objects like Christian proposes? I want to offer an alternative to Christian\u2019s article, which uses OrderedDictionary and converts to PSCustomObject.", "date_published": "2023-08-10T09:27:32.0000000Z", "tags": [ "conversion", "hashtable", "ordereddictionary", "powershell", "pscustomobject" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/report-active-directory-accounts-that-are-synchronized-with-azure-ad", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/report-active-directory-accounts-that-are-synchronized-with-azure-ad", "title": "Report Active Directory Accounts that are Synchronized with Azure AD", "summary": "I was scrolling X (aka Twitter) today and saw this blog post, \u201CPowerShell: Report On-Premises Active Directory Accounts that are Synchronized with Azure AD Connect\u201D by Kevin Trent. I like reading blog posts as I tend to learn some new things and see how people tend to solve their problems.", "date_published": "2023-08-07T13:21:18.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "ad", "azure ad", "microsoft graph", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/function-cannot-be-created-because-function-capacity-4096-has-been-exceeded-for-this-scope", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/function-cannot-be-created-because-function-capacity-4096-has-been-exceeded-for-this-scope", "title": "Function cannot be created because function capacity 4096 has been exceeded for this scope", "summary": "I had a long day today when my long-running script (10 hours) gave me weird errors with Microsoft Graph for Teams. Finally, I solved my mistakes and reran the hand to see if the report would be complete this time. Surprisingly, it gave me an error I\u2019d never seen before. \u201CFunction cannot be created because function capacity 4096 has been exceeded for this scope\u201D. The error is at least weird because it\u2019s shown on a production server where I\u2019ve just a handful of PowerShell modules installed, and I\u2019ve never seen it on my development machine where I\u2019ve over 200 modules.", "date_published": "2023-08-01T06:22:34.0000000Z", "tags": [ "aliases", "errors", "functions", "limits", "powershell", "windows powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/connect-mggraph-keyset-does-not-exist", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/connect-mggraph-keyset-does-not-exist", "title": "Connect-MgGraph: Keyset does not exist", "summary": "I had this little issue today when I tried to schedule the Microsoft Graph script to run as a service account on a certificate. To my surprise, even tho I had all permissions required, I was getting this error message: Connect-MgGraph: Keyset does not exist. Something that didn\u2019t show up for my user.", "date_published": "2023-07-20T07:07:41.0000000Z", "tags": [ "connet-mggraph", "graph", "graph-sdk", "microsoft graph", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/strengthening-password-security-in-active-directory-a-powershell-powered-approach", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/strengthening-password-security-in-active-directory-a-powershell-powered-approach", "title": "Strengthening Password Security in Active Directory: A PowerShell-Powered Approach", "summary": "PasswordSolution uses the DSInternals PowerShell module to gather Active Directory hashes and then combines that data into a prettified report. If you have ever used DSInternals, you know that while very powerful, it comes with raw data that is hard to process and requires some skills to get it into a state that can be shown to management or security.", "date_published": "2023-05-28T14:40:25.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "ad", "dsinternals", "html", "password quality", "passwordsolution", "powershell", "scan", "security", "Windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/simplify-notifications-about-ubiquiti-unifi-stock", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/simplify-notifications-about-ubiquiti-unifi-stock", "title": "Track Ubiquiti Unifi Stock, and get notified of changes", "summary": "I am a pretty big fan of Ubiquiti and their Unifi products line. Whether it\u2019s network equipment or their camera systems, Unifi Protect, I have it all, and I\u2019m pretty happy with how it works. However, over the last two years, some of their stocks in the store were very hard to find. For example, I\u2019ve searched for Unifi Protect G4 Doorbell Pro for over six months. I\u2019ve tried local shops all around Europe, even in the Ubiquiti Europe store, to never found any of them.", "date_published": "2023-04-16T15:04:57.0000000Z", "tags": [ "notifications", "powershell", "stock", "tracker", "ubiquiti", "unifi", "windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/microsoft-fundamental-free-training-starting-february-6th-2023", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/microsoft-fundamental-free-training-starting-february-6th-2023", "title": "Free Microsoft Azure/Office365 Fundamentals Training starting February 6th 2023", "summary": "Being a Microsoft MVP has quite a few benefits. You get to be part of unique offers that help you enhance your knowledge even further. Microsoft Learning team decided to provide free training on Microsoft Fundamentals for MVPs and the Microsoft community, so I\u2019m sharing this with you! Starting next week, Microsoft will run each activity from 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) or 15:00 to 23:00 in Europe (CET).", "date_published": "2023-02-04T10:03:56.0000000Z", "tags": [ "azure", "free", "o365", "office 365", "training" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/upload-and-download-files-from-azure-blob-storage-using-connection-string", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/upload-and-download-files-from-azure-blob-storage-using-connection-string", "title": "Upload and Download files from Azure Blob Storage using Connection String", "summary": "They say there is a first time for everything. For me, it\u2019s how to download and upload files to Azure Blog Storage using Connection String. Recently I was given Connection String, Container name and had to download some files from Azur Blog Storage. After some research and trying Connect-AzAccount, I found that the proper way to go is thru New-AzStorageContext.", "date_published": "2023-01-18T19:13:24.0000000Z", "tags": [ "az.storage", "azure ad", "azure blob storage", "download", "powershell", "upload" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/powerbginfo-powershell-alternative-to-sysinternals-bginfo", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/powerbginfo-powershell-alternative-to-sysinternals-bginfo", "title": "PowerBGInfo \u2013 PowerShell alternative to Sysinternals BGInfo", "summary": "When I created ImagePlayground, I thought about how to show its usefulness to the general community. On how to deliver what PowerShell can do. Then I saw on some forum people asking BGInfo to expand and allow running PowerShell scripts so that the data on the BGInfo Wallpaper can be gathered from PowerShell rather than VBS. I thought this was a great idea to create BGInfo using PowerShell without the necessity of using BGInfo at all.", "date_published": "2023-01-01T15:51:00.0000000Z", "tags": [ "bginfo", "desktop manager", "module", "powerbginfo", "powershell", "wallpaper", "windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/image-manipulation-image-resize-image-combine-and-more-with-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/image-manipulation-image-resize-image-combine-and-more-with-powershell", "title": "Image Manipulation, Image Resize, Image Combine and more with PowerShell", "summary": "ImagePlayground is a PowerShell module that works in PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7\u002B. It works partially on Linux and should work on macOS, except for charts. That means it\u2019s partially cross-platform, but the end goal is to make it work fully on all platforms. So what can this module do?", "date_published": "2023-01-01T15:50:41.0000000Z", "tags": [ ".net", ".NET Products", "bar code", "combine", "convert", "exif data", "grayscale", "image", "image manipulation", "linux", "macos", "net core", "net framework", "net standard", "powershell", "qr code", "watermark", "xplat" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/easy-way-to-send-emails-using-microsoft-graph-api-office-365-with-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/easy-way-to-send-emails-using-microsoft-graph-api-office-365-with-powershell", "title": "Easy way to send emails using Microsoft Graph API (Office 365) with PowerShell", "summary": "When you\u2019re using Office 365 and want to send an email, you have two choices SMTP or Microsoft Graph API, which is a \u201Cnew\u201D kid on the block. For some time, I\u2019ve used Microsoft Graph exclusively to send emails in favor of SMTP as it\u2019s much easier to manage and generally works over HTTPS. If you type in google \u201CSend email graph API PowerShell,\u201D you will get lots of hits as bloggers, and Microsoft has already covered this topic. It\u2019s even more critical than ever because Basic Authentication is deprecated in Office 365. To help out with the transition, Microsoft even released its PowerShell module. With Send-MgUserMail proposed as a way to send emails via Graph API, you will notice it\u2019s far from being easy \u0026 user-friendly. Over two years ago, I released a PowerShell module called Mailozaurr (some people may not like my modules\u2019 naming \u2013 but that\u2019s how I roll!). In a blog post, Mailozaurr \u2013 New mail toolkit (SMTP, IMAP, POP3) with support for oAuth 2.0 and GraphApi for PowerShell, I\u2019ve shown a basic functionality on how to send emails using SMTP OAuth 2.0 or Graph API, which aims to be drag \u0026 drop replacement over Send-MailMessage and is supposed to be as simple as possible to send an email with a low effort and high readability. You can also read on sending emails using Graph API by Tony Redmond in his blog post Moving on from Send-MailMessage: Sending Email from PowerShell using the Graph API.", "date_published": "2022-10-09T13:27:27.0000000Z", "tags": [ "Azure Application", "emails", "Exchange", "graph api", "microsoft graph", "oauth2", "office 365", "powershell", "send-emailmessage", "send-mailmessage", "smtp" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/adaptive-cards-with-tables-and-linebreaks-in-microsoft-teams", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/adaptive-cards-with-tables-and-linebreaks-in-microsoft-teams", "title": "Adaptive Cards with Tables and Linebreaks in Microsoft Teams", "summary": "PSTeams is a PowerShell module that helps simplify sending notifications to Microsoft Teams via Incoming webhooks. It\u2019s easy to use and doesn\u2019t require playing with JSON. Since version 2.0, it started to support Adaptive Cards; in version 2.1, I\u2019ve added the ability to mention people. Today I\u2019m introducing an easy way to send data as a table and a quick way to add a line break.", "date_published": "2022-08-21T16:07:01.0000000Z", "tags": [ "adaptive cards", "microsoft teams", "office 365", "powershell", "teams" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/working-with-virustotal-from-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/working-with-virustotal-from-powershell", "title": "Working with VirusTotal from PowerShell", "summary": "Virus Total is an excellent service. It\u2019s a single place where hundreds of antivirus engines can verify if the file, URL, domain name, or IP Address is trusted or not. Of course, it\u2019s not a silver bullet, but it brings tremendous value, and I often verify files I download before executing. Since I release a lot of new or updated PowerShell modules on a weekly/monthly basis, I thought it would be great to send newly released versions straight to Virus Total so I can have them checked before anyone executes them. I also hope to prevent false positives from some antivirus vendors that may tag my modules as malware because they haven\u2019t seen the DLL or PowerShell module in this form before. I\u2019ve seen it happen to DBATools, so why not try and push my modules before users even use them?", "date_published": "2022-08-10T18:25:07.0000000Z", "tags": [ "api", "powershell", "restapi", "security", "virus", "virus total" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/reporting-group-membership-for-critical-active-directory-groups", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/reporting-group-membership-for-critical-active-directory-groups", "title": "Reporting group membership for critical Active Directory groups", "summary": "I work a lot with Active Directory-related tasks. One of the tasks is to know the group membership of critical Active Directory Groups such as Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins, Schema Admins, Event Log Readers, and a few others that are a bit less known. As I did it, I got bored of typing the group names repeatedly and decided that enough was enough and there must be an easier way for me to do that.", "date_published": "2022-08-07T11:57:28.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "ad", "group membership", "groups", "nested groups", "powershell", "Windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/finding-duplicate-dns-records-by-ip-adress-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/finding-duplicate-dns-records-by-ip-adress-using-powershell", "title": "Finding duplicate DNS records by IP Address using PowerShell", "summary": "In my earlier blog post, I showed you a way to find duplicate DNS entries using PowerShell, but the focus was on finding duplicate entries based on hostname. But what if you would like to find duplicate entries based on IP Addresses? This was the question I was asked on Reddit, and I thought it was a legitimate request, so today\u2019s focus will be on transposing table output from earlier functions to present data differently.", "date_published": "2022-07-26T17:23:53.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "dns", "DNSServer", "duplicates", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/finding-duplicate-dns-entries-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/finding-duplicate-dns-entries-using-powershell", "title": "Finding duplicate DNS entries using PowerShell", "summary": "Today\u2019s blog post is about Active Directory-integrated DNS and how to find duplicate entries. By duplicate, I mean those where one DNS name matches multiple IP addresses. While some duplicate DNS entries are expected, in other cases, it may lead to problems. For example, having a static IP assigned to a hostname that later on is also updated with dynamic entries.", "date_published": "2022-07-24T16:48:21.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "ad", "dns", "DNSServer", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/officeimo-free-cross-platform-microsoft-word-net-library", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/officeimo-free-cross-platform-microsoft-word-net-library", "title": "OfficeIMO \u2013 Free cross-platform Microsoft Word .NET library", "summary": "I\u2019ve created a cross-platform (Windows, Linux, macOS) Word library based on Open XML SDK that heavily simplifies creating and modifying Word documents. Open XML SDK, while excellent, requires you to do a lot of work to make even simple documents. For example, if you want to use Table styles, you need first to define those styles, put them in a specific place, and assign them to a table. The same goes for lists, images, hyperlinks, bookmarks, and many other Microsoft Word types. Creating sections, managing headers, and footers \u2013 all that is possible using Open XML SDK, but it\u2019s far from easy. At least for a noob like me. You have to know the order to put them into the document; you must know the places and track IDs to all the elements. And trust me \u2013 it\u2019s not fun.", "date_published": "2022-06-12T16:14:01.0000000Z", "tags": [ "c#", "csharp", "docx", "microsoft office", "Office 365", "officeimo", "Windows", "word" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/reading-iis-logs-with-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/reading-iis-logs-with-powershell", "title": "Reading IIS logs with PowerShell", "summary": "Today I was reading Twitter, as I am pretty addicted to technology news when Adam Bacon mentioned that he\u2019s surprised that no one has rebuilt IIS Parser as pure PowerShell. While this is not entirely true, and some modules can do some parsing, I decided to try my luck. While doing it from scratch in PowerShell is possible, I opted to use an external C# library that does all the heavy lifting and is optimized for speed.", "date_published": "2022-06-04T19:47:08.0000000Z", "tags": [ "iis", "iis-server", "logs", "powershell", "Windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/powershell-comparing-advanced-objects", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/powershell-comparing-advanced-objects", "title": "PowerShell \u2013 Comparing advanced objects", "summary": "Two years ago, I wrote a blog post on how you can compare two or more objects visually in PowerShell that works on Windows, Linux, or macOS. I\u2019ve been using that for a while, but it had a specific flaw. Comparing more advanced objects that you often see (for example, returned by Graph API, two config files) wasn\u2019t working correctly, often throwing errors. The reason for this was that having nested hashtables arrays require more advanced logic. Today I\u2019ve updated my module to use the ConvertTo-FlatObject function, which allows the Compare-MultipleObjects function to compare suitably more advanced objects hopefully. Of course, it should not throw errors anymore.", "date_published": "2022-02-28T16:22:25.0000000Z", "tags": [ "compare", "html", "powershell", "pssharedgoods", "pswritehtml" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/powershell-converting-advanced-object-to-flat-object", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/powershell-converting-advanced-object-to-flat-object", "title": "PowerShell \u2013 Converting advanced object to flat object", "summary": "PowerShell language allows you to work and build complicated objects. There are multiple ways to save them, such as XML or JSON, but sometimes using them is impossible or inadequate. Sometimes you want to use HTML or CSV or any other single dimension output.", "date_published": "2022-02-27T14:57:20.0000000Z", "tags": [ "convert", "export-csv", "office 365", "powershell", "pswritehtml" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/office-365-health-service-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/office-365-health-service-using-powershell", "title": "Office 365 Health Service using PowerShell", "summary": "Two years ago, I wrote a PowerShell module called PSWinDocumentation.O365HealthService. The idea was simple \u2013 replicate Health Service data Microsoft offers in Office Portal so you can do with data whatever you want and display it however you like. I\u2019ve written about it in this blog post. A few weeks back, someone reported that the module stopped working, and I\u2019ve confirmed it indeed no longer works! Initially, I thought that maybe some data format changed, as it changed multiple times, or perhaps the date format was wrong again, but no. Microsoft has deprecated Office 365 Service Communications API reference and instead tells us that Service Health is now only available via Microsoft Graph API. Is it only me who didn\u2019t get the memo about this?", "date_published": "2022-02-14T17:48:15.0000000Z", "tags": [ "documentation", "health", "office 365", "powershell", "pswindocumentation", "pswritehtml", "reporting" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/difference-between-gettempfilename-and-getrandomfilename-that-got-my-ass-kicked", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/difference-between-gettempfilename-and-getrandomfilename-that-got-my-ass-kicked", "title": "Difference between GetTempFileName() and GetRandomFileName() that got my ass kicked", "summary": "Today\u2019s story is about me making assumptions on how things work based on the method\u2019s name. As the blog post says, I want to focus on two similar methods \u2013 GetTempFileName() and GetRandomFileName(), when using PowerShell. Still, since those methods are .NET based, it applies to a whole range of other languages \u2013 C#, F#, VisualBasic, and all others that I\u2019ve never used.", "date_published": "2022-01-24T18:51:13.0000000Z", "tags": [ ".net", "c#", "powershell", "Windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/mentioning-users-in-notifications-using-psteams-powershell-module", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/mentioning-users-in-notifications-using-psteams-powershell-module", "title": "Mentioning users in notifications using PSTeams PowerShell Module", "summary": "Microsoft Teams over the last few years have grown into an excellent and flexible tool for both small and big companies. Having the ability to chat with users, store files or have all sorts of data in one place makes it easy and functional. Of course, it has its fair share of issues, but it\u2019s getting better. One of the cool features of Microsoft Teams is being able to send notifications to Microsoft Teams Channels using WebHook Notifications. In the beginning, this feature was pretty limited, but after a few years, it got much better with support for Adaptive Cards, List Cards, Hero Cards, Thumbnail Cards, and Office 365 Connector Card.", "date_published": "2022-01-16T19:08:52.0000000Z", "tags": [ "Azure AD", "microsoft teams", "office 365", "powershell", "psteams" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/finding-duplicate-spn-with-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/finding-duplicate-spn-with-powershell", "title": "Finding duplicate SPN with PowerShell", "summary": "Duplicate SPNs aren\u2019t very common but can happen in any Active Directory as there\u2019s no built-in way that tracks and prevent duplicate SPN\u2019s. One has to either know all SPN\u2019s in the environment, track them or check each time whether it already exists or not. Things get more complicated with larger Active Directory environments as people change, new apps are added, old apps are forgotten, but SPNs prevail.", "date_published": "2021-12-07T15:32:01.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "ad", "adessentials", "forest", "powershell", "spn", "testimo" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/solving-typo-problems-with-fuzzy-search-in-pswritehtml", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/solving-typo-problems-with-fuzzy-search-in-pswritehtml", "title": "Solving typo problems with Fuzzy Search in PSWriteHTML", "summary": "One of the everyday use cases with PSWriteHTML is to create a simple view of PowerShell data in a table. While PowerShell comes with a built-in cmdlet ConvertTo-Html, it\u2019s basic in its functionality. It makes an HTML representation of PowerShell data, but it brings no CSS, JavaScript, or other functionality. While for some use cases, it\u2019s enough, the other times, you need to make an effort to make it usable.", "date_published": "2021-11-29T18:53:28.0000000Z", "tags": [ "css", "fuzzysearch", "html", "javascript", "js", "out-htmlview", "powershell", "pswritehtml", "reporting" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/active-directory-domain-services-could-not-replicate-the-directory-partition-the-replication-operation-encountered-a-database-error", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/active-directory-domain-services-could-not-replicate-the-directory-partition-the-replication-operation-encountered-a-database-error", "title": "Active Directory Domain Services could not replicate the directory partition \u2013 The replication operation encountered a database error", "summary": "If you ever encounter an error while trying to create a new domain within a forest saying, \u201CThe replication operation encountered a database error,\u201D it makes you sweat a bit. Your brain tells you it will be a nightmare to fix, do I have proper backups to make it happen, and the question \u201Cwhy now\u201D shows up.", "date_published": "2021-11-28T14:38:20.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "dcdiag", "dfs", "domain", "forest", "forest replication", "PowerShell", "testimo", "Windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/configuring-office-365-settings-using-powershell-the-non-supported-way", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/configuring-office-365-settings-using-powershell-the-non-supported-way", "title": "Configuring Office 365 settings using PowerShell \u2013 The non-supported way", "summary": "Office 365 is a huge beast. It has so many services that it\u2019s hard to track all of them. It\u2019s even harder if you want to manage Office 365 using PowerShell. Microsoft makes many different PowerShell modules available for you, such as AzureAD, AzureADPreview, ExchangeOnline, MicrosoftTeams, and recently, Microsoft.Graph. But even with so many different modules, there are still tasks that Microsoft won\u2019t let you do from PowerShell. But it doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s not possible to do it. I\u2019ve spent some time tracking how Microsoft does things while you click thru the interface and created an O365Essentials PowerShell module that can do it in an automated way.", "date_published": "2021-09-26T15:12:35.0000000Z", "tags": [ "Azure", "Azure AD", "graph api", "microsoft graph", "microsoft office 365", "module", "o365essentials", "office 365", "powershell", "powershellgallery" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/encrypting-and-decrypting-pgp-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/encrypting-and-decrypting-pgp-using-powershell", "title": "Encrypting and decrypting PGP using PowerShell", "summary": "Some time ago, I decided that having an easy-to-use PGP PowerShell module is a way to kill my boredom. Four months have passed, and I decided to share it with the world, as it may be helpful to some of you. Today I would like to introduce you to PSPGP \u2013 PowerShell module that provides PGP functionality in PowerShell.", "date_published": "2021-09-12T15:14:12.0000000Z", "tags": [ "gpg", "pgp", "powershell", "windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/easy-way-to-connect-to-ftps-and-sftp-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/easy-way-to-connect-to-ftps-and-sftp-using-powershell", "title": "Easy way to connect to FTPS and SFTP using PowerShell", "summary": "FTPS and SFTP are two ways to send and receive files from remote sources. While the name suggests both do the same thing, those are different protocols, in the end, having the same goal. A few weeks back, I had to make sure I can reliably download files from FTPS server using PowerShell, and since I couldn\u2019t find anything straightforward to use, I decided to write my own. Transfertto is a new PowerShell module that supports both FTPS and SFTP protocols. Its goal is to be the only module that you need to transfer files to and from FTP/SFTP servers.", "date_published": "2021-08-29T13:47:48.0000000Z", "tags": [ "ftp", "ftps", "powershell", "sftp", "ssh", "transferetto", "Windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/sending-email-as-an-alias-proxy-address-with-office-365", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/sending-email-as-an-alias-proxy-address-with-office-365", "title": "Sending email as an alias (proxy address) with Office 365", "summary": "Sending emails in Microsoft Exchange world using an alias for an account has always been a pain. It required working with workarounds such as setting up Shared Mailbox or Distribution Groups and using SendAs permissions. For years admins around the world were asking Microsoft to change this, and finally, in April 2021, they did! It\u2019s a new feature of Office 365, and it requires action from Office 365 Administrator.", "date_published": "2021-04-20T10:19:21.0000000Z", "tags": [ "exchange", "exchange online", "office 365", "powershell", "proxy address", "sendasalias" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/submitting-blogs-to-web-archive-org-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/submitting-blogs-to-web-archive-org-using-powershell", "title": "Submitting blogs to web.archive.org using PowerShell", "summary": "Since my website went down in fire with OVH SBG2, I used this occasion to publish my restored website via Cloudflare. It allows me to have to cache, minimization, and some additional security. One thing that caught my attention while browsing through Cloudflare settings was the Always Online feature based on web.archive.org. Basically, the concept is \u2013 whenever the website is down, Cloudflare would go and fetch content from web.archive.org.", "date_published": "2021-03-19T14:23:11.0000000Z", "tags": [ "archive", "blogs", "powershell", "pswritecolor", "rss", "web.archive.org", "write-color" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/advanced-html-reporting-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/advanced-html-reporting-using-powershell", "title": "Advanced HTML reporting using PowerShell", "summary": "I\u2019ve been using HTML reporting in PowerShell for a while. Initially, I would usually build HTML by hand, but the time spent trying to figure out what works and what doesn\u2019t drive me mad. With the PSWriteHTML module, a lot has changed. With just a few PowerShell lines, I can create feature-rich reports that change how I show data to my Clients. Today I wanted to show you some advanced HTML reporting without actually complicating PowerShell code. In the last few months, I\u2019ve added many features that create advanced reports without sacrificing readability.", "date_published": "2021-03-16T17:15:23.0000000Z", "tags": [ "advanced reporting", "css", "html", "javascript", "powershell", "pswritehtml", "reporting" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/monitoring-ldaps-connectivity-certificate-with-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/monitoring-ldaps-connectivity-certificate-with-powershell", "title": "Monitoring LDAPS connectivity/certificate with PowerShell", "summary": "Some time ago, I wrote a blog post on checking for LDAP, LDAPS, LDAP GC, and LDAPS GC ports with PowerShell. It mostly works, but it requires a tad bit of effort, and it doesn\u2019t cover the full scope that I wanted. Recently (well over 3 years ago), Chris Dent shared some code that verifies the LDAP certificate, and I thought this would be good to update my cmdlets to support just that with a bit of my own magic on top.", "date_published": "2021-03-02T17:53:05.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "ad", "ldap", "powershell", "testimo" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/the-only-command-you-will-ever-need-to-understand-and-fix-your-group-policies-gpo", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/the-only-command-you-will-ever-need-to-understand-and-fix-your-group-policies-gpo", "title": "The only command you will ever need to understand and fix your Group Policies (GPO)", "summary": "I\u2019ve been working on cleaning up Group Policies for a couple of months. While it may seem trivial, things get complicated when you\u2019re tasked with managing 5000 GPOs created over 15 years by multiple teams without any best practices in mind. While working on GPOZaurr (my new PowerShell module), I\u2019ve noticed that the more code I wrote to manage those GPOs, the more I knew passing this knowledge to admins who will be executing this on a weekly/monthly basis is going to be a challenge. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve decided to follow a similar approach as my other Active Directory testing module called Testimo. I\u2019ve created a single command that analyses Group Policies using different methods and shows views from different angles to deliver the full picture. On top of that, it provides a solution (or it tries to) so that it\u2019s fairly easy to fix \u2013 as long as you agree with what it proposes.", "date_published": "2021-01-24T17:15:04.0000000Z", "tags": [ "active directory", "gpo", "group policy", "powershell" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/creating-office-365-migration-diagram-with-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/creating-office-365-migration-diagram-with-powershell", "title": "Creating Office 365 Migration Diagram with PowerShell", "summary": "A few weeks ago, I posted a concept migration diagram for Office 365 to Twitter and Facebook. Today I thought I would show you how you can do it yourself using PowerShell and PSWriteHTML PowerShell module. When I started working on this, I\u2019ve thought I want to create before and after infrastructure to see how it will look when migration ends. I\u2019ve initially planned to assign myself an Office 365 Visio Plan 2 license and do something manually, thinking it may be just much easier. Unfortunately for me, there were no free Visio licenses in my tenant, and my laziness took over, so I\u2019ve decided to give it a go using PowerShell only.", "date_published": "2021-01-03T18:27:05.0000000Z", "tags": [ "diagram", "module", "office 365", "powershell", "pswritehtml" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/remove-item-access-to-the-cloud-file-is-denied-while-deleting-files-from-onedrive", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/remove-item-access-to-the-cloud-file-is-denied-while-deleting-files-from-onedrive", "title": "Remove-Item : Access to the cloud file is denied while deleting files from OneDrive", "summary": "I like OneDrive. It allows me to keep my data secure and always synchronized. If things go wrong, I can always get it back. I use it for almost everything. Even for my PowerShell projects, which are committed to GitHub, so in theory, I shouldn\u2019t need that. But every once in a while, I make some stupid mistake and delete a file that has yet not been committed to GitHub, and that\u2019s where the OneDrive comes in handy. Quick restore, and we\u2019re back. Unfortunately, sometimes things aren\u2019t as I would expect them to work. For example, let\u2019s have a look at this nice list of markdown files that are documentation for my module called GPOZaurr.", "date_published": "2020-12-06T18:07:39.0000000Z", "tags": [ "delete", "Office 365", "onedrive", "powershell", "remove-item", "Windows" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/introducing-psteams-2-0-support-for-adaptive-cards-hero-cards-list-cards-and-thumbnail-cards", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/introducing-psteams-2-0-support-for-adaptive-cards-hero-cards-list-cards-and-thumbnail-cards", "title": "Introducing PSTeams 2.0 \u2013 Support for Adaptive Cards, Hero Cards, List Cards and Thumbnail Cards", "summary": "PSTeams PowerShell module has been on the market for a while now. It supports sending notifications to Microsoft Teams channels via Incoming WebHooks. You could send a pretty message to the team\u2019s channel with just a few lines of code. With PSTeams 2.0, support for Adaptive Cards, Hero Cards, List Cards, and Thumbnail Cards was added.", "date_published": "2020-11-09T17:02:21.0000000Z", "tags": [ "microsoft teams", "office 365", "powershell", "reporting", "webhook" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/visually-display-active-directory-trusts-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/visually-display-active-directory-trusts-using-powershell", "title": "Visually display Active Directory Trusts using PowerShell", "summary": "Active Directory Trusts are useful to connect one or more domains. But as useful those are, they can be very dangerous. Also, keeping trusts working and in good shape should be a top priority for Active Directory Admins. While there is a couple of command in the Active Directory module Get-ADTrust, I thought I would try and write my own that checks a few more things. I want to thank Chris Dent for his input on the part of this command. His binary skills amaze me!", "date_published": "2020-09-14T13:44:10.0000000Z", "tags": [ "Active Directory", "activedirectory", "adessentials", "get-winadtrust", "powershell", "pswritehtml", "show-winadtrust" ] }, { "id": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/visually-display-active-directory-nested-group-membership-using-powershell", "url": "https://evotec.xyz/blog/visually-display-active-directory-nested-group-membership-using-powershell", "title": "Visually display Active Directory Nested Group Membership using PowerShell", "summary": "In the Active Directory PowerShell module, you have two commands to your disposal that help display group membership. Those are Get-ADGroup and Get-ADGroupMember. The first command contains property Members, which gives you DistinguishedName of all members, and Get-ADGroupMember can provide you either direct members or with Recursive switch all members recursively (skipping groups). Till a few weeks ago, I was a happy user of those commands until I noticed two things. Member property for Get-ADGroup sometimes misses elements for whatever reason.", "date_published": "2020-09-02T16:06:48.0000000Z", "tags": [ "Active Directory", "adessentials", "diagram", "get-adgroup", "get-adgroupmember", "nested groups", "powershell", "pswritehtml" ] } ] }