In this post I showed you how you can use PowerShell to install Windows Updates. Quickly and silently. This makes the use of PSWindowsUpdate module perfect for your day to day automation. The module even supports scheduling (on remote computers too!), it has the ability to search WSUS and Windows Update for updates, scheduling and performing the download and installation of updates.
Author: Jan Reilink
Hi, my name is Jan. I am not a hacker, coder, developer or guru. I am merely an application manager / systems administrator, doing my daily thing at Embrace - The Human Cloud. In the past I worked for clidn and Vevida. With over 20 years of experience, my specialties include Windows Server, IIS, Linux (CentOS, Debian), security, PHP, websites & optimization. I blog at https://www.saotn.org.
Send email with PowerShell
In this post I provide you with a small PowerShell function you can use to send email over a TLS secured SMTP connection with SMTP authentication. As a framework you can use in your own scripting and extend it. You can even create a PowerShell module of it.
Are you in my blocklist?
Is your IP address in my WordPress .htaccess block list? Here are IP addresses I block manually because of comment spamming.
Create an additional SQL Server Login
Here is a small T-SQL snippet that creates an additional (extra) SQL Server Login (User) for contained databases in SQL Server. It sets memberships too.
Monitor SQL Server and databases in depth using Zabbix
SQL Server performance monitoring in Zabbix: Keeping your SQL Server and databases in top shape is key for a good performing SQL Server database server and its databases. A good performing SQL Server makes happy customers, and that’s what puts bread on the plank, right? In this post I’ll show you how you can use Windows Performance counters, PowerShell / WMI and Zabbix for in depth monitoring of your SQL Server server and databases.
Query all WordPress posts in MySQL not having a Yoast SEO meta description
Here is a query you can use to query all posts in WordPress not having a Yoast SEO meta description yet. You can run this on your MySQL prompt or in phpMyAdmin.
Configure Windows Debugging Symbols in WinDbg
Before you can properly debug crash and memory dumps in Windows (Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server), you need to install WinDbg -Windows Debugger- and its debugging symbols. In this article I explain how to set up these debugging symbols for WinDbg in Windows. Debug BSOD like a boss!
Extract files from an MSI package
To extract all files from a .msi file, use the following msiexec command and arguments. Windows has the ability to allow the MSI package (.msi file) contents to be extracted using the command line or via a script.
Connect to a KVM host through an ssh tunnel and arbitrary port in Windows 11 and WSL 2
If you need to connect virt-manager to a KVM host over ssh in Windows, then Windows 11 and WSL 2 made things a whole lot easier for you. Even if you need to connect virt-manager through an ssh tunnel and arbitrary port because your network is reachable only through a bastion host and ssh key authentication. Here is how.
Windows 11/10 and WSL 2 DevOps environment
In this post I showed you how you can turn Windows 11 and Windows 10 with WSL into a fully fledged development environment. Here are the settings and tools I use for DevOps/SysOps on Windows. It may take some getting used to, but if you’re as shortcut-Ninja as I’m (I alt-tab, ctrl-c/ctrl-v a lot), you can work pretty fast in this set up.
YubiKey support in OpenSSH for Windows 11 and Windows 10
In this post, I’ll show you how to properly install Microsoft OpenSSH client in Windows 11 and Windows 10, and how to configure your YubiKey.
How to display longer username in `ps`
Display full username in ps. The ps output truncates usernames to 7 characters and a +. If you need the full username in ps, here is how.
Monitor .NET CLR Garbage Collected heap from your web application
Use Zabbix to monitor your web application and application pool’s .NET CLR Garbage Collected heap by utilizing WMI and PowerShell.
Quickly check EnableTrailerSupport isn’t set in your network for http.sys (CVE-2022-21907)
Find out fast if your IIS webservers have EnableTrailerSupport enabled for https.sys in the registry. Here is a small PowerShell method.
Convert SqlCe database to SQL Server
In this post I’ll show you how to convert an SQL Server Compact (SQL CE) database to SQL Server. Because the SQL CE database type is unsupported, it’s recommended by Microsoft to upgrade to SQL Server. But how do you convert your SqlCe database?