PowerShell Scripts & Automation Guides for Sysadmins
Welcome to the central repository for PowerShell automation and scripting guides on saotn.org. As environments scale, manual configuration becomes a bottleneck. PowerShell is the definitive tool for Windows Server administration, IIS management, and cloud infrastructure automation.
Whether you are looking to deploy rapid security fixes, automate your monthly update cycles, or streamline your local DevOps workflow, these practical, real-world scripts are designed to save you time and eliminate repetitive tasks.
Core Automation Categories
To help you navigate through the collection, our top-performing PowerShell resources are grouped by technical focus:
Windows Server & Active Directory Management: Automate core infrastructure tasks. Learn how to list all SPNs used in your Active Directory or fetch SSH keys seamlessly.
IIS & Web Infrastructure: Skip the IIS Manager GUI. From installing IIS on Windows 11 to programmatically adjusting advanced application pool settings, master command-line web administration.
Windows Update & WSUS Automation: Keep your fleet secure without the clicking. Streamline your patch management with deep-dives like installing Windows Updates via PowerShell and deploying Servicing Stack Updates (SSU).
Security & Network Administration: Harden your network endpoints. Use scripts to manage Windows Firewall rules or execute HTTPS GET requests with SSL client certificates safely.
Browse the chronological list of all PowerShell articles, snippet breakdowns, and troubleshooting guides below. All code blocks are verified, production-ready, and optimized for modern Windows environments.
Windows Server
Being unable to open SQL Server Configuration Manager is often caused by a corrupt or removed WMI provider for SQL Server. This post explains how to resolve this.
Windows Server
Last updated:
The fire-and-forget method to update SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) automatically by uninstalling any installed version and downloading & installing the newest available version from Microsoft.
Codebase
Last updated:
Learn how to use the Twilio SendGrid Web API v3 to send email with PowerShell
Windows Server
Last updated:
Windows Server IIS is known for reusing DH key values, but there is a way to disable ECDH public server param reuse in Windows Server IIS and here is how.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Learn how to create strong and unique passwords in Windows using PowerShell, because the use of those unique and strong passwords is important.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Have a need for IIS in your Windows 11 development station, and now you wonder how to install IIS? Here I describe how you can easily install IIS and some modules using PowerShell
Windows Server
Last updated:
Zabbix is a great tool to monitor your website performance on IIS using Performance Counters, PowerShell and WMI.
Codebase
Last updated:
Use a specific TLS certificate or thumbprint for outgoing HTTPS connections using PowerShell. Because sometimes there are endpoint restrictions in place.
Useful
Last updated:
Learn how to calculate and create file checksums with PowerShell's Get-FileHash and certutil.exe. Use this to validate file integrity in Windows (Windows Server).
Codebase
Last updated:
Learn how to use PowerShell Test-NetConnection to test if a TCP port is open
Windows Server
Last updated:
Old school: learn how to convert a Windows SID (security identifier) to an username, or vice versa (username to SID) using PowerShell and VBScript. Because sometimes you just need to convert a Windows SID to an username, don't you?
Windows Server
Last updated:
Whenever I need to restore an SQL Server .bak backup file, I want to know some properties of the backup file to make sure I'm working with the correct file(s). Luckily, the .bak file and PowerShell provide all the information I need, so I don't have to start a Restore procedure in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) just to view the header information. As you know, SSMS is slow...
Windows Server
Last updated:
Use PowerShell, Performance Counters and WMI to get the current number of active connections to IIS websites. Monitor IIS servers in Zabbix
Windows Server
Last updated:
Use PowerShell to install SSL certificate in Windows Server and change its FriendlyName property. As a bonus, I show you how to verify a certificate's Common Name (Subject) and Subject Alternative Name (SAN) using certutil.exe and PowerShell Get-PfxCertificate.
Windows Server
Last updated:
You can use PowerShell to install Windows Updates automatically, unattended and simple. Neat, right? For this, you don't have to have an enterprise environment with WSUS, or Windows Server, but since this is Sysadmins of the North, I assume you do. In this post I show you how to install Windows Updates with PowerShell and the PSWindowsUpdate module.
Codebase
Last updated:
Easily send your DevOps reporting using SMTP email with this PowerShell function, because the Send-MailMessage cmdlet is obsolete. Of course you'll be using StartTLS and authenticated SMTP as additional security.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Monitor Microsoft SQL Server, databases and performance with Zabbix, PowerShell, Performance Counters and WMI. Keep SQL Server and databases in top shape and performance up! In this post I show you how you can use Zabbix to monitor those important aspects for database administrators (DBA).
Windows Server
Last updated:
How to extract MSI files without installing Windows Server 2022 (quick command-line method). Learn the definitive way to extract files from .msi packages using the msiexec /a switch, TARGETDIR, and PowerShell for automated deployments.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Connect virt-manager to a KVM host through an ssh tunnel and arbitrary port in Windows using Windows 11 and WSL 2.
Windows Server
Last updated:
DevOps in Windows: In this post I describe some of the settings and changes I made to make my Windows 11 and Ubuntu WSL2 into a fully fledged development environment. Here are the settings and tools I use for DevOps / SysOps on Windows.