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
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Secure your Windows 11 environment by moving SSH private keys to hardware. Learn how to configure YubiKey FIDO2/U2F support in native OpenSSH, manage the ssh-agent, and eliminate file-based credential risks.
Windows Server
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Use Zabbix to monitor your web application and application pool’s .NET CLR Garbage Collected heap by utilizing WMI and PowerShell.
Windows Server
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Find out fast if your IIS webservers have EnableTrailerSupport enabled for https.sys in the registry. Here is a small PowerShell method.
Windows Server
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Learn how to add VirtIO drivers to your Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) to recover your Windows virtual machines. Using Powershell of course and Windows Server 2022.
Security, Windows Server
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Storing SSH public keys in Windows Server Active Directory gives you a single location where you manage public SSH keys instead of on numerous separate servers. This is easier than distributing and managing numerous unmanaged authorized_keys files across your network and servers.
Windows Server
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Learn how to install SQL Server cumulative updates (CU) silently using PowerShell opposed to the cumbersome task of running the GUI installer.
Windows Server
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short PowerShell snippet for you to remove a computer object from Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
Windows Server
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Add, list, and remove IP addresses in Windows Firewall (PowerShell & netsh): How to bulk add IP addresses in Windows Firewall, list an IP address and how to remove all IP addresses from Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security.
Windows Server
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For the time being, some manual labor is involved, but it is still manageable. You can use this to create your own solution to block offending IP addresses in SQL Server’s firewall.
Windows Server
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Turn off Windows Defender routine remediation using a GPO setting called “DisableRoutinelyTakingAction”. This policy setting allows you to configure whether Microsoft Defender Antivirus automatically takes action on all detected threats.
Windows Server
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Enabling Windows Defender per GPO failed with the error message “Get-MpComputerStatus : The extrinsic Method could not be executed.”, here is how to resolve this issue.
Windows Server
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Use IIS Manager to administer various components of your website through a graphical user interface (GUI) if it’s hosted in Windows Server IIS. In this article you’ll learn how to install and setup IIS Manager in Windows 11/10 to manage your website(s).
Windows Server
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If you want to quickly delete all saved Remote Desktop credentials from your Windows 10 Credentials Manager, here…
Windows Server
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Zabbix monitoring for your websites and ASP.NET applications in IIS using _Process Performance Counter.
Windows Server
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When you host multiple websites in IIS, and you need to monitor them, Zabbix is one of your options. In Zabbix, you can take advantage of Windows Server performance counters. And in this article I show you some important Windows performance counters you can use to monitor your ASP.NET web application in Zabbix.
Windows Server
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Here is a small introduction to query the number of running w3wp.exe processes per IIS application pool in Zabbix so you can start monitoring Microsoft Windows Server IIS with Zabbix.
Windows Server
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PowerShell ternary operator emulation for PowerShell 5.1. Quick and dirty determine if a condition is true or false by emulating the ternary operator. For example when determinering if the server you are servicing is a Windows Server Desktop Experience version or not (and thus Server Core).
Windows Server
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Easily find out whether an update or patch is installed. Or not… With PowerShell
Windows Server
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Learn how to install and enable the built-in OpenSSH Server on Windows, customize its installation directory and configure your `sshd_config` file.
Windows Server
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Follow this if you have no more need for Windows Server IIS and want to remove IIS completely from Windows Server using PowerShell