You can only uninstall Microsoft Edge using PowerShell or Settings if your PC was set up in the European Economic Area (EEA). In the US and everywhere else, Windows treats Edge as part of the operating system and blocks its uninstaller. Below I show how to check what’s installed and why removal is blocked, the … Read more
To enable Remote Desktop using PowerShell, set fDenyTSConnections to 0 in the registry and turn on the Remote Desktop firewall rules. Run both lines as administrator: Below I check the current state first, then cover NLA, allowing users, enabling RDP on remote PCs and turning it off again. The checks ran on Windows 11 in … Read more
To create a desktop shortcut with a custom icon in PowerShell, use the WScript.Shell COM object. CreateShortcut makes a .lnk file, and you set its TargetPath, IconLocation and other properties before calling Save(): Output: I created every shortcut in a test folder so the output is easy to check. The last section shows how to … Read more
To rename a Windows computer with PowerShell, open PowerShell as an administrator and run Rename-Computer -NewName with the new name. Add -Restart, because the new name only takes effect after a restart: It works the same in PowerShell 7 and Windows PowerShell 5.1. I didn’t rename my own PC for this article. Every example below … Read more
To install Snipping Tool in Windows 11 using PowerShell, install it from the Microsoft Store with winget. Snipping Tool’s Store ID is 9MZ95KL8MR0L: Windows 11 already includes Snipping Tool, so check first. Below I show how to find it, re-register it when it’s broken, reset it and reinstall it, tested in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows … Read more
To install Git on Windows using PowerShell, run one winget command. winget is the Windows Package Manager, built into Windows 11 and current Windows 10 releases: That’s the command the Git project itself recommends. -e matches the ID exactly, so winget can’t pick a similarly named package. Below I cover checking the install, updating, setting … Read more
Windows PowerShell vs CMD comes down to one difference: CMD passes plain text between commands, while PowerShell passes .NET objects you can filter, sort and format. For anything beyond a quick one-liner, PowerShell is the better choice. CMD (cmd.exe, the Command Prompt) is still around for batch files and old habits. Below I compare the … Read more
In Windows Terminal vs PowerShell, the difference is simple: Windows Terminal is the window, and PowerShell is the shell that runs inside it. Windows Terminal draws the text, tabs and panes, while PowerShell understands your commands and runs scripts. So it’s not really Windows Terminal or PowerShell. You run PowerShell in Windows Terminal, or in … Read more
To install Windows updates using PowerShell, use the Windows Update Agent built into Windows, or the community PSWindowsUpdate module. PSWindowsUpdate is the quickest. In an elevated window, install it once, then install every available update: -AutoReboot restarts the PC if an update needs it, so leave it off on machines people are using. Below I … Read more
To disable Windows Firewall using PowerShell, open PowerShell as administrator and set all three firewall profiles to False: That leaves the PC unprotected, so turn it back on as soon as you’re done. Below I check the status, preview the change with -WhatIf, re-enable it, and show the safer option of changing one rule. My … Read more