To track user login history using PowerShell, read successful logon events (ID 4624) from the Security log with Get-WinEvent in an elevated window. Each event records who signed in, when and how: Below I turn those events into a readable report, find failed sign-ins, and show a history you can read without admin rights. I … 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
PowerShell Invoke-WebRequest sends an HTTP or HTTPS request and returns the full response: status code, headers, content and links. The simplest call is a GET request to a URL: Below I cover GET and POST requests, custom headers, downloading files, calling a REST API and handling errors. I tested these against real sites in PowerShell … 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
To install winget using PowerShell, register the App Installer package that already ships with Windows. This one command fixes a missing winget on most Windows 11 and Windows 10 PCs: winget, the Windows Package Manager, is part of App Installer. Below I show how to check whether you already have it, the command that repairs … Read more
To unblock files recursively in PowerShell, list every file in the folder with Get-ChildItem -Recurse and pipe them to Unblock-File: Only do this for files you trust. Below I show how Windows marks downloads, how to find blocked files first, and how to unblock only scripts, all tested in PowerShell 7.6 and 5.1. Why Windows … Read more
To disable Windows Defender real-time protection using PowerShell, run Set-MpPreference in an elevated window, after turning off Tamper Protection in Windows Security: Microsoft Defender Antivirus is the current name for Windows Defender. Turning it off leaves the PC unprotected, so do it only briefly while troubleshooting. Below I cover checking the status, why the command … Read more
To change directory in PowerShell, use Set-Location, or its short alias cd, followed by the folder path. Get-Location shows where you are now: Output: Below I cover relative paths, folders with spaces, going back to the previous folder, and a .NET gotcha that trips up scripts. Every example ran in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell … 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
Test-NetConnection checks whether your computer can reach another host, and whether a specific TCP port on it is open. Give it a computer name and a port: Output: TcpTestSucceeded True means the port accepted a connection. I selected three properties because the full output also lists your own IP address and network adapter. Every example … Read more
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