For certain actions it is required that the Windows Explorer is stopped in order to avoid open file handles or other actions that can be done while the Explorer is running. Windows is configured to restart the Explorer automatically when its process is terminated. I wrote a small PowerShell script that checks the current setting, disables it if necessary, kills the process and then restarts it and optionally restores the setting if it was set in the first place. You can find it here:

This script has to be executed with administrator privileges as it changes values in the system wide part of the registry.

Escaping in PowerShell or in any other scripting language is not that much fun to begin with. So if you have quotes in quotes on different shells in different systems it becomes really funny. So trust me, I am more than surprised that I just found a neat way to check, if a database exists on a remote host with PowerShell (on Windows) and SSH (to a Linux machine):

[string]::IsNullOrEmpty((ssh root@your.hostname.com 'mysql -N -e $''SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = \''databasename\'';'''))

Execute this with a replaced host- and database name in PowerShell and it tells you “False” if your database exists or “True” if not because it is checked if the string is null or empty. Maybe just flip the boolean value in the end 🙂🙃

Some time ago I wrote a short post on “How to develop a 64bit C application on Windows 10 with Visual Studio Code“.

To be honest´it is a little bit tricky setting up the development environment, with gcc, gdb, make and other required tools. So I have extended my automated installation script.

This script will:

• Install Msys2 in “%LocalAppData%\Programs\Msys2” (Under your user directory. Thus, no admin privileges are required.
• Install all the required tools for development like compiler, linker, debugger, etc.
• Update everything to the latest version.

If you download the file from the repository it is possible that PowerShell will ask you if you really want to run the file. You can prevent this from happening with the following command:

Unblock-File -Path install.ps1
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Performing the operation "Unblock-File" on target "C:\Users\Path\to\download\directory\install.ps1".
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"):

There will be a console windows flashing up a few times. When everything is done the regular prompt of PowerShell is shown.

Ever wanted to get the full path of an executable that is located in the global PATH variable? Maybe for configuration purposes? Take a look at the following snippet. It may help you:

(Get-Command -Name @("code.cmd")).Path | ForEach-Object {
	Write-Host "$(([System.IO.DirectoryInfo]$_).Parent.FullName)"
}

This will show the full path of the parent folder containing “code.cmd”. The term “code.cmd” could be replaced with “java”, “cmd”, “powershell” or whatever is configured in the global path. It could be useful to find out what version of a certain framework or program is used for example.

I see a huge demand for automation even in areas that are not primarily associated with software development or IT in general. And I also see people getting more and more interested in scripting and coding to get annoying, repetitive and boring tasks done more easily and robust. There is only one drawback: Code that automates tasks wants to be written first and debugging is a big aid on the way to get things done. That is why I wrote this text: Because I think PowerShell is a powerful scripting tool and it should not be restricted to software developers only. So let’s get started.

First download and install Visual Studio Code. User Installer with 64 bit is probably the best choice if you are not sure about permissions and architecture. Just make sure to select the following two options during the installation process.

Now create a folder somewhere on your computer. In a workspace, in the documents folder, on your desktop, wherever you will find it again. Make a right click in this folder and choose “Open with Code”.

The next thing that should open right now is the following screen.

Click on the “New File” icon and create a file called “example.ps1”. Open the file and add the following code. You can copy and paste it from here, if you want. The variable in “Round …” is written in this strange way to show you a way of embedding variables in strings. This comes in handy a lot of times and I think it is good to show it right from the start. Don’t forget to save the file.

for ($i = 0; $i -lt 10; $i++) {
	Write-Host -Object "Round $(${i})"
}

If “VS Code” asks you to install the PowerShell extensions, say “Install”. Maybe you have to wait a few moments for everything to load.

Now set a break point on the left side of the code (1). A red dot should appear. Select the “Run and Debug” icon (2) on the left or press “Crtl+Shift+D” on your keyboard. Then choose “Run and Debug” (3) in the sidebar.

Now the PowerShell code should run and stop at the break point:

To continue running the code select (1). To go over the code step by step choose (2). You can inspect the variables used in the code (in this case it is “$i”) on the left side or by hovering with the mouse over it in the code. The console output is on the bottom (4).

Small addition: If you have a big script with a lot of code and you loose track of all your break points, meaning your code stops a lot of time and this gets annoying, you can see a list of breakpoints on the bottom left of the window.

I hope this helps some people. It sure helped me a lot and made my life much easier. Especially when I remember back writing scripts with the old CMD/Batch syntax. This feels like stone age compared to PowerShell 🙂