The PowerShell Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Talking Crescendo and Documentation with Stevie Coaster May 16, 2022

Show notes

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we talk about Crescendo, a development accelerator that can help rapidly build PowerShell cmdlets around existing command-line tools. We also discuss coding on twitch, writing with the customer in mind, and proper documentation practices.

Guest Bio and links:

Steve Valdinger is a Support Manager at Chocolatey Software with a passion for PowerShell and automation. He has given several talks at User Groups and The PowerShell Summit that have helped people elevate their scripts. His talk about writing for user experience is a must-watch. You can also catch him coding live on twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/steviecoaster.

Steve Website: https://steviecoaster.dev/

Steve Twitter: https://twitter.com/steviecoaster

Steve Github: https://github.com/steviecoaster

Steve UX talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XnBFpdYcX8

Stevie Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/steviecoaster

Crescendo Github Repo: https://github.com/PowerShell/Crescendo

Community Blog: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell-community/tag/crescendo/

Crescendo GA Release:https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell/announcing-powershell-crescendo-general-availability-ga/

Docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/utility-modules/crescendo/overview?view=ps-modules

The Value of Mentorship with Jeff Hicks May 09, 2022

Show notes

Episode Summary:

We caught up with Jeff Hicks at the PowerShell and Global DevOps summit. He talks about how he always wanted to be a teacher and how PowerShell has helped him achieve that. We also discuss the holy trinity of PowerShell Cmdlet: Get-Help, Get-Command, and Get-Member, which will help you find the command you need, learn how to use it, and give you everything you would want to know about the objects it returns. Those commands can help you move through almost any roadblock while learning PowerShell. We end with a general discussion about PowerShell, and what we love most about it.

Guest Bio and links:

Jeffery Hicks is an IT veteran with over 30 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT infrastructure consultant specializing in Microsoft server technologies with an emphasis on automation and efficiency. He is a multi-year recipient of the Microsoft MVP Award. He works today as an independent author, teacher, and consultant. Jeff has taught and presented on PowerShell and the benefits of automation to IT Pros worldwide. Jeff has authored and co-authored a number of books, writes for numerous online sites and print publications, a Pluralsight author, and a frequent speaker at technology conferences and user groups. You can keep up with Jeff on Twitter (https://twitter.com/JeffHicks) and on his blog (https://blog.jdhitsolutions.com).

Links to resources mentioned:

Twitter: @JeffHicks

Blog: https://jdhitsolutions.com/blog

GitHub: https://github.com/jdhitsolutions

Behind the PowerShell Pipeline: https://jeffhicks.substack.com

The PowerShell Practice Primer: https://leanpub.com/psprimer

The PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking Book: https://leanpub.com/powershell-scripting-toolmaking

Contributing to PowerShell Made Easy with Sean Wheeler May 02, 2022

Show notes

We caught up with Sean Wheeler at the PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit to discuss all things documentation. We discuss why open source is an open discussion and how documentation moving to open source makes for a lot of opportunities to help contribute to the PowerShell community. We discuss the value of the PowerShell blog, and how contributing to the blog can help you practice and improve your writing skills, get your blogs published, and provides an opportunity to plug your own site at the same time.

Guest Bio and links:

Sean has spent over 22 years at Microsoft and is now the Lead technical writer for PowerShell. He is extremely active in the PowerShell community, helping those looking to contribute with their writing. He also created the Microsoft Product Support Reporting, which collects valuable data to help troubleshoot issues in complex systems.

Resource links:

https://docs.microsoft.com/powershell/scripting/community/contributing/overview

Blog https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell-community/

Blog repo https://github.com/PowerShell/Community-Blog

How to contribute https://github.com/PowerShell/Community-Blog/wiki

PowerShell & DevOps Global Summit (PowerShell After Dark) Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

Jordan and Andrew are attending the PowerShell & Global DevOps Summit in Bellevue, Washington. This summit brings together some of the most influential names in PowerShell and is a gathering place for the PowerShell community. In this episode, Jordan and Andrew give a behind-the-scenes look at the summit after hours. They chat with summit attendees Nick and Chris, who share their insights and experiences with the summit, PowerShell, and the PowerShell community. It's PowerShell after dark.

Securing PowerShell with Fred Weinmann Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

I hope you are ready to learn because Fred hits the ground running with information and never lets up. We cover a lot of ground on security and PowerShell, covering topics like: Constrained Language Mode (CLM), script block logging, Anti-Malware Scan Interface (AMSI) and why you should be using it, and more. We finish things up with one of Fred's favorite topics: his amazing PowerShell modules like PSFramework, PSUtil, and PSAzureMigrationAdvisor.

Friedrich Weinmann Bio:

Friedrich Weinmann might be the most enthusiastic advocate of PowerShell I have ever met, and coming from a community where enthusiasm is the norm, that is a bold claim. He is a fantastic teacher and has helped many PowerShellers get started, including Andrew Pla. He is a Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft. Most importantly to him, he creates modules to simplify daily PowerShell. From his Magnum Opus PSFramework to PSAzureModuleAdvisor, which will help you convert your scripts in Azure as AzureAD and MsOnline become unsupported at the end of 2022.

Quote from Fred:

"Execution policy has never prevented a single attacker from running PowerShell if they really wanted to. It’s like you’re trying to protect your home and prevent burglars from coming in by putting a stone on your lawn. That’s the effect of the execution policy. They might miss the stone, they might break a leg, that just might save your day."

Resource links:

Freidrich's GitHub - https://github.com/FriedrichWeinmann

Friedrich's Website - https://allthingspowershell.blogspot.com/

Twitter! - https://twitter.com/fredweinmann

CLM - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell/powershell-constrained-language-mode/

Freidrich on the value of teaching - https://allthingspowershell.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-roi-of-teaching-others.html

Ashley Mcglone labs - https://github.com/GoateePFE/PowerShellSummit2019/tree/master

Why Execution Policy is not security - https://www.netspi.com/blog/technical/network-penetration-testing/15-ways-to-bypass-the-powershell-execution-policy/

AaronLocker - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell/powershell-constrained-language-mode/

This title is not psremotely clever Apr 18, 2022

Show notes

This episode highlights Matthew Dowst and his excellent PowerShell Weekly blogs on Dowst.dev. Then we talk about running PowerShell on remote machines and using Invoke-Command vs. Enter-PsSession. We spend a small amount of time on Just Enough Administration, allowing you to move some of your tasks to be handled by others. I finally make an error so bad that when I say, "Kelly can Edit that out," he is not able to! Not seen in the podcast was Kelly yelling at me in my office.

Resource Links:

Matthew Dowst website - https://www.dowst.dev/

Matthew Dowst Twitter - https://twitter.com/MDowst

Practical Automation with PowerShell - https://www.manning.com/books/practical-automation-with-powershell

Secrets of PowerShell Remoting - https://leanpub.com/secretsofpowershellremoting

Microsoft Docs on PS remoting - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/learn/ps101/08-powershell-remoting?view=powershell-7.2

DBATools with Jess Pomfret Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

Episode Summary:

Jess Pomfret joins us to discuss how PowerShell was the perfect tool to help her automate DBA tasks. She gives some great insight into joining the community for the first time and talks about how helpful Chrissy LeMaire was in submitting her first submission to the dbatools module. Last, we cover the importance of writing code to test your code with Pester.

Guest Bio and links:

Jess Pomfret is a Microsoft MVP who is passionate about databases and automation, and PowerShell is the tool that lets her combine those loves. She is heavily involved with the DBATools module for PowerShell, the go-to tool for database administrators using PowerShell. Jess is also the Co-Author of DBATools in a Month of Lunches, estimated to be published in June of 2022. All of that and still finds time to speak at PowerShell and DBA events.

"DBAtools is kind of a gateway drug for PowerShell."
-Jess Pomfret

Resource Links

https://jesspomfret.com/

https://github.com/jpomfret/IntroPowerShell

https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5003655

https://github.com/dataplat/dbatools

https://www.manning.com/books/learn-dbatools-in-a-month-of-lunches

https://jesspomfret.com/searching-stored-procedures/

Nobody Keeps a Secret Like PowerShell Apr 04, 2022

Show notes

Andrew loses his coffee. We highlight Justin Grote who has a knack for breaking down the why not just the how of PowerShell. We discuss secure ways to use credentials with PowerShell. Lastly, we talk about security with PowerShell, and how it is often used as an attack vector. We end up realizing securing your environment should be its own episode soon.

Links to the episode on podcast directories:

Justin Grote Twitter - https://twitter.com/JustinWGrote/status/1502374413596909568

Justin Grote Github - https://github.com/JustinGrote

Justin Grote on Secrets - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J86GYcyZAZs

PSHSummit Secrets - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKwDlCim15s

Secret Github - https://github.com/PowerShell/SecretManagement

Sydney Smith on the latest Secrets release - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/powershell/tag/secretmanagement/

Chatting about Chatbots with Mike Kanakos, Microsoft MVP Mar 25, 2022

Show notes

Mike Kanakos is extremely active in the PowerShell community, so getting the opportunity to highlight all his contributions was pretty awesome for us. We got to talk about all of the ways we can contribute to PowerShell to keep it the best version of itself. We also did a quick dive into ChatBots and highlighted PoshBot, which can connect to several chat backends like Slack or Teams.

Guest Bio and links:

Mike is a Microsoft MVP who might be the biggest advocate for PowerShell out there. He has weekly engagements where he is blogging or talking about Powershell. He is so active in the community they figured they might as well make him the Director of Community Engagement at PowerShell.org. He also leads the Research Triangle PowerShell Users Group, which is helping over 2400 members better automate with PowerShell.

Mikes MVP Profile - https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5004073

Mikes blog - https://www.commandline.ninja/

Research Triangle PowerShell User Group - https://rtpsug.com/

Awesome talk on Secrets - https://youtu.be/vEniQPooUSs

Poshbot Git - GitHub - poshbotio/PoshBot: Powershell-based bot framework

Poshbot Docs - Home - PoshBot Docs

pscookiemonster on Poshbot - http://ramblingcookiemonster.github.io/PoshBot/

Using Webhooks - Get a Teams Notification the Moment an Active Directory User gets Locked Out with PowerShell Using Webhooks – The Lazy Administrator

James ”Friggen” Petty! Microsoft MVP Mar 25, 2022

Show notes

James Petty is crazy busy with all things PowerShell. He is running the upcoming PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit. James runs PowerShell.org, Co-Authoring PowerShell in a Month of Lunches, and in mid-May will be running The PowerShell "Firehose Class" with Don Jones where they do a DEEP dive into PowerShell. Finally, we talk about the value of the importexcel module and using PowerShell to wow the boss.

Guest Bio and links:

James Petty is the CEO of the DevOps Collective, a nonprofit for technology education. As well as the owner/moderator of PowerShell.org and its forums. Not satisfied with how bad he has already made me feel about my productivity, he is the lead writer for the 4th edition of PowerShell in a Month of Lunches while still maintaining his job as the solutions architect for Wyre Technologies.

James MVP Profile - https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5003525?fullName=James%20Petty

PowerShell Forums - https://forums.powershell.org/

PowerShell Firehose Class - https://donjones.com/powershell-firehose-class/

Youtube series on importexcell module - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3Ne_yX4tYo&list=PL5uoqS92stXioZw-u-ze_NtvSo0k0K0kq

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