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For some time now, SAPIEN has been distributing a free "Scripting Toolkit" CD at various trade shows and events. This CD contains copies of all of our free tools, trial versions of our paid applications, samples of our ebooks and training videos and other cool stuff. All of this stuff is available individually for download on our various sites. But because you have asked for it, we have made available the ISO image that we use to burn all of this cool stuff onto CD. So with one (rather large) download, you can get the full CD's worth of scripting…   More »

SAPIEN Technologies is going to Tech Ed 2010 in New Orleans, June 7th-10th! We would love to see you there, so we are giving away three Tech-Ed passes! This includes one all-inclusive pass worth $2000, and two show floor only passes worth $500 each. All you need to do to qualify for this fantastic giveaway is to create a PowerShell GUI application using PrimalForms 2009. Send your script files (no EXE's please!) in zipped form to scriptcontest@sapien.com no later than April 23, 2010 to be considered for the contest. Please describe the intent of the script in your email and try not…   More »

iPowerShell v.2 is finished and is now available at the Apple app store (iTunes link) for download. Don't know what iPowerShell is? iPowerShell is an easy to use reference tool for users of Microsoft's PowerShell scripting language for use on the iPhone or iPod Touch. It contains full descriptions of each and every core PowerShell Version 2 cmdlet, their syntax, parameters and examples of proper usage. It also contains the complete set of "about item" help topics as well as provider and alias help. iPowerShell includes a quick search function that allows the user to type in partial search terms…   More »

SAPIEN Press' Windows PowerShell 2.0:TFM eBook by Don Jones and Jeffery Hicks is ready for purchase and download on ScriptingOutpost.com. This book is a major update to the best selling Windows PowerShell 1.0:TFM, the first PowerShell book available. Don and Jeff have updated their opus to include every nook and cranny of PowerShell 2.0. Check out the book details at SAPIENPress. If you previously purchased the IPO version of this eBook, simply go to my.sapien.com, login, and then re-download the ebook. You will get the finished version downloaded to your machine.…   More »

Now that PowerShell has been upgraded to version 2.0, it is time for us to release an upgraded version of our well received iPhone app, iPowerShell. So what do we have in store for this version? Obviously, the first thing that we want to support are all of the new PowerShell cmdlets. Not only cmdlets, but About Help and Provider references as well. As a matter of fact, we have split the views of this data into separate tabs to keep things organized. iPowerShell 2.0 sports a completely rewritten UI with separate tabs for cmdlets, aliases, providers and about help.…   More »

Our first attempt at a SAPIEN tour was a great success! Do you have a user group you would like to have us visit? Contact Margaret@sapien.com and we will put you on the schedule for 2010.…   More »

Ever run into a situation where you have 2 folders with identical file names in them but possibly different content in the files? You really don’t want to have to open each and every file to compare them and then copy the files from one folder to another, right? PrimalMerge to the rescue! PrimalMerge has the ability to compare complete folders of files and then allows you to synchronize those folders with each other. Let’s take a look at how this is done. Start off by first opening the two folders that you want to compare. Do this by selecting…   More »

SAPIEN Press has once again joined forces with Don Jones and Jeffery Hicks to bring you the latest and greatest information on Windows PowerShell, version 2. Windows PowerShell: TFM, in its third edition, will be released shortly after the release of Windows 7 and Windows PowerShell v.2. The text and the sample code will be updated to reflect all the updates to the PowerShell language. Until the final text of the book is sent to print, you can purchase an "initial public offering" of the ebook at www.scriptingoutpost.com. Its great to have Don and Jeff on board this project once…   More »

This month's PowerShell one-liner queries the WMI Win32_Product class for a specified computer and builds a formatted report of all installed applications sorted by vendor. You'll be able to tell at a glance what is installed, when it was installed, where it was installed from and the product version. Be warned that querying this WMI class may take several minutes or longer. This one line expression defaults to the local computer, but you can substitute any computername you want. You can also add support for alternate credentials. I've broken the expression into several lines for publication purposes but this is in fact a oneline expression.   More »

Lately I seem to be answering a number of PowerShell XML related questions. When that happens I figure its time for an example. I have a script that I think originally was posted in a forum. I apologize that I didn't note where it came from. But I've enhanced it (as I am likely to do). The script reads a bare bones XML file of computernames and builds a new XML file with inventory information such as operating system, computer system, logical disks and more retrieved from WMI. My script will hopefully serve as examples for working with XML files. I also use Write-Progress so that you can track what the script is doing.   More »