Configuring Hyper-V Virtual Networks with PowerShell

in Automation on Hyper-v

I’ve been configuring a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V deployment in the lab via MDT to a couple of ProLiant DL380 G5’s. I’ve been keeping the deployment as simple as possible, so there’s no SCVMM integrated at this point and as such I’ve need to configure the Hyper-V networking once the OS is deployed to the machine. Naturally, I don’t want to do that manually.

Mailbag - Deploying multiple editions of Office 2010 with App-V

in Applications on App-v, Office

I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this earlier – I get emails from readers fairly regularly and many of them make great topics for blog posts. So here’s the first in a series of posts where I’ll cover interesting questions I get via email and where I think other readers will benefit from a public response.

Reducing Profile Size with a Profile Clean Up Script - PowerShell Edition

in Automation on Powershell, Profiles

I recently posted a script for removing unnecessary files and pruning files based on their age, which can be used at logoff to keep profile sizes manageable - Reducing Profile Size with a Profile Clean Up Script.

Andrew Morgan (@andyjmorgan) has kindly translated my very basic VBscript to PowerShell. This can be used as a standalone script or the function (remove-itembyage) could be integrated into your own scripts and has the added benefit of in-built help and the ability to run silently.

Just like the original script, this could be executed at logoff, before the profile is saved back to the network, to perform two actions:

  1. Delete all files of a specific file type in a specified folder, including sub-folders
  2. Delete all files older than X days in a specified folder, including sub-folders

For example, you could use the script to delete all .log or temporary files below %APPDATA% that aren’t required to be roamed, or delete all Cookies older than 90 days to keep the Cookies folder to a manageable size.

Note: the script listing below has the -whatif parameter applied when calling the function, so no deletes will occur unless the parameter is removed.

function remove-itembyage {
    <#
        .SYNOPSIS
        remove items from folders recursively.

        .DESCRIPTION
        this function removes items older than a specified age from the target folder

        .PARAMETER Days
        Specifies the ammount of days since the file was last written to you wish to filter on.

        .PARAMETER Path
        Specifies the path to the folder you wish to search recursively.

        .PARAMETER Silent
        Instructs the function not to return any output.

        .EXAMPLE
        PS C:\&gt; remove-itembyage -days 0 -path $recent

        This command searches the $recent directory, for any files, then deletes them.

        .EXAMPLE
        PS C:\&gt; remove-itembyage -days 5 -path $recent

        This command searches the $recent directory, for files older than 5 days, then deletes them.

        .EXAMPLE
        PS C:\&gt; remove-itembyage -days 10 -path $appdata -typefilter "txt,log"

        This command searches the $cookies directory, for files older than 10 days and end with txt or log extensions, then deletes them.

        .EXAMPLE
        PS C:\&gt; remove-itembyage -days 10 -path $cookies -typefilter "txt,log" -silent

        This command searches the $cookies directory, for files older than 10 days and end with txt or log extensions, then deletes them without a report.

        .NOTES
        /user-virtualization/profile-clean-up-script-powershell-edition/ for support information.

        .LINK
        /user-virtualization/profile-clean-up-script-powershell-edition/
    #>

    [cmdletbinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $True)]
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 0, HelpMessage = "Number of days to filter by, E.G. ""14""")]
        [int]$days,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true, Position = 1, HelpMessage = "Path to files you wish to delete")]
        [string]$path,
        [string]$typefilter,
        [switch]$silent)

    #check for silent switch
    if ($silent) {$ea = "Silentlycontinue"}
    Else {$ea = "Continue"}

    #check for typefilter, creates an array if specified.
    if (!($typefilter)) {$filter = "*"}
    Else {$filter = foreach ($item in $typefilter.split(",")) {$item.insert(0, "*.")}}

    if (test-path $path) {
        $now = get-date
        $datefilter = $now.adddays( - $days)
        foreach ($file in get-childitem "$path\*" -recurse -force -include $filter | where {$_.PSIsContainer -eq $false -and $_.lastwritetime -le $datefilter -and $_.name -ne "desktop.ini"}) {
            if (!($silent)) {write-host "Deleting: $($file.fullname)"}
            remove-item -literalPath $file.fullname -force -ea $ea
        }#end for
    }#end if

    Else {
        if (!($silent)) {write-warning "the path specified does not exist! ($path)"}
    }#end else
}#end function

#Get KnownFolder Paths
$appdata = $env:appdata
$Cookies = (new-object -com shell.application).namespace(289).Self.Path
$History = (new-object -com shell.application).namespace(34).Self.Path
$recent = (new-object -com shell.application).namespace(8).Self.Path
$profile = $env:userprofile

#commands
remove-itembyage -days 0 -path $appdata -typefilter "txt,log" -silent -whatif
remove-itembyage -days 90 -path $cookies -silent -whatif
remove-itembyage -days 14 -path $recent -silent -whatif
remove-itembyage -days 21 -path $history -silent -whatif
remove-itembyage -days 14 -path "$appdata\Microsoft\office\Recent" -silent -whatif

Pagination