Just a simple note about a new cmdlet in PowerShell 3.0. Show-Command is something very useful if you try out a new PowerShell Command. It shows all the options and possible parameters you have with the cmdlet.

Show-Command Get-Childitem

Only 2 days after my small HTC TITAN review HTC released the first update for the TITAN. I could not find any information about this update, but there is no visible change at the moment.

If you use PowerShell remoting in some scripts you will se you cannot use a string to send it with the Invoke-Command cmdlet.

So you can simple convert a String to a Scriptblock

 $scriptBlock = [Scriptblock]::Create($string) 

Now here an example

$remoteCommand =
@"
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
New-ADOrganizationalUnit -name
"@

$scriptBlock = [Scriptblock]::Create($remoteCommand)

Invoke-Command -ComputerName AD01 -ScriptBlock $scriptBlock

Basically you could create a function for that.

function ConvertTo-Scriptblock  {
<#
 Function to Convert a String into a Script Block
#>
	Param(
        [Parameter(
            Mandatory = $true,
            ParameterSetName = '',
            ValueFromPipeline = $true)]
            [string]$string
        )
       $scriptBlock = [scriptblock]::Create($string)
       return $scriptBlock
}

Some you need to know which IP in a specific range is already in use. With Windows PowerShell there is a simple way to ping a IP range.

You can use the .Net class System.Net.Networkinformation.Ping to do this.

$ping = New-Object System.Net.Networkinformation.Ping
1..254 | % { $ping.send(“192.168.100.$_”) | select address, status } 

For some KTSI projects I have been working a lot with Windows Server Core or Hyper-V Server. Now I had to do a lot of automation, so I made this little connection of commands. If you configure the server manually you can do the most important things with the sconfig utility.

Networking

Set Hostname

netdom renamecomputer %COMPUTERNAME% /NewName:<NewComputerName> 

Join Domain

netdom join %COMPUTERNAME% /domain:<DomainName> /userd:<UserName> /passwordd:*

Remove Domain

netdom remove

Rename Network Interface

netsh interface set interface name=”old name” newname=”new name”

Configure IP Address

netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”<Interface Name>” source=static address=<IPAddress> mask=<SubnetMask> gateway=<DefaultGateway>

Configure DNS Servers

netsh interface ipv4 add dnsserver name=”<Interface Name>” address=<DNS Server IP> index=1

Disable Firewall (not recommended)

netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off

Remoting

Enable PowerShell Remoting

Enable-PSRemoting

Enable Remotedesktop

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”remote desktop” new enable=yes

Enable Remote Administration

advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Remote Administration” new enable=yes

Enable Remote Firewall Administration

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Windows Firewall Remote Management” new enable=yes

Enable ICMP (Ping)

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8

Enable Remote Disk Management

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Remote Volume Management” new enable=yes

Licensing

Enter License key

slmgr.vbs -ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

Activate Windows

slmgr.vbs -ato

Windows Update

Enable automatic updates

cscript C:'Windows'System32'Scregedit.wsf /au 4

Disable automatic updates

cscript C:'Windows'System32'Scregedit.wsf /au 1

Roles & Features

Get availibale features & roles

Dism /online /get-features /format:table

Enable feature & roles

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:<featurename>

Basics

Change Administrator password

net user administrator *

Restart Computer

shutdown /r /t 0

Logoff

logoff

More information about Server Core: TechNet

Today Nokia released their first two Windows Phone devices, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710. I am really looking forward to get a Nokia Lumia 800 as soon as possible. I think this is one of the first phones which can be compared to the iPhone in terms of design (Of course besides the Nokia N9).

Nokia Lumia 800 specs:

• 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255
• 3.7-inch curved AMOLED Gorilla Glass 800 x 480
• 8 megapixel dual-LED flash
• Video recording 720p at 30fps
• Cellular quadband UMTS / HSPA (14.4Mbps) quadband GSM
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Memory 512MB RAM
• 16GB internal storage
• 1,450mAh Battery

In the next two days the biggest Microsoft event in Switzerland will be held at Bern.

Microsoft will bring the latest news about Windows 8, Windows Server 8 and the System Center 2012 Suite from the BUILD conference to the Swiss IT Pro audience. On the IT Pro track, private cloud will be the key topic.

More About the two days:

IT Professionals: 20. Oktober 2011

In der Keynote stellen Ihnen unsere Technikexperten die wesentlichen Neuerungen unserer anstehenden Servertechnologien Windows Server 8, SQL Server „Denali“ und System Center 2012 vor. Anschliessend werden technische Informationen und Demos für Produkte wie SQL Server „Denali“, System Center 2012, PowerShell, IPv6, Virtualisierung und Private Cloud, Windows und SQL Azure sowie Office 365 und Endpoint-Managementangeboten.

Developer: 21. Oktober 2011

Der Tag beginnt mit der Keynote des Branchenexperten Neno Loje über das neue Visual Studio 11, das kürzlich auf der BUILD-Konferenz vorgestellt wurde. Softwareentwickler und –architekten erhalten anschliessend die aktuellsten Informationen und Demos über Produkte wie Windows Azure, ASP.NET MVC 4, Windows Phone „Mango“, Silverlight 5, SQL Server 2008 R2 / SQL Azure / SQL Server „Denali“ sowie Visual Studio Lightswitch und HTML5.

More information and the agenda can you find on the techdays homepage.

See you there…

Two days ago my HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L arrived. Since I need more disk space I was looking for a good NAS solution. My first experiences with some of the common NAS vendors were not that great, most of the time the NAS was very very slow. Now this may has changed in the past years but still I prefer a mini server with a Windows OS.

That is where the HP ProLiant MicroServer and Windows Home Server 2011 meet, so I gave it a try. And guess what, it’s a great solution and it does exactly what I need. It stores files with a good performance, it’s quiet, it does not need a lot of power, let me stream content to my Xbox and enables me remote access to my data.

HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L

• HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L
• AMD Turion II NEO N40L 1.5GHz, 15W
• 4GB ECC DDR3 SDRAM
• 2x 2TB WD Caviar Green WD20EARX 5400 rpm, 64 MB Cache, 8,9 ms, SATA3
• Windows Home Server 2011

Now at the moment I use these two WD 2TB Disks in a RAID 1, and the N40L still offers space for two other drives.

If your running Microsoft Hyper-V R2 or any Windows Server 2008 R2 Core Server you can install the SNMP Feature on the command line with the command line tool dism.

First you can list all Windows Features

Dism /online /get-features /format:table  

Now you can install for the SNMP Service:

Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:SNMP-SC

After you have done this you and you have enabled Remote Management you can mange and configure smtp via remote MMC.

Important: If you need to configure the SNMP Service on a remote machine you have to install the SNMP feature on the local administrative computer. Otherwise you will not see the SNMP specific tabs.

More Information on installing Windows Features on a server running a Server Core installation of Windows Server 2008 R2: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee441253(WS.10).aspx

Since this morningdigitec has the new Windows Phones form HTC available and ready to deliver.

HTC TITAN on HTC.com

HTC Radar on HTC.com

HTC TITAN Review on winrumors.com