This article applies to legacy powershell (powershell 5.0 or earlier) Check edition via Powershell variable: $PSEdition (should show "Desktop for legacy/classic powershell), classic powershell is also bundled into the Windows OS.
Please be aware of notation below in command outlines. $ represents a command and rests of the lines following that line are output. The tradition is to utilize the "> " prompt for Windows Command Shell, however, I come from a Unix background and I defy that.
Control Panel Cmdlet
Handy cmds follow, ref to access sys properties,
Show-ControlPanelItem -Name System
For example, open Power Options Window,
Show-ControlPanelItem -Name 'Power Options'
Following can be invoked using Show-ControlPanelItem specifying name argument,
- System
- Programs and Features, old:
appwiz.cpl - Network and Sharing Center (previous:
control ncpa.cpl) - Device Manager
- Default Programs
- Power Options, old:
powercfg.cpl - User Accounts
- Taskbar and Navigation
For, Sound mouse etc we do,
- Sound
- Mouse
To access advanced system properties (old: sysdm.cpl), use,
$ SystemPropertiesAdvanced
Refs
- MSFT TechNet - Accessing the Control Panel via the Commandline
- MSFT Win32 Shell - Canonical Names of Control Panel Items
- tenforums - Control Panel Item Cmds
Service Management
Get list of services currently running,
Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Running"}
Start a service,
Start-Service -Name VPNAgent
Stop one,
Stop-Service -Name VPNAgent
Get Software List,
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product -Filter "Name = 'Java 8 (64 bit)'"
Changing Window Size
To change Window ize we change buffer size first, because Window Size depends on it.
$cUI = (Get-Host).UI.RawUI
$b = $cUI.BufferSize
$b.Width = $width
$b.Height = $history_size
$cUI.BufferSize = $b
# change window height and width
$b = $cUI.WindowSize
$b.Width = $width
$b.Height = $height
$cUI.WindowSize = $b
There's oneliner to do it as well,
(Get-Host).UI.RawUI.BufferSize = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.Size -Property @{Width=$width; Height=$history_size}
(Get-Host).UI.RawUI.WindowSize = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.Size -Property @{Width=$width; Height=$height}
To change the title of the console we do,
$cUI.WindowTitle = $title
ref, MSFT Docs Automation provides more details on the UI properties for automation on powershell.
Programs and Feature Management
Software Management: Get Software List
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product -Filter "Name = 'Java 8 (64 bit)'"
How to uninstall application,
$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product -Filter "Name = 'Java 8 (64-bit)'"
$app.Uninstall()
Miscellaneous
Arguments to the Shell
These basic stuffs might come handy,
Passing all arguments, untouched to another script,
$saArgs = $args[0 .. ($args.Count)]
& "$Env:HOME\ss.ps1" $saArgs