It took me longer than I would have liked, but I did finally get the next video uploaded. I hope you enjoy it as well.

https://youtu.be/Do5Ve6M9mmU

Projects, Scripts, and Modules

• 365AutomatedLab and new companion module coming soon
  365AutomatedLab and new companion module coming soon I promise I haven’t forgotten about 365AutomatedLab, but I’ll be honest after Microsoft made the announcement of no more new Dev tenants it hurt a bit as I know how useful they are on learning and testing features and PowerShell without hurting your production environment.
• How to Create SharePoint List & Add Columns Using PnP PowerShell?
  Recently, I developed one Power Apps application that needed a SharePoint list data source. Before running the application, the client must create the specific SharePoint list on their site. So, I wrote a Power Shell script to create the SharePoint list along columns to avoid mistakes when creating it manually.
• PowerShell-Yayaml v0.5.0
  What’s changed…
• PSDates v1.0.4
  Tons of new stuff added including calculating sunrise and sunset time.

Books, Media, and Learning Resources

• PowerShell Conference EU 2024 - Full playlist
  Check out all the sessions from this years PowerShell Conference EU.

Community

• Behind the Scenes at PSConf.EU: Harm Veenstra’s Experience and Insights
  In this episode of the PowerShell Podcast, we sit down with Microsoft MVP Harm Veenstra to discuss his exciting experiences at PSConf.EU, where he attended for the first time and embarked on a new journey into public speaking. Harm shares his thoughts on receiving the prestigious Microsoft MVP award and delves into his recent projects, including creating a TCP/UDP listener for testing firewall ports and using a Pi-hole to block ads on his home network. We also explore his perspectives on automation in the MSP world, the power of Microsoft Graph, and why he hasn’t yet adopted AI tools. Tune in for an engaging conversation filled with insights, tips, and highlights from PSConf.EU!
• Write Code, Write Blogs: Lessons with Brock Bingham
  In our latest Powershell Podcast episode, we chat with Brock Bingham. We explore his transition from sysadmin to writer and his viewpoint of coding as creative problem-solving. Brock also shares insightful blogging tips and advises against the pitfalls of comparison. A must-listen for aspiring PowerShellers. (plz create a blog and share your learnings for future you)

Nice write up, and a great primer for someone coming from the Linux/Bash world.

Thanks! I’d love to hear your thoughts once you’ve watched it.

Community

• PipeScript, Formatting, and Docker: An In-Depth Conversation with James Brundage
  In this episode of the PowerShell Podcast, we are joined by Microsoft MVP, former PowerShell team member, and module maker extraordinaire James Brundage. We hear about his experience at Microsoft Build, learn all docker and kubernetes while discussing his Rocker module, UserGroup updates, implicit interpretation in Pipescript, formatting and types, and so much more. Strap in because we go deep in this one.
• Breaking Down ModuleFast and More with Justin Grote
  In this episode of the PowerShell Podcast, host Andrew Pla interviews Microsoft MVP and PowerShell aficionado Justin Grote. They delve into an issue in the Az.Accounts 3.0.0 module, with Justin offering insights and a workaround (use an earlier version of the module). Justin also discusses his innovative ModuleFast project, explaining its architecture and his approach to writing PowerShell scripts and modules. The conversation highlights Justin’s passion for APIs and celebrates his contributions as an official PowerShell project contributor. Listeners get a glimpse into Justin’s workflow working at a Managed Service Provider (MSP) and how he writes to much PowerShell. He offers valuable advice for those early in their careers. Additionally, Justin shares updates on his PowerHTML (1.2m downloads) project, which originated from a GitHub pull request, showcasing his continuous contributions to the PowerShell community.
• PowerShell Community Call - May 16th, 2024
  Last month’s community call with the PowerShell team.

Books, Media, and Learning Resources

• PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking
  At long last I’ve updated the content of the PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking book from Leanpub. Get the book and you get future updates for free.
• Mastering PowerShell Scripting - Fifth Edition
  Automate repetitive tasks and simplify complex administrative tasks using PowerShell
• Send Emails with SendGrid and PowerShell [OC]
  Learn how you can quickly and easily send emails from PowerShell with SendGrid.
• Customize your Windows Sandbox with PowerShell
  Today we’re going to go a bit deeper into Windows Sandbox by walking through custom configurations with PowerShell.
• Automate Network Security Testing using PSTcpIp with Anthony Guimelli
  Join Tony Guimelli for look at how you can automate the arduous process of network security testing using PowerShell and the PSTcpIp module.

Projects, Scripts, and Modules

• passwordstate-management v 4.4.49
  Powershell Module for managing Password State
• PowerQualys v 0.3.0
  Helper module for Qualys
• WinTuner v 0.8.9
  Package and publish any apps from WinGet to Intune.
• Interpreting Audit Records for Teams Meeting Recordings (Again)
  Three years ago, I wrote a script to analyze the audit records generated for Teams meeting recordings. Then things changed in terms of how the audit records were generated and how the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet returns audit search results. All of which meant that considerable work was needed to revamp (rewrite) the script. Maybe you need to check any script that uses the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet too?
• tiPS v 1.3.10
  PowerShell tips delivered straight to your terminal.

Thanks! I’m glad to hear you are finding it useful.

Thanks! I’m glad to hear others are finding it useful.

If I understand correctly, the signatures generated by PuTTY aren’t perfectly random, so if someone got a hold of a bunch of keys from a server, they could figure out the pattern. It takes about 60 keys. This affects not just PuTTY, but also FileZilla, WinSCP, TortoiseGit, and TortoiseSVN.

In other words if you have NIST P-521 keys, or any others using 521-bit ECDSA, you should revoke them and generate new key pairs. After you update your software.

I installed some security cameras around my house and set up Shinobi using an old PC. Unfortunately the PC is too old to use the built-in detectors in Shinobi. So, I took my first dive into playing around with some image detectors.

I wrote some python to download the daily recording from old PC to a newer one with a 3080 GPU. Then checks the videos for people. It will then trim the videos to only include times were there are people in frame. It cut my the storage requirements by over 95%.

Joel “Jaykul” Bennet is an opinionated DevOps engineer, programmer, speaker, and Microsoft MVP.

I love that description. I can’t wait to listen to it tonight!

Just a heads up, I received confirmation from the product team that the AZUREPS_HOST_ENVIRONMENT environment variable is going away. They are moving the backend to containers. Also, the COMPUTERNAME one that was always “client” is going to change too. The COMPUTERNAME will now be “Sandbox-###” with # being random numbers. I started using the code block below in my runbooks to find if they are running in Azure or hybrid worker/locally. It accounts for the current and the updates that will be rolling out in the near future.

$isHybridWorker = $true
if (($env:computername) -eq "CLIENT") {
    $isHybridWorker = $false
}
elseif ($env:USERNAME -eq 'ContainerAdministrator') {
    $isHybridWorker = $false
}
``

Typically, when I have a script I need to test locally, I’ll comment out the identity connection command and just authenticate outside of my script. If I’m feeling real fancy, I’ll write a try/catch to attempt to authenticate first as the managed identity then if it fails prompt me for credentials. Not the most elegant solution, but it works.

try {
    Add-AzAccount -Identity -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null
}    
catch {
    Add-AzAccount -SubscriptionId $SubscriptionId
}

For some reason their API would not return anything for assembly. I was curious to see where it would rank too,

Apparently it due to an issue with Kotlin - https://github.com/code-golf/code-golf/issues/151#issuecomment-1126266250

Biggest things I’m seeing is CVE-2023-21709 for Exchange requires a PowerShell script to be run after patching. Also, CVE-2023-29328/29330 for Teams affect all devices (Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android).

I love WinGet but I just wish there was support for Windows Server, without having to do a bunch of hacks

Edited to Add: I noticed this community is Powershell, here the powershell version of above:

Nice! You are a person of many talents

Documentation is top notch too.

Nothing will make me love a solution more than it being well documented. Sounds simple, but saves so much time.