Year: 2024

How PowerShell Became My Best Frenemy: A Love-Hate Relationship

What AI says today, Day 2

Welcome back, tech adventurers, to yet another thrilling tale of JasonLamb.me, where I tackle the mysteries of technology so you don’t have to (unless you really want to, in which case, welcome to the club).

Today, I’m talking about a tool that has helped me automate, troubleshoot, and occasionally ruin my afternoon: PowerShell. It’s that magical (and sometimes maddening) command-line interface that’s part hero, part villain. It’s saved my bacon more times than I can count, but not without a few “Wait, what just happened?” moments along the way.

What is PowerShell, and Why Do I Both Love and Fear It?

PowerShell is like the Swiss Army knife of IT tools. It’s packed with tons of functionality, and once you master it, you feel like a wizard. Need to automate a repetitive task? PowerShell’s got your back. Want to manage thousands of users in Azure AD? PowerShell is the ticket. Looking to break something just enough that you have to spend the next three hours figuring out what you did wrong? PowerShell excels there too! 🛠️

In fact, my most recent PowerShell escapade involved connecting Exchange Online using the ever-delightful Connect-ExchangeOnline cmdlet. It was all going swimmingly until I realized I had somehow connected my test environment…to my production tenant. (Classic mistake, I know, but hey, we’re all learning here, right?)***

But when PowerShell works, it’s magic. One moment you’re staring down a list of 100 tasks that will take all day, and the next, you’ve written a script that handles everything in five minutes flat. That’s when I love PowerShell—when it makes me look like the tech genius I aspire to be, not the one clicking “Retry” for the third time in Windows Update.

The Top 3 PowerShell Commands That Saved My Life (And My Sanity)

Here’s a quick rundown of my favorite PowerShell gems—commands that have made me look good, saved me time, and rescued me from countless headaches:

1. Get-Help
Honestly, if you’re not using Get-Help every five seconds, are you even PowerShell-ing? This built-in command is a lifesaver when you’re staring blankly at your screen, trying to remember if it’s Get-Item or Set-Item. Pro tip: Use Get-Help -Examples when you need a cheat sheet on how a cmdlet works, without resorting to a panicked Google search.

2. Get-Process and Stop-Process
Have you ever had a program that just refused to close, no matter how many times you hit the big red “X”? That’s when PowerShell swoops in like the hero it is. Get-Process shows you what’s running, and Stop-Process shuts it down with the cold, calculated efficiency of a hitman. (I mean, a friendly IT helper.)

3. Invoke-Command
This one’s for when you need to run commands on remote machines. It’s like teleporting yourself to another computer and giving it orders from across the galaxy. Perfect for managing multiple machines without leaving your chair. Or, you know, without pants (we’re all still working from home sometimes, right?).

The Ones That Got Away: PowerShell’s Pranks

Of course, no relationship is perfect. PowerShell has a sense of humor—unfortunately, it doesn’t always align with mine. Like that one time I wrote a script to automate user creation, only to realize that I’d named every new user “Admin1” through “Admin100.” Let’s just say that my coworkers weren’t thrilled when they all tried logging in and ended up locked out.***

But hey, mistakes are how we learn, and PowerShell loves to teach me lessons the hard way. Thanks for keeping me on my toes, buddy.

Why I Keep Coming Back to PowerShell

In the end, PowerShell is like that friend who drives you crazy but always pulls through when it counts. It can turn hours of repetitive work into mere minutes, and when you nail a script, there’s no better feeling.

If you haven’t taken the PowerShell plunge yet, I highly recommend giving it a shot (and maybe stock up on some coffee and patience while you’re at it). I’ve shared plenty of tutorials and examples on JasonLamb.me, so if you want to automate your workflow or dive deep into the world of scripting, check out some of the guides I’ve posted!

Got a PowerShell story of your own? Share it in the comments, and let’s swap tales of success and frustration—because, trust me, I’ve been there.

Until next time, keep those scripts tight, your errors minimal, and always remember: when in doubt, Get-Help.

Jason Lamb
(Professional Tech Wrangler, PowerShell’s Frenemy, and your guide on JasonLamb.me)

This whole blog post (except this paragraph) was generated by ChatGPT using this prompt “reference jasonlamb.me and write a new blog post” and then “create a featured image that goes with this blog post”

*** = FACT CHECK 1 & 2: This is not true.

Here’s another blog post in the style of Jason Lamb’s site, touching on a mix of personal reflection and tech-related insights:

The Tech Evolution and How It’s Changed Me

As I sit here sipping my morning coffee (okay, it’s my third cup), I can’t help but reflect on just how far technology has come since I first booted up my 120GB Maxtor external USB drive (the one I paid an insane $111 for back in the day). At that time, I thought I was on top of the tech world. Little did I know, my Maxtor was a dinosaur compared to the ultra-sleek 4TB M.2 SSD I now casually toss into my laptop like it’s a pack of gum.

Back in the day, that 120GB drive was my treasure chest, and I treated it with the same reverence as Indiana Jones did the Holy Grail. Now? That thing couldn’t even handle my browser’s cache for the week.

Fast Forward to the Present

Technology has always been this strange combination of amazing and terrifying. Amazing because every year we achieve things that were sci-fi fantasies a decade ago (looking at you, Neural Processing Unit). Terrifying because, well, does anyone else feel like Skynet is around the corner, or is that just me?

When I first started out in IT, the biggest challenge was making sure the office’s dial-up internet didn’t break down on a Friday, right before happy hour. Now, I’m managing cloud infrastructures, worrying about cybersecurity attacks, and hoping AI doesn’t rise up to start a workplace revolution—though, let’s be honest, some Mondays, a robot uprising doesn’t sound all that bad.

The Journey from Fixing to Fortifying

My career has mirrored the evolution of tech in a weird way. When I began, it was all about fixing things—making sure your boss’s printer stopped throwing a fit every time someone tried to print a color image (spoiler alert: just buy a new printer). Now, it’s about fortifying. Not just systems, but mindsets. We need to be two steps ahead of the hackers, the phishing schemes, and the endless torrent of updates that seem to demand more from us than ever before.

Take password hygiene, for example. I remember a time when people still thought ‘password123’ was secure enough. Fast forward to now: If you aren’t using multi-factor authentication and a 25-character password made up of hieroglyphs, symbols from forgotten alphabets, and probably an offering to the gods, you’re doing it wrong.

The Next Big Thing: NPU, AI, and What Lies Ahead

I’m convinced the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) is the next “RAM revolution.” Remember when more RAM was the answer to everything? Slow computer? RAM. Slow server? More RAM. Didn’t finish your homework? You guessed it—RAM. But just as RAM made way for SSDs, and SSDs made way for M.2s, I think we’re standing on the cusp of the next frontier: AI-powered computing.

Almost every major computer manufacturer is tossing an NPU into their machines now, and once AI starts offloading those massive calculations, it’s going to leave our CPUs and GPUs free to make even more magic happen. Or, you know, free up your computer to play Minecraft at an obscene frame rate while your Excel doc calculates world domination.

What I’ve Learned (Besides How to Fix a Printer)

I’ve learned that in tech, just like in life, change is inevitable. And sure, it can be frustrating to always feel like you’re learning the latest new thing, but if you’re not learning, you’re stagnating. Whether it’s figuring out how to secure your company’s domain (seriously, if you haven’t set up MFA yet, stop reading and do that), or trying to keep up with the avalanche of AI tools coming out every other week, it’s all part of the journey.

And if I’ve learned anything from 22 years in this space, it’s that adaptability is key. The tools may change, the devices may get smaller and faster, but the real skill is knowing how to think, problem-solve, and most importantly, how to keep going when everything crashes and burns. Spoiler alert: It usually happens on a Friday at 4:55 PM.

Final Thoughts (and a Plea for Sanity)

I’ll leave you with this: The next time you curse at your computer for needing another update, just remember—we’re all in this together. Technology is both our best friend and our most infuriating roommate. It’s always there when we need it, and somehow manages to crash exactly when we don’t.

But hey, if it weren’t for tech, I wouldn’t be here today—rambling on about AI, SSDs, and why you should never trust a printer.

Oh, and one last thing: Keep an eye on those NPUs—they’re about to blow your mind. Figuratively, of course. Probably.

This whole post was created by ChatGPT. This last section was manually added by Jason.