Tag Archives: Windows Forms

I am TechNet Gallery Years Old

I did not know it when I started, but it turns out, this is Part I.

Up until just recently, I had a section on my website called “TechNet Gallery.” It was right up there between “Contents” and “About.” I have an image of what it contained below. There was some pretty great stuff in there, but it was time for that section to be removed. With that, it is now time for the links to be updated, so people can find these scripts and modules again. The TechNet Gallery links no longer work. It has been a while since I have looked these over, but the links will likely be a combination of GitHub and the PowerShell Gallery. Check the content below the image for information about the first four entries. The others will be highlighted in additional, related posts.

1. “Get Synonyms for Approved and Unapproved Verbs”

I have always loved this script. I even used it yesterday, prior to knowing I would start piecing this post together. If there is a verb you want to use for your cmdlet or function, but it is not approved, this function will look for verb synonyms and tell you if they are approved or not. Here’s a quick image (because it is just beautiful).

While the 1.3 version is available in a GitHub Gist, the newest version — 1.4 — was written and uploaded to the PowerShell Gallery. You can either use that link or use PowerShellGet to download it using the PowerShell below. I have written about this script before, so you can read more here: https://tommymaynard.com/get-tmverbsynonym-1-4-2017/.

Install-Script -Name Get-TMVerbSynonym

2. “Active Directory User Lookup Form”

This was “my first, hand-coded PowerShell form using Windows Forms.” While it was available on the TechNet Gallery for download, that link no longer works.  Here is the 2015 post, and here is an updated link to the GitHub Gist. I always love doing a forms project and am grateful it made its way into .NET (core).

3. “Find DNS Servers Being Used by DHCP Scopes”

This script was written as a solution to a post on the TechNet Forums. I did not read that whole thread, but I can offer you the link to the Gist if this is helpful or interesting. Oh, one other thing, I apparently wrote about the script here on my own site, as well. All the way back in 2015!

4. “Measure Command with Multiple Commands, Repetitions, Calculated Averages”

There is no way I did not write about this one. I loved this script and to this very day, I still think it should be implemented in PowerShell by the PowerShell Team. Perhaps I will add it as a discussion in GitHub in the future. I do not think that was a thing back in 2017. Here is my post about it now!

Measure-Command can only measure one command and only one time per command invocation. This changed that. It allowed a user to measure multiple commands multiple times. It could even calculate the average time for a command to complete. I think its Command parameter accepted a string, so that should probably be changed to a ScriptBlock.

Here is an old image that accompanies the above link to the article on my site — click it to enlarge it. And here, is a link to the code in a Gist.

There is more to cover, but we will put that on hold for a moment. I will be back with a continuation of these soon. And once I am, the below text will link to Part II of this series!

Part II

Active Directory User Lookup Form

Download link at bottom of post.

I had some free time recently, so I decided I would write my first, hand-coded PowerShell form using Windows Forms. It took a bit to get started and feel comfortable, but before I knew it, I was adding some useful things to my form. My form’s purpose is to lookup users in Active Directory by their user logon name (think, SamAccountName) and return a specific set of properties — Name, Distinguished Name, Mail, Title, Department, and Office Phone.

Feel free to download, and use the form if you think it may be helpful. While there are a few things I’d like to add, and change, I think it’s a solid, version 1.0 effort. There’s a screen capture of the form in action below, and the download link is just beneath that.

In closing, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that a tool, such as this, has already been developed and made available — I didn’t bother checking for that prior to writing this tool. I just wanted to completely write my own form in PowerShell with Windows Forms, and needed an idea.

Script Sharing - PowerShell Active Directory User Lookup Form01

Download the Active Directory User Lookup Form here: https://gist.github.com/tommymaynard/b833e7fa33dd76f2484b73db58a7d281