Scripting

The following script will allow you to query your available Windows Updates in Powershell and it will export it to a CSV file.

#Specify the location of where you want the CSV to be saved (Ex:\\Fileshare)
$location = "\\SHARE"

$MSsearch = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Searcher
$Pending = $MSsearch.Search("IsInstalled=0") 
$Update = $Pending.Updates

$Title = $Update | Select-Object Title | foreach { $_.Title } 

$timeformat= "MM-dd"
$date = (Get-Date).ToString($timeformat)

if($Update.Count -eq 0) {
    Write-Host "There are no updates available for $env:Computername"
}

else {
  
    foreach($titles in $title){
        $kb = $titles.split('(')[-1].replace(')','')
        if($kb -like "kb*") {
            $table = New-Object –TypeName PSObject -Property @{ 
                'Title' = $Titles 
                'URL' = "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/$kb" 
            }
        }
        else {
            $table = New-Object –TypeName PSObject -Property @{ 
                    'Title' = $Titles 
                    'URL' = "Not Available" 
            }
        }
        $table | Select-Object Title, URL | Export-CSV -NoTypeInformation -Append "$location\Report.xml"
    }
    
}

This short loop will reinstall all the default Windows 10 apps.

$pkgname = Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | foreach { $_.packagefullname }
foreach($name in $pkgname) {
    Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\$name\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode
}

It’s been a while since I have posted something, so here is a quick little function that can help you track your USPS packages right from your Powershell Console!

Example: Get-TrackingInfo -Trackingnumber YOUR-TRACKING-NUMBER-HERE

<#
 .Synopsis
    Track your USPS Packages
 .DESCRIPTION
    Track your USPS Packages right from the Powershell Console
 .EXAMPLE
    Get-TrackingInfo -Trackingnumber 555555555555
 #>
function Get-TrackingInfo  {
    Param([Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] $TrackingNumber)
    $invoke = (Invoke-Webrequest https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?tLabels=$TrackingNumber).allelements | Where-Object  {$_.tagname -eq "tr" } 
    $information = $invoke | Select-Object OuterText -Unique -Skip 3
    $information | Format-Table @{Label=’Tracking Information’;Expression={$_.OuterText}}
}

Cisco does a great job with their documentation but unfortunately they didn’t do so well with explaining how to configure their VPN connection for medium to large scale companies. Their documentation only explains how to configure the connection manually, so I decided to use my Powershell skills to write up something really quick. Luckily for us, this task is extremely simple with Powershell.

The following script will automatically configure your Meraki VPN connection on Windows 10:

$ServerAddress = "VPN SERVER ADDRESS"
$ConnectionName = "VPN CONNECTION NAME"
$PresharedKey = "YOUR PRESHARED KEY"
Add-VpnConnection -Name "$ConnectionName" -ServerAddress "$ServerAddress" -TunnelType L2tp -AllUserConnection -L2tpPsk "$PresharedKey" -AuthenticationMethod Pap -Force

This script can be deployed using GPO, your existing system management system or even added to your images with MDT or SCCM.

I hope this helps someone out!