PowerShell Script Tips & Tricks

I think most of this is doubled up in other notes but fuck it we publish.

Patterns and techniques for making scripts more reusable and user-friendly.

Ask for input instead of hardcoding

Use Read-Host to prompt for a value at runtime — no more swapping emails in Notepad.

$mailbox = Read-Host "Enter mailbox"

Or inline:

Get-Mailbox -Identity (Read-Host "Enter mailbox") | Select ArchiveQuota

Auto-connect to Exchange Online

Add this to the top of any EXO script. Connects only if not already connected.

if (-not (Get-ConnectionInformation)) {
    Connect-ExchangeOnline
}

Requires: ExchangeOnlineManagement module

Auto-connect to Microsoft Graph

Add this to the top of any Graph script. Connects only if not already connected.

if (-not (Get-MgContext)) {
    Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "UserAuthenticationMethod.ReadWrite.All"
}

Requires: Microsoft.Graph.Identity.SignIns module

Check if installed:

Get-Module Microsoft.Graph.Identity.SignIns -ListAvailable

Install if missing:

Install-Module Microsoft.Graph.Identity.SignIns

Check if connected to MgGraph

Get-MgContext

Environment Variables in Paths

PowerShell does not expand CMD-style environment variables like %USERPROFILE% inside strings. That syntax only works in Command Prompt and batch files.

In PowerShell, environment variables are accessed via $env:VARIABLENAME:

# Wrong — PowerShell treats this as a literal string
"$%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\file.csv"
 
# Right
"$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\file.csv"

Common ones:

CMD	PowerShell
`%USERPROFILE%`	`$env:USERPROFILE`
`%APPDATA%`	`$env:APPDATA`
`%TEMP%`	`$env:TEMP`
`%COMPUTERNAME%`	`$env:COMPUTERNAME`
`%USERNAME%`	`$env:USERNAME`

Example — export CSV to desktop regardless of who’s logged in:

$results | Export-Csv -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\LicensedUsers.csv" -NoTypeInformation

This works on any machine without hardcoding C:\Users\Rick\...

Write-Host — printing messages to the terminal

Use Write-Host to print status messages, section headers, or confirmations. It outputs directly to the terminal and doesn’t affect the pipeline.

# Basic message
Write-Host "Done."
 
# With a leading blank line for readability
Write-Host "`nDone."
 
# With a variable
Write-Host "`nExported to $env:USERPROFILE\Desktop\LicensedUsers.csv"

The backtick ` is PowerShell’s escape character. `n is a newline — handy for spacing output between sections.

Force immediate output formatting

PowerShell sometimes buffers pipeline output and prints it out of order. Add | Format-Table to force it to print immediately.

Get-MailboxStatistics $mailbox -Archive | Select DisplayName, TotalItemSize, ItemCount | Format-Table

Comparison Operators

PowerShell can’t use >, <, >= etc. directly in conditionals — it uses text-based operators instead:

Operator	Meaning
`-eq`	Equal to
`-ne`	Not equal to
`-gt`	Greater than
`-ge`	Greater than or equal to
`-lt`	Less than
`-le`	Less than or equal to

if ($hour -ge 8 -and $hour -lt 18) { ... }

Also useful for day-of-week checks — DayOfWeek returns the full day name as a string:

$day = (Get-Date).DayOfWeek
 
if ($day -ne 'Saturday' -and $day -ne 'Sunday') { ... }

Read-Host and quoted paths (from Copy Path)

Windows Explorer’s right-click → Copy Path wraps the path in literal double quotes (e.g. "C:\Users\Rick\Downloads\file.exe"). Read-Host doesn’t strip them — they get stored as part of the string, quote characters included. Passing that straight into a native command (scp, robocopy, etc.) fails, because it’s now trying to find a file whose name literally includes " characters.

Fix — trim the quotes, then re-quote when calling the command (so paths with spaces still work):

$file = Read-Host "Enter file path"
$file = $file.Trim('"')
scp "$file" user@host:/remote/path/

.Trim('"') strips a leading/trailing " if present and does nothing if you paste a path without quotes — safe either way.

Check when a transport rule was last modified

Get-TransportRule doesn’t show change history by default, but WhenChanged on the rule object tells you the last modification time.

Get-TransportRule "Insert Rule Name" | FL Name, WhenChanged

Useful for confirming whether a rule was actually touched recently, e.g. when troubleshooting mail flow changes someone swears they didn’t make.

Scripts

checkarchive.ps1

Check archive size and quota for a mailbox.

if (-not (Get-ConnectionInformation)) {
    Connect-ExchangeOnline
}
 
$mailbox = Read-Host "Enter mailbox"
 
Write-Host "`n--- Archive Stats ---"
Get-MailboxStatistics $mailbox -Archive | Select DisplayName, TotalItemSize, ItemCount | Format-Table
 
Write-Host "`n--- Archive Quota ---"
Get-Mailbox -Identity $mailbox | Select ArchiveQuota, ArchiveWarningQuota, AutoExpandingArchiveEnabled | Format-Table

newtap.ps1

Generate a Temporary Access Pass for a user.

if (-not (Get-MgContext)) {
    Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "UserAuthenticationMethod.ReadWrite.All"
}
 
New-MgUserAuthenticationTemporaryAccessPassMethod -UserId (Read-Host "Enter UPN") -LifetimeInMinutes 60 | Select TemporaryAccessPass

removetaps.ps1

Remove all Temporary Access Passes for a user.

if (-not (Get-MgContext)) {
    Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "UserAuthenticationMethod.ReadWrite.All"
}
 
$upn = Read-Host "Enter UPN"
Get-MgUserAuthenticationTemporaryAccessPassMethod -UserId $upn | ForEach-Object {
    Remove-MgUserAuthenticationTemporaryAccessPassMethod -UserId $upn -TemporaryAccessPassAuthenticationMethodId $_.Id
}

setpasswordneverexpires.ps1

Set password never expires on all enabled local accounts. Safe to run as system — only affects local accounts, not Entra/domain accounts.

Get-LocalUser | Where-Object {$_.Enabled -eq $true} | Set-LocalUser -PasswordNeverExpires $true

uploadstuff.ps1

Upload a file to stuff.coytis.me’s downloads folder. Paste a Copy Path result straight in — quotes are handled automatically.

$file = Read-Host "Enter file path"
$file = $file.Trim('"')
scp "$file" rick@192.168.1.96:/opt/media/downloads/

deletestuff.ps1

Remove a file from stuff.coytis.me’s downloads folder.

$name = Read-Host "Enter filename to delete"
$name = $name.Trim('"')
ssh rick@192.168.1.96 "rm /opt/media/downloads/$name"

deletedoublejsons.ps1

Removes duplicate workspace*.json files from the vault’s .obsidian folder created by OneDrive sync conflicts. Located in Scripts / Other folder.

$files = Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\Rick\OneDrive - Coytis\Obsidian\Rick\.obsidian" -Filter workspace*.json | Where-Object Name -ne "workspace.json"
$files | Remove-item

Followup: treats the symptom, not the cause — if these conflicts keep recurring, worth checking whether Obsidian sync/OneDrive settings can reduce them, or scheduling this to run automatically on login.

Notes

Scripts live at C:\Users\Rick\Scripts — symlinked to OneDrive - Coytis\Scripts so they sync across both PCs automatically
Always use Read-Host instead of hardcoded emails/UPNs in scripts that will be reused or published in KBs
Connection checks mean scripts are safe to run standalone or after an existing session — no double auth prompts

howto.coytis.me

Explorer

PowerShell Tips and Scripts