Introduction

If you want to stay on top of #PowerShell community and whatever is happening around the world related to PowerShell then you are at the right place friend! In this PowerShell Monthly Newsletter, I will cover content from the following sources, which you don’t want to miss 😎.

⚡ Editor picks – blogs, articles
⚡ Trending on @Github
⚡ Top Tweets
⚡ Top @reddit posts
⚡ New on @YouTube
⚡ Bestsellers on @leanpub

Apart from monthly roundups like this one, we also publish a newsletter weekly, and following are 4 newsletters we published in the month of August which has been summarized in this monthly newsletter, take a look! 👇

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Table of Contents

Editors Pick

Here are some of the articles specially picked by me for your reading…

  • The Key to Understanding PowerShell – on Windows or Linux

    by @concentrateddon

    I’ve listened to a few of my Windows-friendly compatriots attempting to explain PowerShell to their Linux colleagues, and it hasn’t always gone well. The problem, I think, is that a lot of Windows folks don’t actually know why PowerShell exists in the first place. Let me explain.

    PowerShell does not exist to automate administrative tasks. Re-read that a few times until it really sinks in. You see, you start going at the Linux guys with this “automation” argument, and they’re all like, “yeah, man, we’ve had that for always.” The existence of PowerShell on Linux makes no sense if the point of PowerShell is simply automation. In fact, PowerShell as an automation mechanism also makes no sense on Windows. Keep in mind that all PowerShell does is built on WMI/CIM and .NET Framework; there was nothing stopping you from using those things in the first place. You didn’t need PowerShell.  [Read more]

  • How to Manage Microsoft Teams via PowerShell

    by Anthony Bartolo

    I’ve listened to a few of my Windows-friendly compatriots attempting to explain PowerShell to their Linux colleagues, and it hasn’t always gone well. The problem, I think, is that a lot of Windows folks don’t actually know why PowerShell exists in the first place. Let me explain.

    Microsoft Teams usage has increased greatly during the current pandemic.  All types of organizations are using the communications tool to stay connected with their employees and customers alike.  The increase of use has also resulted in an increase in demand for system administrator’s time to manage Microsoft Teams. Everything from adding users and groups to managing policies of said users and groups can be managed via PowerShell.  This post will highlight the foundations to get started and provide links to continue your automation through the scriptwriting journey.

    Let’s begin …  [Read more]

  • PowerShell 7.1-preview.6 is now available in the Microsoft Store

    What’s new in this version 👇

    Breaking Changes:

     

    • Rename -FromUnixTime to -UnixTimeSeconds on Get-Date to allow Unix time input
    • Make $ErrorActionPreference not affect stderr output of native commands
    • Allow explicitly specified named parameter to supersede the same one from hashtable splatting

    Enhancements and fixes:

      • Refactor command line parser to do early parsing
      • Add support for some .NET intrinsic type converters
      • Refresh and enable the ComInterop code in PowerShell
      • Add -Runspace parameter to all *-PSBreakpoint cmdlets
      • Fix error message from new symbolic link missing target
      • Make the parameter args non-nullable in the public ConsoleHost APIs
      • Add missing dispose for CancellationTokenSource
      • Add the parameter -Paged to Get-Help to support paging
      • Fix Get-Help not properly displaying if parameter supports wildcards
      • Update pwsh help for -InputFormat parameter
      • Declare MIT license for files copied from Roslyn
      • Improve BigInteger casting behaviors
      • Fix Get-Acl -LiteralPath “HKLM:Software\Classes\*” behavior
      • Add DefaultVisit method to the visitor interface and class

      • Fix conflicting shorthand

        [Go to Microsoft Store]

    Trending Github Repositories

    Github repositories that are trending are a good way to find and contribute to some cool PowerShell projects! Following is the list of top 10 trending PowerShell Github repositories.

    Repository Description Stars Forks
    W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10 A collection of Scripts which disable / remove Windows 10 Features and Apps 4,375 630
    PowerShellMafia/PowerSploit PowerSploit – A PowerShell Post-Exploitation Framework 7,254 2,803
    redcanaryco/atomic-red-team Small and highly portable detection tests based on MITREs ATT&CK. 3624 1,225
    JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh A prompt theming engine for Powershell 3,655 227
    Sycnex/Windows10Debloater Script to remove Windows 10 bloatware. 5,567 708
    postrequest/xeca PowerShell payload generator 27 10
    W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10 A collection of Scripts which disable / remove Windows 10 Features and Apps 4,342 627
    EmpireProject/Empire Empire is a PowerShell and Python post-exploitation agent. 5,538 2,005
    lukesampson/scoop A command-line installer for Windows. 11,347 925
    lextm/windowsterminal-shell Install/uninstall scripts for Windows Terminal context menu items 459 48
    farag2/Windows-10-Setup-Script Script to setup Windows 10 LTSC/1903/1909/2004 1,487 194
    fireeye/commando-vm Complete Mandiant Offensive VM (Commando VM), a fully customizable Windows-based pentesting virtual machine distribution. commandovm@fireeye.com 3,702 803
    nettitude/PoshC2 A proxy aware C2 framework used to aid red teamers with post-exploitation and lateral movement. 532 140

    Top Tweets

     

    If you are into tech then you can’t miss these PowerShell related popular tweets in the last month, here is the list of the top 10 most popular PowerShell tweets…

     

    Twitter Handle Retweet Count Favorite Count Status Status URL
    @wugeej 224 504 Several ways to download and execute malicious code through cmds

    1. #Linux
    – #curl
    – #wget
    – #rcp
    – #scp
    – #rsync… https://t.co/PkcDpKYe3y

    		 [Tweet]
    @BCSecurity1 192 347 We hinted during our #PowerShell talk at #defconsafemode a few weeks ago, that we were working on some new ScriptBl… https://t.co/94fFciMz7D [Tweet]
    @DirectoryRanger 80 191 Invisi-Shell. Hide your #Powershell script in plain sight. Bypass all Powershell security features.

    https://t.co/f4spCBnnmo

    		 [Tweet]
    @Hakin9 76 122 Unicorn is a simple tool for using a PowerShell downgrade attack and inject shellcode straight into memory.… https://t.co/3sIFtqn1R5 [Tweet]
    @ptracesecurity 74 115 PowerShell: In-Memory Injection Using CertUtil.exe https://t.co/S1xwrc85rl #Pentesting #PowerShell #Windows… https://t.co/WcxzA6T4LB Tweet
    @ThomasMaurer 69 126 Want to manage your Azure services without a public IP address? Now you can connect Azure Cloud Shell to Virtual Ne… https://t.co/wBmuPQEcaa Tweet
    @Steve_MSFT 51 132 We ARE making some improvements to DSC support in #PowerShell 7.1. I’m hoping these changes will make it in time¦ https://t.co/DjUibaiOcZ Status
    @pewa2303 33 45 New blog post: PowerShell: Convert .ps1 Files to .exe Files #PowerShell #DevOps https://t.co/Fx4unDbPB9 Status

     

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    Top Reddit posts

    PowerShell Reddit r/PowerShell is a vibrant community and you should be on board if you want to get onto the nerve of PowerShell Community, here is a list of top Reddit posts last month..

    Author Title Ups Num of Comments URL
    /u/DragonToutNu I’ve created my first practical script and I felt like a king 247 61 Post
    /u/awarre WSUS cleanup, optimization, maintenance, and configuration script 146 67 Post
    /u/Skunklabz Microsoft Windows Terminal Setup using Chocolatey and Oh-My-Posh 133 15 Post
    /u/krzydoug Will this ever end? 99 108 Post
    /u/fuzzylumpkinsbc Next book in the learning powershell journey? Done with Scripting in a month of lunches. 67 37 Post
    /u/krzydoug Gather network interface details 57 15 Post
    /u/adbertram Using PowerShell Data Types Accelerators to Speed up Coding 90 15 Post
    /u/Wireless_Life Windows Terminal Preview 1.3 Release 84 31 Post
    /u/daniteh Reading SCCM Logs with PowerShell (My First PowerShell Blog Post!) 73 5 Post
    /u/Wireless_Life How to Manage Microsoft Teams via PowerShell 97 32 Post
    /u/rumorsofdemise UPDATE: I made an automatically populating script menu. 66 20 Post
    /u/jborean93 WSMan PSRemoting on Linux 60 9 Post

     

    New on Youtube

    Here are some new PowerShell videos uploaded on youtube.com this month! Unfortunately because of the sheer number of videos uploaded on youtube, we have handpicked only few uploads in this list.

    Channel Title URL
    Doug Finke PowerShell – Data without a Database – Adam Jacobson Video
    Adam Driscoll Module Monday: PowerShell Protect Video
    Server Academy PowerShell Live Training – APIs and Web Requests Video
    Skunklabz PowerShell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment) Basics Video
    Azure Thursday Barbara Forbes – When powers combine: Azure Function Apps & PowerShell Video
    MC2MC PowerShell + Intune = PowerAppDeployment! Video
    Tecoholic Azure PowerShell Getting Started Video
    Guy Leech Automating and Managing VMware with PowerShell Video
    Tecoholic PowerShell to C# and back The basics Video

     

    Bestseller Books on Leanpub.com

    Here are the top 10 book titles which were trending as bestsellers under the PowerShell category this month!

     

    Rank Title Author
    1 The PowerShell Conference Book Mark Kraus, Michael Zanatta, Joe Houghes, Christian Coventry, Steven Judd, Phil Bossman, Adil Leghari, Arnaud Petitjean
    2 The PowerShell Scripting and Toolmaking Book Don Jones, Jeff Hicks
    3 The PowerShell Conference Book Jeff Hicks, Mike F Robbins, Michael T Lombardi, The DevOps Collective, Inc.
    4 The PowerShell Conference Book Michael T Lombardi, Mark Kraus
    5 Building PowerShell Modules Brandon Olin
    6 The PowerShell Practice Primer Jeff Hicks
    7 Shell of an Idea Don Jones
    8 PowerShell to C# and back Prateek Singh, Deepak Singh Dhami
    9 PowerShell Guide to Python Prateek Singh
    10 Building a PowerShell Tool Adam Bertram

     

    Optical Character Recognition

    Author of “PowerShell Guide to Python“, “Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)” and currently writing the most awaited book: “PowerShell to C# and Back” !

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