Parameter design, error and exit-code handling, the AWS.Tools modules in production, and the cmdlets that only work on Windows.
Most PowerShell trouble is not syntax. It is a cmdlet that returns success
while $LASTEXITCODE says otherwise, a parameter list nobody can read six
months on, or an AWS.Tools call that behaves differently in CI than it did
at the prompt.
If the scripts have grown past a screen, splatting is the habit that keeps them readable. The Windows articles cover the cmdlets that only exist there: enabling OpenSSH, installing VS Code silently, and one registry value for file extensions. For where all of this came from, the VBScript retrospective.
22 articles
Guide12 min
A 7 Days to Die dedicated server running the old world on a new Windows Server, its build and save files checked against the old one before players move.
Guide12 min
Run a 7 Days to Die server from a Windows scheduled task with no time limit, and stop it over telnet so the shutdown finishes and the world is saved.
Guide7 min
Watch your script handle a real AccessDenied, raised with a throwaway role's temporary keys, without changing your own permissions or writing any data.
Troubleshooting9 min
The analyzer's fix is safe only where code meant a null check; this function relied on the array filter in ways only empty and nearly empty inputs reveal.
Guide11 min
Compare the buildid in the appmanifest with SteamCMD's app_info_print and run app_update only when they differ. Success! and exit code 0 prove nothing.
Guide11 min
A copied restore such as xcopy /E keeps files the backup lacks. Rename the live Saves folder aside and move the archive's in; the old world stays beside it.
Guide13 min
A 7 Days to Die server that starts on a clean Windows Server, with its saves where you choose and TCP 26900 and UDP 26900 to 26902 open in Windows Firewall.
Troubleshooting5 min
Cmdlets never set LASTEXITCODE, so after a failed cmdlet it still holds whatever the last native program returned, often zero.
Guide7 min
You end up with AWS.Tools in Program Files, where a task running as SYSTEM finds it; SYSTEM's module path never includes your Documents folder.
Comparison6 min
Write-S3Object is wrong for repeat runs into a versioned bucket, which keeps every copy; sync is wrong when a restored file keeps its size and old timestamp.
Guideupdated Oct 202622 min
The world lands in S3 every morning as an archive that restores onto a fresh server, and the task's result says whether that morning's copy arrived.
Explorationupdated Sep 20264 min
The friction that moved Windows automation from VBScript's text to PowerShell's objects also moved cloud tooling from scripts to declarative templates.
Guide6 min
Read a script you copied with the tools built into PowerShell, without running anything that changes your files.
Guide6 min
Validation attributes stop a PowerShell script before it runs on bad input, but ValidateSet and ValidatePattern ignore case unless told not to.
Guideupdated Sep 20266 min
Enabling SSH on Windows Server 2025 lets only Administrators and the OpenSSH Users group sign in. You turn it on with PowerShell, then choose who's in it.
Guideupdated Sep 20264 min
Windows OpenSSH ignores an administrator's authorized_keys. Put the key in administrators_authorized_keys with the right ACL, scripted for a fresh server.
Guideupdated Sep 20265 min
Install the OpenSSH server with PowerShell, start sshd at boot, confirm the port 22 rule, and connect, plus where an administrator's key really goes.
Guide7 min
Send data from your PowerShell scripts to CloudWatch to graph and alarm on, with one cmdlet that runs on Windows, macOS or Linux.
Guide4 min
Windows Server 2022 has no winget, but VS Code's own installer takes switches that install it for every account without showing a window.
Explorationupdated Sep 20268 min
Splatting forces every parameter of a long command to be named and laid out, which keeps it readable and safe to change years after it was written.
Answer4 min
HideFileExt set to 0 shows file extensions for your account, and one Active Setup entry sets it for every account on the machine at its next sign-in.
1 min
Who writes Loosely Decoupled and how to get in touch.