Table of Contents

1. Static .NET Methods

2. Getting Documentation
3. Listing Static Members
4. Converting Types
5. Turning On Standby-Mode
6. Listing Available Culture IDs
7. Testing Numbers and Date
8. Get Localized Month Names
9. Listing Internet Explorer Cookies
10. Counting Special Characters
11. Getting Time Zones
12. Getting Character Ranges
13. Check for Wildcards
14. Get-Clipboard
15. Set-Clipboard
16. Playing Sound in PowerShell
17. Finding Days in Month
18. Finding Leap Years
19. Resolve Host Names
20. Renewing All DHCP Leases
21. Defining Return Values
22. Secret TimeSpan Shortcuts
23. Creating Relative Dates

24. Test Internet Connection

25. Finding Multiple RegEx Patterns
26. Translating Culture IDs to Country Names
27. Escape Regular Expressions
28. Extracting Icons
29. Getting SID of the Current User
30. Test Admin Privileges
31. Setting Mouse Position
32. Converting Date to WMI Date
33. Finding Built-In Cmdlets
34. Check for 64-Bit Environment
35. Converting Bitmaps to Icons
36. Showing MsgBox
37. ASCII Table
38. Check for Numeric Characters
39. Getting Significant Bytes
40. Permanent Changes to Environment Variables
41. Strongly-Typed Variables
42. Finding System Folders
43. Open File Exclusively
44. Removing File Extensions
45. Quickly Changing File Extensions
46. Identifying 64-Bit Environments

1. Static .NET Methods

Many .NET types contain useful static methods. Static methods can be invoked directly. To invoke a static method, you add two colons
after the .NET type.
For example, the following line will generate a new GUID (unique identifier) that you can use to uniquely mark things:

PS> [System.Guid]::NewGuid().Guid
7cb953d9-c906-46e8-86e8-666a717e7bed

In this example, [System.Guid] is the .NET type you are using. .NET types are enclosed in brackets. NewGuid() is the method you
are running. The method returns an object with a property called Guid:

PS> [System.Guid]::NewGuid()
Guid
---cd87da91-9b4f-4c24-a18c-8acee41e3f3f

To get just the GUID number, the example accesses this property directly.
In this issue, we will present you a mixture of examples that all use static members. These examples cover only a fraction of useful
.NET types but will give you a good understanding on how this technique works. Use it as a starting point to explore the other static
members in the types.

2. Getting Documentation
.NET types that are part of the Microsoft .NET Framework come with excellent documentation. If you wanted to know more about the
type System.GUID, simply navigate to your favorite Internet search engine, and enter the type name as search phrase.
When you add the additional search phrase PowerShell, you will quickly find a vast number of articles on how others used the .NET
type.

3. Listing Static Members

Once you know the name of a .NET type, you can use Get-Member to list all of its static properties and methods (members). This
example will list all members found in the DateTime type:

PS> [DateTime] | Get-Member -Static

TypeName: System.DateTime
Name
MemberType Definition
------------- ---------Compare
Method
static int Compare(datetime t1, datetime t2)
DaysInMonth
Method
static int DaysInMonth(int year, int month)
Equals
Method
static bool Equals(datetime t1, datetime t2), static bool
Equals(System.Object objA, System.Object objB)
FromBinary
Method
static datetime FromBinary(long dateData)
FromFileTime
Method
static datetime FromFileTime(long fileTime)
FromFileTimeUtc Method
static datetime FromFileTimeUtc(long fileTime)
FromOADate
Method
static datetime FromOADate(double d)
IsLeapYear
Method
static bool IsLeapYear(int year)
Parse
Method
static datetime Parse(string s), static datetime Parse(string s,
System.IFormatProvider provider), static datetime Parse...
ParseExact
Method
static datetime ParseExact(string s, string format, System.
IFormatProvider provider), static datetime ParseExact(string ...
ReferenceEquals Method
static bool ReferenceEquals(System.Object objA, System.Object objB)
SpecifyKind
Method
static datetime SpecifyKind(datetime value, System.DateTimeKind kind)
TryParse
Method
static bool TryParse(string s, [ref] datetime result), static bool
TryParse(string s, System.IFormatProvider provider, S...
TryParseExact
Method
static bool TryParseExact(string s, string format, System.
IFormatProvider provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles ...
MaxValue
Property
static datetime MaxValue {get;}
MinValue
Property
static datetime MinValue {get;}
Now
Property
datetime Now {get;}
Today
Property
datetime Today {get;}
UtcNow
Property
datetime UtcNow {get;}

From the list, you can see that the type has a property called UtcNow. So if youd like to know the current UTC time, run this:

PS> [DateTime]::UtcNow
Monday, December 16, 2013 13:54:10

Likewise, you can use any of the methods (which always are followed by braces including the method arguments). For example, to
convert ticks (the smallest time unit in Windows systems) to a real DateTime object, do this:

PS> [DateTime]::FromBinary(623577621536757899)
Saturday, January 15, 1977 08:35:53

4. Converting Types
You can easily convert types if you know the target type name. So if you wanted to convert a double number into an integer number,
stripping the decimals and rounding the number, here is the solution:

PS> [Int]7.68
8

You can convert even more sophisticated things:

PS> [System.Version]3.2.12.9
Major
----3

Minor
----2

Build
----12

Revision
-------9

PS> [System.Net.Mail.MailAddress]Tobias Weltner<[email protected]>

DisplayName
----------Tobias Weltner

User
---tobias.weltner

Host
---email.de

Address
[email protected]

PS> [System.Net.Mail.MailAddress][email protected]
DisplayName
-----------

User
---tobias.weltner

Host
---email.de

Address
[email protected]

PS> ([System.Net.Mail.MailAddress][email protected]).Host
email.de

Author Bio
Tobias Weltner is a long-term Microsoft PowerShell MVP, located in Germany. Weltner offers entry-level and advanced PowerShell
classes throughout Europe, targeting mid- to large-sized enterprises. He just organized the first German PowerShell Community
conference which was a great success and will be repeated next year (more on www.pscommunity.de).. His latest 950-page
PowerShell 3.0 Workshop was recently released by Microsoft Press.
To find out more about public and in-house training, get in touch with him at [email protected].

5. Turning On Standby-Mode
To programmatically enter standby mode, you can use native .NET code like this:
function Invoke-Standby
{
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
[System.Windows.Forms.Application]::SetSuspendState(0,0,0) | Out-Null
}

6. Listing Available Culture IDs

Ever needed to get your hands on some specific culture IDs? Here is how you can create a list:
[System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultures(WindowsOnlyCultures)
Next, you can use a culture to output information formatted in that culture:
$c = [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]ar-IQ
[System.Threading.Thread]::CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = $c; Get-Date
You should note that the console character set is not able to display certain characters. You may want to run that command inside the
PowerShell ISE or another Unicode-enabled environment.

7. Testing Numbers and Date

With a bit of creativity (and the help from the -as operator), you can create powerful test functions. These two functions test for valid
numbers and valid DateTime information:
function Test-Numeric($Value) { ($Value -as [Int64]) -ne $null }
function Test-Date($Value) { ($Value -as [DateTime]) -ne $null }
If things get more complex, you can combine tests. This one tests for valid IP addresses:
function Test-IPAddress($Value) { ($Value -as [System.Net.IPAddress]) -ne $null -and ($Value -as
[Int]) -eq $null }

8. Get Localized Month Names

To get a list of day names, you could use this line:
[System.Enum]::GetNames([System.DayOfWeek])

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However, this returns a culture-neutral list which is not returning the day in a localized (regional) form. To get the localized names, use
this line instead:
0..6 | ForEach-Object { [Globalization.DatetimeFormatInfo]::CurrentInfo.DayNames[$_] }
To get month names, try this:
0..11 | ForEach-Object { [Globalization.DatetimeFormatInfo]::CurrentInfo.MonthNames[$_] }

9. Listing Internet Explorer Cookies

Have you ever wanted to find out who stored your information while you were surfing the Web? Check out your cookies folder:
Get-ChildItem ([Environment]::GetFolderPath(Cookies))
Explorer ([Environment]::GetFolderPath(Cookies))
And if youd like, you could also select cookies based on content. The next line lists all cookies that contain the word prefbin:
Get-ChildItem ([Environment]::GetFolderPath(Cookies)) | Select-String prefbin -List

10. Counting Special Characters

Type conversion can help you count special characters in a text. For example, if youd like to find out the number of tab characters in
a text, you should do this:
@([Byte[]][char[]]$text -eq 9).Count
This line will convert the characters in $text into bytes and uses -eq to filter only the character code for tabs (which is the number 9).
Next, @() ensures that the result is an array so that you can use Count to check the number of found characters.

11. Getting Time Zones

Heres a .NET call that returns all time zones:
[System.TimeZoneInfo]::GetSystemTimeZones

To find the time zone you are in, use this:
[System.TimeZoneInfo]::Local
([System.TimeZoneInfo]::Local).StandardName

Technical Editor Bio

Aleksandar Nikolic, Microsoft MVP for Windows PowerShell, a frequent speaker at the conferences (Microsoft Sinergija, PowerShell
Deep Dive, NYC Techstravaganza, KulenDayz, PowerShell Summit) and the co-founder and editor of the PowerShell Magazine
(http://powershellmagazine.com). He is also available for one-on-one online PowerShell trainings. You can find him on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/alexandair

12. Getting Character Ranges

PowerShells special .. operator only supports numeric ranges:
1..10
You can use type conversion to get a range of letters:
[string][char[]](65..90)
[char[]](65..90) -join ,

13. Check for Wildcards

If you need to test for wildcards, you should try this .NET method:
$path = c:\test\*
[Management.Automation.WildcardPattern]::ContainsWildcardCharacters($path)

14. Get-Clipboard
If your PowerShell host uses the STA mode (which is default for PowerShell 3.0 and better), you can easily read clipboard
content like this:
function Get-Clipboard {
if ($Host.Runspace.ApartmentState -eq STA) {
Add-Type -Assembly PresentationCore
[Windows.Clipboard]::GetText()
} else {
Write-Warning (Run {0} with the -STA parameter to use this function -f $Host.Name)
}
}

15. Set-Clipboard
If you are using Windows Vista or better, you can pipe text to clip.exe to copy it to your clipboard:
Dir $env:windir | clip
Here is yet another approach that you can use if your PowerShell host uses the STA mode:
function Set-Clipboard {
param( $text )
if ($Host.Runspace.ApartmentState -eq STA) {
Add-Type -Assembly PresentationCore
[Windows.Clipboard]::SetText($text)
} else {
Write-Warning (Run {0} with the -STA parameter to use this function -f $Host.Name)
}
}
Set-Clipboard Hello World

16. Playing Sound in PowerShell

If you would like to catch a users attention, you can make PowerShell beep like this:
[System.Console]::Beep()
[System.Console]::Beep(1000,300)
If you would like to catch a users attention, you can make PowerShell beep like this:
[System.Media.SystemSounds]::Beep.Play()
[System.Media.SystemSounds]::Asterisk.Play()
[System.Media.SystemSounds]::Exclamation.Play()
[System.Media.SystemSounds]::Hand.Play()

17. Finding Days in Month

If you need to determine the days in a given month, you can use the static DaysInMonth() function provided by the DateTime type. As
you can see, the days in a month are not always the same for every year:
[DateTime]::DaysInMonth(2009, 2)
[DateTime]::DaysInMonth(2008, 2)

18. Finding Leap Years

You will find that the DateTime type supports a number of static methods to check dates. For example, you can check whether a year
is a leap year like this:
[DateTime]::IsLeapYear(1904)

19. Resolve Host Names

Have you ever needed to resolve a host name to find its IP address? Simply use a .NET method and wrap it as PowerShell function:
function Get-HostToIP($hostname) {
$result = [System.Net.Dns]::GetHostByName($hostname)
$result.AddressList | ForEach-Object {$_.IPAddressToString }
}

20. Renewing All DHCP Leases

Some WMI classes contain static methods. Static methods do not require an instance.
([WMIClass]Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration).RenewDHCPLeaseAll().ReturnValue

21. Defining Return Values

Sorting or comparing IP addresses wont initially work because PowerShell uses alphanumeric comparison. However, you can
compare or sort them correctly by casting IP addresses temporarily to the type System.Version:
$iplist = 1.10.10.1, 100.10.10.3, 2.10.10.230
$iplist | Sort-Object
* * 40
$iplist | Sort-Object -Property { [System.Version]$_ }

22. Secret TimeSpan Shortcuts

Usually, to create time spans, you will use New-TimeSpan. However, you can also use a more developer-centric approach by
converting a number to a TimeSpan type:

PS> [TimeSpan]100
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Milliseconds
Ticks
TotalDays
TotalHours
TotalMinutes
TotalSeconds
TotalMilliseconds

:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

0
0
0
0
0
100
1,15740740740741E-10
2,77777777777778E-09
1,66666666666667E-07
1E-05
0,01

This will get you a time span of 100 ticks, which is the smallest unit available to measure time. As PowerShell does support some
hidden shortcuts for other units, this will create a time span of exactly five days:

PS> [TimeSpan]5d
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Milliseconds
Ticks
TotalDays
TotalHours
TotalMinutes
TotalSeconds
TotalMilliseconds

:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

5
0
0
0
0
4320000000000
5
120
7200
432000
432000000

23. Creating Relative Dates

To create relative dates like 10 days ago, there are two paths. Administrators often add or remove time spans created by NewTimeSpan:
(Get-Date) - (New-TimeSpan -Days 10)
Developers prefer object methods:
(Get-Date).AddDays(-10)
Both approaches will yield you the same result.

24. Test Internet Connection

Try this line if you would like to know whether a machine is currently connected to the Internet:
[Activator]::CreateInstance([Type]::GetTypeFromCLSID([Guid]{DCB00C01-570F-4A9B-8D69199FDBA5723B})).IsConnectedToInternet
It returns $true when there is an Internet connection available.

25. Finding Multiple RegEx Patterns

PowerShell comes with great support for regular expressions but the -match operator can only find the first occurrence of a pattern.
To find all occurrences, you can use the .NET RegEx type. Here is a sample:
$text = multiple emails like [email protected] and [email protected] in a string
$emailpattern = (?i)\b([A-Z0-9._%-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4})\b
$text = multiple emails like [email protected] and [email protected] in a string
$emailpattern = (?i)\b([A-Z0-9._%-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4})\b
([RegEx]$emailpattern).Matches($text) |
ForEach-Object { $_.Groups[1].Value }
Note the statement (?i) in the regular expression pattern description. The RegEx object by default works case-sensitive. To ignore
case, use this control statement.

26. Translating Culture IDs to Country Names

Have you ever wondered what a specific culture ID means? Here is a nifty function that will translate a culture ID to the full culture
name:
[System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfoByIetfLanguageTag(ar-IQ)

27. Escape Regular Expressions

PowerShell supports regular expressions in a lot of areas which is why the following code fails:

PS> c:\test\subfolder\file -split \

parsing \ - Illegal \ at end of pattern.
At line:1 char:1
+ c:\test\subfolder\file -split \
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo
: OperationStopped: (:) [], ArgumentException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.ArgumentException

Split expects a regular expression and fails when you use special characters like \. To translate a plain text into an escaped regular
expression text, try this:
[Regex]::Escape(\)
As you see, \ is the RegEx escape character and therefore needs to be escaped:
c:\test\subfolder\file -split \\
(c:\test\subfolder\file -split \\)[-1]

28. Extracting Icons

To extract an icon from a file, use .NET Framework methods. Here is a sample that extracts all icons from all .exe files in your Windows
folder (or one of its subfolders) and puts them into a separate folder:
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing
$folder = $env:temp\icons
mkdir $folder -ErrorAction 0 | Out-Null
Get-ChildItem $env:windir *.exe -ErrorAction 0 -Recurse |
ForEach-Object {
$baseName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($_.FullName)
Write-Progress Extracting Icon $baseName
[System.Drawing.Icon]::ExtractAssociatedIcon($_.FullName).ToBitmap().Save($folder\$BaseName.ico)
}
explorer.exe $folder

29. Getting SID of the Current User

To get the SID of the current user, try this:

PS> [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().User.Value
S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-1000

In fact, the method returns a wealth of additional information about your current access token:

PS> [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()

AuthenticationType
ImpersonationLevel
IsAuthenticated
IsGuest
IsSystem
IsAnonymous
Name
Owner
User
Groups

:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

Token
UserClaims

:
:

DeviceClaims
Claims

:
:

NTLM
None
True
False
False
False
TobiasAir1\Tobias
S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-1000
S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-1000
{S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-513, S-1-1-0, S-1-5-32-545,
S-1-5-4...}
2276
{http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/name:
TobiasAir1\Tobias,
http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/primarysid:
S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-1000,
http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/primarygroupsid:
S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-513,
http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/groupsid:
S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-513...}
{}
{http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/name:
TobiasAir1\Tobias,
http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/primarysid:
S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-1000,
http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/primarygroupsid:

S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-513,
http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/groupsid:
S-1-5-21-2649034417-1209187175-3910605729-513...}
Actor
BootstrapContext
Label
NameClaimType
RoleClaimType

:
:
:
: http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/name
: http://schemas.microsoft.com/ws/2008/06/identity/claims/groupsid

30. Test Admin Privileges

If you want to know whether you currently have Administrator privileges, use this function:
function Test-Admin {
$identity = [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()
$principal = New-Object Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal $identity
$principal.IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator)
}
It will return $true if you do have Administrator rights, else $false.

31. Setting Mouse Position

PowerShell can place the mouse cursor anywhere on your screen. Heres the code:
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName(System.Windows.Forms) | Out-Null
[System.Windows.Forms.Cursor]::Position = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(500,100)
This would have placed the cursor at x=500 and y=100.

32. Converting Date to WMI Date

WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation, Get-WmiObject) uses a specific (DTMF) format for date and time. You can easily convert
regular date and time information into this format:
$date = Get-Date
$wmidate = [System.Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::ToDmtfDateTime($date)
$wmidate
Likewise, you can convert WMI date and time information back to a regular date and time object. This code tells you when your system
was rebooted the last time:
$os = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem
$os.LastBootUpTime
[System.Management.ManagementDateTimeConverter]::ToDateTime($os.LastBootupTime)

33. Finding Built-In Cmdlets

In times where cmdlets can originate from all kinds of modules, it sometimes becomes important to find out which cmdlets are truly built
into PowerShell and which represent external dependencies.
One way of getting a list of built-in cmdlets is to temporarily open another runspace and enumerate its internal cmdlet list:
$ps = [PowerShell]::Create()
$ps.Runspace.RunspaceConfiguration.Cmdlets
$ps.Dispose()

34. Check for 64-Bit Environment

Here is a quick way of finding out your operating system architecture:
[System.Environment]::Is64BitOperatingSystem
[System.Environment]::Is64BitProcess

35. Converting Bitmaps to Icons

If you need a new icon and have no icon editor at hand, then you can take a bitmap file (create one with MS Paint if you must) and
have PowerShell convert it into an icon file.
The function code also illustrates how you can open an Explorer window and select a file inside of it.
function ConvertTo-Icon {
param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
$bitmapPath,
$iconPath = $env:temp\newicon.ico
)
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing
if (Test-Path $bitmapPath) {
$b = [System.Drawing.Bitmap]::FromFile($bitmapPath)
$icon = [System.Drawing.Icon]::FromHandle($b.GetHicon())
$file = New-Object System.IO.FileStream($iconPath, OpenOrCreate)
$icon.Save($file)
$file.Close()
$icon.Dispose()
explorer /SELECT,$iconpath
} else { Write-Warning $BitmapPath does not exist }
}

36. Showing MsgBox

Ever wanted to display a dialog box from PowerShell rather than spitting out console text? Then try this function:
function Show-MsgBox {
param
(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
[String]$Text,
[String]$Title = Message,
[String]
$Icon = YesNo,Information
)
Add-Type -AssemblyName Microsoft.VisualBasic
[Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::MsgBox($text, $icon, $title)
}
It is really easy to use: simply tell it what to display:
Show-MsgBox -Text Reboot system? -Title Warning -Icon YesNoCancel,Question
And this makes it a useful function:
$result = Show-MsgBox -Text Reboot system? -Title Warning -Icon YesNoCancel,Question
if ($result -eq Yes) {
Restart-Computer -Force
}

37. ASCII Table

Heres a simple way of creating an ASCII table through type casting:
32..255 | ForEach-Object {
Code {0} equals character {1} -f $_, [Char]$_
}
Likewise, to get a list of letters, try this:
[Char[]](65..90)
-join [Char[]](65..90)
[Char[]](65..90) -join ,

38. Check for Numeric Characters

Try this if you need to check a single character and find out whether or not it is numeric:
[Char]::IsNumber(1)
[Char]::IsNumber(A)
The Char type has a bunch of other useful methods. Here is a list that you can try:
[Char] | Get-Member -Static

39. Getting Significant Bytes

If you need to split a decimal into bytes, you can use a function called ConvertTo-HighLow, which uses a clever combination of type
casts to get you the high and low bytes:
function ConvertTo-HighLow {
param(
$number
)
$result = [System.Version][String]([System.Net.IPAddress]$number)
$newobj = 1 | Select-Object Low, High, Low64, High64
$newobj.Low = $result.Major
$newobj.High = $result.Minor
$newobj.Low64 = $result.Build
$newobj.High64 = $result.Revision
$newobj
}

40. Permanent Changes to Environment Variables

You can easily manage environment variables with the predefined env: drive. For example, to add a new environment variable, type
this:
$env:launched = $true
However, these changes are visible only within the current PowerShell session because all changes are applied to the Process set
of environment variables. As such, your changes would be visible to all other PowerShell scripts you launched from within the same
PowerShell session. Changes are not permanent and will be discarded once you close PowerShell.
To make permanent changes, you will need to access the static .NET methods in the Environment class. This is how you read
environment variables:
# environment variable for current user
[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(Temp, User)
# environment variable for all users
[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable(Temp, Machine)

To change values, use SetEnvironmentVariable(). Note that you need full admin privileges to change machine-level environment
variables because they affect all users.
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(Launched, $true, User)
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(Note, SomeContent, User)
Note: Changes you make to user-level and machine-level environment variables are visible in the env: drive only after you restart
PowerShell. When PowerShell starts, it receives a copy of all environment variables, and this copy is not updated.
To delete an environment variable, set it back to an empty text:
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(Installed, , User)
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(Note, , User)

41. Strongly-Typed Variables

By assigning a type to a variable, the variable will use implicit conversion and always try and convert any new content to the type you
assigned to the variable.
This adds an extra layer of security to your scripts because if you accidentally assign something to a variable that cannot be
converted to the intended type, you will receive an error message.
[DateTime]$Date = Get-Date
$Date = 2014-01-12 19:22:10
$Date
$Date = invalid data

42. Finding System Folders

You may want to know where special folders such as MyPictures or Documents are located. The .NET class Environment provides a
static method named GetFolderPath() which provides this information. To find the location of your desktop, for example, use this:
[Environment]::GetFolderPath(Desktop)
Simply specify an invalid keyword, and the exception will list all valid keywords:

PS> [Environment]::GetFolderPath(give me more!)

Cannot convert argument folder, with value: give me more!, for GetFolderPath to type
System.Environment+SpecialFolder: Cannot convert value
give me more! to type System.Environment+SpecialFolder. Error: Unable to match the identifier
name give me more! to a valid enumerator name.
Specify one of the following enumerator names and try again: Desktop, Programs, MyDocuments,
Personal, Favorites, Startup, Recent, SendTo, StartMenu,
MyMusic, MyVideos, DesktopDirectory, MyComputer, NetworkShortcuts, Fonts, Templates,
CommonStartMenu, CommonPrograms, CommonStartup,
CommonDesktopDirectory, ApplicationData, PrinterShortcuts, LocalApplicationData, InternetCache,
Cookies, History, CommonApplicationData, Windows,
System, ProgramFiles, MyPictures, UserProfile, SystemX86, ProgramFilesX86, CommonProgramFiles,
CommonProgramFilesX86, CommonTemplates,
CommonDocuments, CommonAdminTools, AdminTools, CommonMusic, CommonPictures, CommonVideos,
Resources, LocalizedResources, CommonOemLinks, CDBurning

43. Open File Exclusively

To open a file in a locked state so no one else can open, access, read, or write the file, you can use the low-level .NET methods like
this:
$path = $env:temp\somefile.txt

# MUST EXIST!

if ( (Test-Path $path) -eq $false)

{
Set-Content -Value test -Path $path
}
$file = [System.io.File]::Open($path, Open, Read, None)
$reader = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader($file)
$text = $reader.ReadToEnd()
$reader.Close()
Read-Host Press ENTER to release file!
$file.Close()
This will lock a file and read its content. To illustrate the lock, the file will remain locked until you press ENTER.

44. Removing File Extensions

To remove file extensions, use .NET methods:
[System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension(c:\test\report.txt)

45. Quickly Changing File Extensions

If you want to quickly exchange a file extension to create a bak backup version or generate a new file name for output, you should
use the ChangeExtension() method:
$oldpath = c:\test\data.csv
$newpath = [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($oldpath, .xls)
$oldpath
$newpath

46. Identifying 64-Bit Environments

You will find that one great advantage of 64-bit environments is the address width of 8 bytes instead of 4 bytes. You can use this to
identify whether a script runs in a 32-bit or 64-bit environment. You should simply take a look at pointers and their address width:
if ([IntPtr]::Size -eq 8) { Running in 64-bit subsystem } else { Running in 32-bit subsystem
}