Useful PowerShell Commands and Scripts For Windows Server

Find some of the most useful PowerShell commands and scripts for Windows Server 2016 and 2019

Sometimes using Windows PowerShell versus the GUI interface saves time and headaches. Below is a preferred list of PowerShell commands we use on Microsoft Windows Server 2019 and 2016 operating systems.

As a Managed IT Services Provider (MSP) we can save hours using PowerShell commands, especially when provisioning tens of servers for our data center or customer infrastructure. As we find more commands that are practical for the more common scenarios we will add them to the list below. Please note that many of our PowerShell commands listed below will also work for Windows 10 operating systems.

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Obtain your Active Direcotry Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) for your Office 365 domain

Get-ADDomain

# Look for your ObjectGUID in the results. You can also run Get-ADDomain on a locally joined workstation.

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Default Execution Policy - set to unrestricted

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted  

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Disable Windows Error Reporting

Disable-WindowsErrorReporting

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Disable Automatic Windows Updates

Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU -Name AUOptions -Value 1

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Disable Windows Reboot Schedule (Active hours)

1) Open Windows Powershell by right click > run as administrator
2) Type: SCONFIG and hit enter
3) Press 5 (Windows Update Settings)
4) Press D (Download Only mode)
5) Close Powershell

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Enabling Remote Desktop with PowerShell Remotely

Invoke-Command -ComputerName client01 {Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server'` -Name "fDenyTSConnections" -Value 0; `Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup "Remote Desktop"}

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Restart Windows Service with PowerShell

Restart-Service <service-name>

EXAMPLES

Restart the spooler (printing) service:

restart-service spooler -force
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Find all the network services on the computer (starting with "net...") and restart any that are stopped:

get-service net* | where {$_.Status -eq "Stopped"} | restart-service

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Enable and Disable Windows Defender Firewall with PowerShell

To enable Windows Defender Firewall for all network profiles:

Set-NetFirewallProfile -Enabled True

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To disable it for all, use:

Set-NetFirewallProfile -Enabled False

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Enable and Disable Windows Defender Antivirus with PowerShell

Enable Windows Defender Antivirus:

Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $false

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Disable Windows Defender Antivirus:

Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $true

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Uninstall Windows Defender Antivirus:

Uninstall-WindowsFeature -Name Windows-Defender

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Disable Windows Display, Monitor Timeout to Never

powercfg -change -monitor-timeout-ac 0

PowerShell Command to Check TLS Version in Windows

Copy the code below and save it into a text file with the extension .PS1 (PowerShell script). Execute the script in an elevated PowerShell window.

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$ServerName = Read-Host -Prompt 'Input your server  name'$Port = Read-Host -Prompt 'Input your server TCP port number (443 is most common)'nmap --script ssl-enum-ciphers -p $Port $ServerName

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Script to disable old TLS versions

Copy the code below and save it into a text file with the extension .PS1 (PowerShell script). Execute the script in an elevated PowerShell window.

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function disable-ssl-2.0
{
   New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Server' -Force
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Server' -name 'Enabled' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Client' -name 'Enabled' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Client' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   Write-Host 'Disabling SSLv2'
}
function disable-ssl-3.0
{
   New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 3.0\Server' -Force
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 3.0\Server' -name 'Enabled' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   Write-Host 'Disabling SSLv3'
}
function disable-tls-1.0
{
   New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Server' -Force
   New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client' -Force
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Server' -name 'Enabled' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Server' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client' -name 'Enabled' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   Write-Host 'Disabling TLSv1.0'
}
function enable-tls-1.1
{
   New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server' -Force
   New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client' -Force
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server' -name 'Enabled' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Server' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client' -name 'Enabled' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.1\Client' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   Write-Host 'Enabling TLSv1.1'
}
function enable-tls-1.2
{
   New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -Force
   New-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' -Force
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -name 'Enabled' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Server' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' -name 'Enabled' -value '1' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\TLS 1.2\Client' -name 'DisabledByDefault' -value '0' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
   Write-Host 'Enabling TLSv1.2'
}
function enforce-tls-versions
{
   New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RasMan\PPP\EAP\13' -Name 'TlsVersion'  -value 'F00' –PropertyType 'DWORD'
}

disable-ssl-2.0
disable-ssl-3.0
disable-tls-1.0
enable-tls-1.1
enable-tls-1.2
enforce-tls-versions