Tools and functions that integrate with PowerShell terminals, without changing core functionality and the functions are deliberately stand-alone so can be used as templates to build on or reuse in other projects.
Installs and runs under normal user space (no requirement for Administrator privileges). Full install is done from BeginSystemConfig.ps1 which can be invoked on the command-line directly from GitHub using iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://git.io/JqCtf'))
BeginSystemConfig.ps1 adds the Custom-Tools.psm1 Module and adds two lines to the profile so that ProfileExtensions.ps1 tools that are dot-sourced in all sessions. ProfileExtensions hold fundamental functions and definitions (such as the 'cd' alias which has been replaced by a superset of Set-Location to add more functionality). Every function in Custom-Tools.psm1 is deliberately stand-alone; there are no dependencies on each other so that each function can be completely portable for other projects as required.
Custom-Tools.psm1 is installed under the users profile Module folder (use $Env:PSModulePath to see that location).
To uninstall the toolkit, simply remove the two lines at the end of $profile that call ProfileExtensions.ps1 and run Uninstall-Module Custom-Tools; all traces of the Toolkit are now completely removed upon opening a new PowerShell terminal.
If there are any problems with installation, this is probably due to the recently more aggressive Windows Defender. It's good that Microsoft update Defender often, but this toolkit is just a collection of functions and all of the function code is open on the Github project so it is all safe.
Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $true # Disable
# Now install Custon-Tools here ...
Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $false # Enable
Simple Custom-Tools functions:
To view all installed Modules, use mods
To drill in on a single module (such as Custom-Tools), use mod custom-tools
To show just those functions that contain a given string, e.g. mod custom-tools date
Shorthand tools to explore functions in the Module:
To see the entire definition for a given function, use def, e.g. def touch
The function m is used to provide access to all help functions and to the about_ Topics.
• m Para - Show all about_ Topics containing "Para".
• m Foreach - Show all about_ Topics containing "Para".
• m Foreach - Show all about_ Topics containing "Para".
Help works, but extensive help is not built into many Custom-Tools functions. e.g. help def and help can sometimes be awkward to navigate, so Custom-Tools contains some helpers to quickly get to Cmdlet and Function information:
• mm (man module), quick way to get info on a module, so mm pester, but mod pester is more compact/efficient.
• ms (man syntax), can also use syn, so syn def, and mparam (man parameter) (can't use mp as that is a built-in alias), quick way to get info on a function parameter. These are very useful together to just get specific info on a command, e.g. To first see the syntax of a command, use ms and then to drill down and see detailed info on the Filter parameter:
ms Get-ChildItem
mparam Get-ChildItem Filter
• me (man examples), just show the examples for a given Cmdlet / Function, e.g. me Get-ChildItem
• mf (man full), shows everything, full help page info, this is like Detailed, but expands every parameter property, e.g. mf Get-ChildItem
Quick stuff: PowerShell variables, Environment Variables, useful system info:
• vars / getvars : show currently defined PowerShell variables. https://stackoverflow.com/qu
• env : Show Environment Variables (bit of a daft function, but I sometimes forget how to list environment variables)
• envgui : Opens the Environment Variable GUI, rundll32 sysdm.cpl,EditEnvironmentVariables
• ver : Show various version info. PowerShell, Windows, Office, etc
• sys : Systems diagnostics, display a large amount of system information
Note that the following may or may not be required as Windows Defender changes quite often. So try the above installer first and see if it works. Only temporarily stop Windows Defender if the above fails. This is sometimes required, as Windows Defender recently started heavily blocking many projects, even including big projects like Chocolatey (the main installer was completely blocked for a while unless you disabled Windows Defender):
chocolatey/choco#2132
https://theitbros.com/managing-windows-defender-using-powershell/ 1
https://technoresult.com/how-to-disable-windows-defender-using-powershell-command-line/
https://evotec.xyz/import-module-this-script-contains-malicious-content-and-has-been-blocked-by-your-antivirus-software/
https://superuser.com/questions/1503345/i-disabled-real-time-monitoring-of-windows-defender-but-a-powershell-script-is
If there are any Windows Defender issues, this can be bypassed by disabling Windows Defender briefly before installing (some people at Chocolatey thought that use of 'iex' / 'Invoke-Expression' or 'iwr' / 'Invoke-WebRequest' might have been the reason for this block, but I've not seen that confirmed) as follows:
# Temporarily stop Windows Defender (must be Administrator)
# However, the above probably won't work as Windows Defender tries to protect itself and prevents this.
sc.exe stop WinDefend # Stop the Windows Defeder Service # Stop the service
# Now install Custon-Tools here ...
sc.exe start WinDefend # Start the Windows Defeder Service # Start the service
# If the above did not work, try disabling RealTimeMonitoring ...
# Disable RealTimeMonitoring (again, must be Administrator)
Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $true # Disable
# Now install Custon-Tools here...
Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $false # Enable
Used to remove all commit history (to reduce size of the .git folder): https://www.shellhacks.com/git-remove-all-commits-clear-git-history-local-remote/