https://github.com/sassdawe/no-admin-powershell
⭐ Tips and tricks for when you don't have local admin rights 💜
https://github.com/sassdawe/no-admin-powershell
no-admin-rights powershell psconfeu
Last synced: 11 months ago
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⭐ Tips and tricks for when you don't have local admin rights 💜
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/sassdawe/no-admin-powershell
- Owner: sassdawe
- License: mit
- Created: 2022-06-20T19:17:57.000Z (over 3 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2022-09-13T05:55:34.000Z (over 3 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2024-05-02T02:37:38.404Z (almost 2 years ago)
- Topics: no-admin-rights, powershell, psconfeu
- Homepage:
- Size: 21.5 KB
- Stars: 4
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# no-admin-powershell
> Security people read this first: [For-Security-People](./For-Security-People.md)
## Tips and tricks for when we don't have local admin rights
> First presented at [PowerShell Conference Europe 2022](https://psconf.eu)
## Opening PowerShell
When we are on Windows we don't need to install anything to get it started.
Just search for/type `ISE` into the Start menu to find `Windows PowerShell ISE`.
ISE stands for Integrated Scripting Environment
**ISE is perfectly enough!**
## Protect ourselves!
When we experiment in `ISE` we could run stuff accidentally and that could be bad.
`ISE` has two really great buttons:
- Run Script (shortcut `F5`)
- Run Selection, or current line (shortcut `F8`)
Time to time we will end up with lots of things in our file, and accidentally executing everything could be bad.
**Solution:** add `throw 'no no'` to the first line and by doing this the current script cannot be executed anymore as a whole:
## Profile file
The **Profile file** is really great because it enables us to customize our PowerShell console in a persistent way.
> **Note:** Most things we can do in PowerShell will be related to the current process, the current PowerShell session. When we close the window they will get lost. So to get persist things we can use the profile file.
The `$profile` file will get executed every time when we start PowerShell, so this is where we can store our 'things'. (But this file does not exists by default, so we need to create it.)
```PowerShell
Write-Host $profile
Test-Path $profile
New-Item $profile -ItemType File
New-Item $profile -ItemType File -Force
```
Let's try it!
## Execution Policy
Execution policy in PowerShell is like something eveyone runs into and turns off...
```PowerShell
Get-ExecutionPolicy
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
# Try scoping it to us
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
# if RemoteSigned does not work, just use Bypass
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope CurrentUser
```
> **NOTE** the use of `-Scope CurrentUser`
## Error message color
As others have already said it, color red is bad, so let's use something nicer
```PowerShell
$host.PrivateData.ErrorForegroundColor = 'Green'
# and try it
1/0
```
Also, save this into our profile, because this is not a persistent setting.
## PowerShell Gallery
The PowerShell Gallery is from where we can get the goodies, like QR code generator
```PowerShell
Find-Module QRCodeGenerator
Find-Module QR*
Install-Module QRCodeGenerator
Install-Module QRCodeGenerator -Scope CurrentUser
New-QRCodeURI https://github.com/sassdawe/no-admin-powershell -Show
```
> **NOTE** the use of `-Scope CurrentUser`
## Help system
PowerShell has the most awesome extensible help system
```PowerShell
Get-Help
```
But sadly by default it comes empty, and we need to download the help **with admin rights** so here we need to ask help from our - hopefully - friendly neighbourhood IT admin, or help desk person to run this command as a local admin on our machine
```PowerShell
Update-Help -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
```
So we can use `Get-Help` without any errors.
## Important commands
```PowerShell
Get-Help
Get-Member
Get-Command
Get-Command Get-*
Get-Command Set-*
Get-Command *-Computer
```
## Also add these to our profile
```PowerShell
$ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'
$PSDefaultParameterValues["Install-Module:Scope"] = "CurrentUser"
```
## TO-DO: Add more stuff
Add more things later.
Feel free to submit pull request with your goodies!
## Credit
Influenced by **Mike F Robbins**
[http://mikefrobbins.com](http://mikefrobbins.com)
[PowerShell 101: The No-Nonsense Beginner’s Guide to PowerShell](https://github.com/mikefrobbins/Presentations/blob/main/PowerShell%20on%20the%20River%202019/PowerShell%20101/PowerShell%20101.ps1)
And also by **Chrissy LeMaire**'s [Tweet](https://twitter.com/cl/status/1446446992633237508)