Windows PowerShell

Windows 11 system administration and automation with PowerShell 7.

Workflow

Step 1: System health check

scripts/system-info.ps1

Outputs:

• OS: Windows 11 build, edition, install date
• CPU: Model, cores, current usage %
• RAM: Total, used, free, usage %
• Disk: Per drive: total, used, free, usage %
• Top 5 processes by memory usage
• Network: Adapters, IP addresses
• Uptime: Days since last restart
• Windows Updates: Pending update count

If RAM usage > 80% or disk usage > 90%: proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: System cleanup

# Preview what would be cleaned
scripts/cleanup-system.ps1 -DryRun

# Clean everything
scripts/cleanup-system.ps1

Cleans:

• Windows temporary files
• Recycle Bin
• Windows Update cache
• npm/yarn/pnpm cache
• Docker unused data
• Windows.old (if present)
• Prefetch files

Reports total space recovered.

Step 3: Install development tools

# Install everything
scripts/install-tools.ps1

# Install specific categories only
scripts/install-tools.ps1 -Scope dev  # Git, Node, Python, VS Code
scripts/install-tools.ps1 -Scope tools  # 7-Zip, Windows Terminal, Oh My Posh

The script checks if each tool is already installed before attempting. Uses winget as primary, falls back to scoop.

Step 4: Set up PowerShell profile

Copy the premium profile template:

# Install the premium profile
Copy-Item "~\\.config\\opencode\\skills\\windows-powershell\\assets\\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1" $PROFILE

# Reload profile
. $PROFILE

The profile includes:

• Oh My Posh prompt with git status
• PSReadLine with autocomplete and syntax highlighting
• Git aliases: gst (status), ga (add), gc (commit), gp (push), gl (pull), gb (branch)
• npm aliases: ni (install), nrd (run dev), nrb (run build), nt (test)
• Docker aliases: dps (ps), dlog (logs), dstop (stop), drm (rm)
• Utils: touch, which, ll (ls -la), mkcd (mkdir + cd), admin (runas admin)

Step 5: Schedule recurring maintenance

# Weekly cleanup every Sunday at 9 PM
schtasks /Create /SC WEEKLY /D SUN /TN "SystemCleanup" /TR "powershell.exe -File '~\\.config\\opencode\\skills\\windows-powershell\\scripts\\cleanup-system.ps1'" /ST 21:00 /RL HIGHEST

Windows Utilities Reference

See references/powershell-mastery.md for complete reference.

Task	Command
Find large files	`Get-ChildItem -Recurse
Kill process by port	`Get-Process -Id (Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 3000).OwningProcess
Check disk health	`Get-PhysicalDisk
Export installed programs	`Get-Package
Check battery health	powercfg /batteryreport
Network speed test	Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://speedtest.url"
Windows activation status	slmgr /xpr

Error Handling

Scenario	Cause	Fix
winget not found	Outdated Windows or missing App Installer	Install from Microsoft Store or use scoop
Script execution blocked	PowerShell execution policy	Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
Permission denied running script	Not admin for system operations	Run admin (from profile) or Start-Process powershell -Verb RunAs
Cleanup shows 0 bytes	No temp files to clean	That's fine. Run again in a week.
Tool installation fails	winget source out of date	winget source update

Production Checklist

• PowerShell 7 installed ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion)
• Execution policy set to RemoteSigned
• PowerShell profile installed with aliases
• Dev tools installed via winget/scoop
• Weekly cleanup scheduled
• System info script run monthly
• Battery report generated (laptops)
• Windows Updates checked

Anti-Patterns

Anti-pattern	Fix
Installing tools manually every time	Use winget/scoop with install-tools script
Ignoring temp file buildup	Schedule weekly cleanup
Default PowerShell prompt	Customize with Oh My Posh
No aliases for common commands	Use the profile template
Running without admin when needed	Use admin alias for elevated commands

Advanced Patterns

Desired State Configuration (DSC)

Configuration WebServer {
    Import-DscResource -ModuleName PSDesiredStateConfiguration
    Node "localhost" {
        WindowsFeature IIS { Name = "Web-Server"; Ensure = "Present" }
        File WebContent {
            Ensure = "Present"
            SourcePath = "C:\inetpub\wwwroot"
            DestinationPath = "C:\inetpub\wwwroot"
            DependsOn = "[WindowsFeature]IIS"
        }
    }
}
WebServer -OutputPath C:\DSC
Start-DscConfiguration -Path C:\DSC -Wait -Verbose

Just Enough Administration (JEA)

# Create a restricted endpoint that only allows Get-Service + Restart-Service
New-PSSessionConfigurationFile -Path .\HelpDesk.pssc -SessionType RestrictedRemoteServer `
    -VisibleCmdlets @{ Name = 'Get-Service'; Parameters = @{ Name = 'Name' }},
                    @{ Name = 'Restart-Service'; Parameters = @{ Name = 'Name' }}
Register-PSSessionConfiguration -Name HelpDesk -Path .\HelpDesk.pssc -Force

PSRemoting

# Enable on target machine (admin)
Enable-PSRemoting -Force
Set-Item WSMan:\localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value "192.168.1.100"

# Connect from source
$session = New-PSSession -ComputerName 192.168.1.100 -Credential (Get-Credential)
Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock { Get-Process }
Remove-PSSession $session

Script Signing

# Generate self-signed certificate
$cert = New-SelfSignedCertificate -Subject "CN=PowerShell Code Signing" -Type CodeSigningCert -CertStoreLocation Cert:\CurrentUser\My

# Sign a script
Set-AuthenticodeSignature -FilePath .\script.ps1 -Certificate $cert

# Verify
Get-AuthenticodeSignature .\script.ps1

# Enforce in session
Set-ExecutionPolicy AllSigned -Scope Process

Module Manifests

New-ModuleManifest -Path .\MyModule.psd1 -RootModule MyModule.psm1 -Author "YourName" `
    -CompanyName "Company" -Description "Module description" -PowerShellVersion "5.1" `
    -FunctionsToExport @("Get-Data","Set-Data") -RequiredModules @("Az","SqlServer")

Error Handling Patterns

# Pattern 1: Try/Catch/Finally with resource cleanup
try {
    $conn = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection($connString)
    $conn.Open()
    # Work
} catch [System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException] {
    Write-Error "Database error: $_"
} catch {
    Write-Error "Unexpected: $_"
} finally {
    if ($conn) { $conn.Dispose() }
}

# Pattern 2: -ErrorAction with $ErrorActionPreference
Get-ChildItem -Path $path -ErrorAction Stop
# or globally
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"

# Pattern 3: $LASTEXITCODE for native commands
& python script.py
if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) {
    throw "Python script failed with exit code $LASTEXITCODE"
}

# Pattern 4: $? for PowerShell commands
Get-Item $path -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if (-not $?) {
    Write-Warning "Path not found, using default"
}

Related Scripts

• ~/.shokunin/scripts/scan-cleanup.ps1 — Scans Downloads, Desktop, and Temp for files to classify (keep/review/trash) and optionally clean

Sources

• Microsoft PowerShell docs (learn.microsoft.com/powershell)
• Oh My Posh docs (ohmyposh.dev)
• PSReadLine docs (learn.microsoft.com)
• Windows Package Manager (winget) docs
• Scoop package manager (scoop.sh)
• SS64 PowerShell commands reference

Checklist

• Skill loads without errors in the AI agent
• YAML frontmatter is valid (description, compatibility, audience)
• Workflow section provides clear step-by-step instructions
• Error handling section covers common failure modes
• All referenced files (references/, scripts/, assets/) exist
• Skill triggers correctly for intended use cases
• No broken links or missing resources