ShwaTech-SysTools

Last Updated: May 7, 2026

A collection of Bash and PowerShell scripts and modules for administering various on-prem and cloud systems. Plus a Python primer for learning or refreshing yourself on the basics of the Python language.

bashrc

• Purpose: default .bashrc file for when we (read: I) accidentally blow away our .bashrc file with bash scripting errors

Requirements	Version
Operating System	Linux
Environment	bash
bash	5.2
Scope	local user

Clear-WatchFolder.ps1

• Purpose: To retain files locked by the SharePoint Timer Service.

Requirements	Version
Environment	SharePoint On-Prem
PowerShell Version	5.1
Scheduled	Yes

This script must be executed on short intervals by the Windows Task Scheduler. It will check a WatchFolder for files that are older than CutoffMinutes. If any files are found, it will restart the SharePoint Timer Service and move them to the SafetyFolder. This script was created to work-around an incoming email problem with SharePoint Server Subscription Edition.

Compare-FileTrees.ps1

• Purpose: To deduplicate files contained in separate directories

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

This script will compare files in the Master directory to those in the Duplicate directory and output a report of all identical files to a CSV file named DuplicateFiles.csv (by default) into the script directory which can be imported into Excel or imported into a PowerShell variable using Import-Csv. The Duplicate property will tell you the full path of the duplicate file. File comparison is performed using the full contents of the file via Get-FileHash so the dates and times are ignored. Only files whose contents are IDENTICAL will be marked as duplicates.

Compare-TreeStructures.ps1

• Purpose: To identify files in one directory tree that no longer exist in another directory tree

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	7
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

This script will compare the Destination directory tree contents to those in the Source directory tree. Any files found in Destination that do not exist in Source will be reported. This script is useful for removing deprecated files when synchronizing contents of a directory that is in active use over long periods of time.

Warnings

• On MacOS and Linux, do not use this script with root paths that are duplicated in subdirectories, for example /home/user/docs/home/user. The report results will not be accurate because the script uses the String-Replace method to re-root files into the source tree by replacing the Destination with the Source. If the Destination path appears more than once in the Source path, the re-rooted file will contain an incorrect path and the file will be reported to be missing even if it is not. This issue does not occur on Windows because all root paths begin with a drive letter and colon which are only found at the root of the path.

Create-RandomUsers.ps1

• Purpose: To output a table of randomized user names, job titles and department assignments to aid in setting up development and testing environments.

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, Manual

This script will write to output a list of randomly generated users after asking some basic questions about the number and type of users to generate.

Deduplicate-Files.ps1

• Purpose: To deduplicate files contained in a single directory tree

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

This script will compare files in the Path or LiteralPath directory and output a report of all identical files to a CSV file named DuplicateFiles.csv (by default) into the script directory which can be imported into Excel or imported into a PowerShell variable using Import-Csv. The Duplicate property will tell you the full path of the duplicate file. File comparison is performed using the full contents of the file via Get-FileHash so the dates and times are ignored. Only files whose contents are IDENTICAL will be marked as duplicates.

FolderTree.cs

• Purpose: Implements file tree pruning because PowerShell errors on files with square brackets in the path or name hence this is implemented in C#.

In the example below, we use the FolderTree object to prune the C:\Utils\Data directory from our filesystem.

var myTree = new FolderTree("C:\\Utils\\Data");
myTree.Quiet = true;
try {
    myTree.Prune();
} catch {
    // Handle error
}

Generate-Files.ps1

• Purpose: To generate random files for testing

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

Give this script a Path and NumberOfFiles and it will generate that many random binary files between MinimumFileSize and MaximumFileSize in the specified path. You can also created random subfolders with the RandomSubFolders switch.

Get-EmptyFolders.ps1

• Purpose: Generate a text file report of every empty folder in a directory tree

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

Writes a new file called EmptyFolders.txt to the location where you place this script. Takes one parameter Path which defaults to Get-Location allowing you to specify a path to search. The output report includes the absolute path of each empty folder.

Grant-AppSitePermissions.ps1

• Purpose: To grant an Azure Entra ID enterprise application Write permissions to a given SharePoint Online site

Requirements	Version
Environment	Microsoft 365
Needs	PnP.PowerShell
PowerShell Version	7
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

Accepts three parameters AppId and AppName and SiteUrl then calls upon PnP.PowerShell to grant the specified App write-level access to the SharePoint Online site given by the site URL.

Import-StaffMetadata.ps1

• Purpose: To update, in bulk, contact information for many users in Microsoft 365

Requirements	Version
Environment	Microsoft 365
Needs	Microsoft.Graph
Requires Permission	User.ReadWrite.All
PowerShell Version	7
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

A purpose built script that you cannot generally use out of the box which reads employee metadata from a CSV file and bulk-uploads said metadata onto the employee records in Microsoft 365 automatically through the Graph API so you don't have to do it all manually. You will need to adjust the script for your specific needs, but this provides the basis for easy employee metadata updates.

Make-TreeInventory.ps1

• Purpose: To output a detailed report of a given directory tree

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

Outputs a report called inventory.csv of a given directory tree given by the Path parameter. WARNING: This script will read ALL the contents of EVERY file in the directory tree to generate a hash code for each file along with the file metadata.

New-EntraAppCert.ps1

• Purpose: To create Microsoft Entra ID app-based authentication certificates

Requirements	Version
Environment	Windows
PowerShell Version	5.1
Operating System	Windows
Scheduled	No, manual script

This script will create a self-signed public and private key pair FOR THE CURRENT USER given the name of an app registration. The public key can then be uploaded to Microsoft Entra ID in the App Registrations certificates section to allow the current user to authentcate as the app. This is necessary for modern authentication of custom scripts and applications which access Microsoft 365 resources from command line tools or other code which is not running under the context of a logged in user with an access token.

The script requires an AppRegistrationName which should match the name of the Enterprise Application you created in Microsoft Entra ID so that the common name of the certificate matches the app name. The public and private key are saved to the current directory, a certificate.json file is created which contains the thumbprint needed for applications to find the certificate, and the certificate is saved into the My store for the current user. You can delete the private key file as it is not needed, but it is generated in case you do need it. The private key is protected by a random password which you can find the certificate.json file.

New-SharePointStateService.ps1

• Purpose: To create a State Service in your SharePoint Server farm

Requirements	Version
Environment	Windows, SharePoint Server
PowerShell Version	5.1
Operating System	Windows
Scheduled	No, manual script

This handy script will automatically create a State Service in your SharePoint Server farm.

newenv

• Purpose: to quickly setup a new Linux virtual machine profile environment for rapid deployment, this does not perform any admin functions, it configures convenience features for the current user

Requirements	Version
Operating System	Linux, apt-based
Environment	bash
bash	5.2
Scope	local user

Prune-Path.ps1

• Purpose: To remove empty directories from a file tree

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

This script will recursively remove all empty directories at the directory specified by Path. By default, this script will echo all deleted directories to the console. To suppress this, include the Quiet parameter.

python_primer

• Purpose: The python_primer files are the Python primer for ShwaTech LLC. Feel free to review if you are new to Python or if you want to brush up on the basics of the language itself.

Read-EntraAppCert.ps1

• Purpose: A helper function you can . source into your PowerShell script that will deserialize the JSON output of the New-EntraAppCert.ps1 script into an object

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any

Register-SpiceHandler.ps1

• Purpose: To register the spice://server:port handler for the Virtual Machine Manager Remote Viewer to make it easy to create shortcuts in Windows for quick connecting to virtual machines hosted on Linux using the SPICE remote graphics service.

Requirements	Version
Environment	Windows
PowerShell Version	5.0
Operating System	Windows
Running	Manual, with Admin rights
Parameters	AbsolutePath - optional

You will need to run this script with administrative privileges to make changes to the registry.

This script will modify the Windows Registry to create a protocol handler for spice://server:port shortcuts pointing to the Virtual Machine Manager Remote Viewer application remote-viewer.exe. This will let you create and use shortcuts or hyperlinks to virtual machines running SPICE.

Usage

When run without parameters, the script will try to locate the remote viewer executable in your Program Files directories. If not found, it will exit. However, if you have the remote viewer installed elsewhere, specify that with the AbsolutePath parameter. This script will create a new spice key and subkeys under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key. If the spice key already exists, the script will exit.

Parameter: AbsolutePath [string] - optional

When specified, the spice handler will be mapped to this executable. Otherwise, by default, the script will attempt to locate remote-viewer.exe in one of your Program Files directories.

Remove-Duplicates.ps1

• Purpose: To remove duplicate files detected by Compare-FileTrees.ps1 or Deduplicate-Files.ps1

Requirements	Version
Environment	Any file system
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

This script will open the DuplicateFiles.csv report and delete all the duplicate files, prompting for confirmation before proceeding.

Run-NetworkStabilityTest.ps1

• Purpose: To confirm stable network connectivity between two hosts over a long period of time

Requirements	Version
Environment	Local network or Internet
PowerShell Version	7
Operating System	Any

This script will run in client mode or HostMode. When in client mode, the default mode, it will open a TCP listener at the specified Port and await a connection from the host. When in host mode, you specify the Target client to connect with. Once connected the script will periodically send data back and forth between the devices until the connection is interrupted. The amount of connections and data sent will be written to the console upon disconnection. This has only been tested on PowerShell 7, but it may work on PowerShell 5.1 as well.

Test-DownloadLoop.ps1

• Purpose: To test your Internet connection by downloading the .NET Framework offline installer on an infinite loop

Requirements	Version
Environment	Local machine with Internet access
Requires	curl
PowerShell Version	Any
Operating System	Any

Test-TcpConnection.ps1

• Purpose: To inspect a TCP data payload

Requirements	Version
Environment	Local network or Internet
PowerShell Version	7
Operating System	Any
Scheduled	No, manual script

This handy script can run in client mode (default) or HostMode. In client mode, you can send an arbitrary Data payload to any network target and the response will be echoed to the console. This can be used for port scanning and service discovery.

In host mode, the script will open a TCP listener on the Port you specify and echo the first incoming data payload to the console then close. This can be used to see what a particular client is sending a host upon connection. This has only been tested on PowerShell 7, but it may work on PowerShell 5.1 as well.

Update-ADUserInfo.ps1

• Purpose: To update Active Directory user information

Requirements	Version
Environment	Active Directory
Requires	ActiveDirectory module
PowerShell Version	5.1
Operating System	Windows
Scheduled	No, manual script

This script, not too efficiently, updates a given Active Directory user's contact information in Active Directory on-premises given their user principal name and, optionally, a set of metadata to be updated. Any fields that are not provided for are ignored and not updated.

License

The software in this repository is provided free of charge under the MIT license.

References

Microsoft Graph

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/microsoftgraph/get-started?view=graph-powershell-1.0