Windows Tricks Cheatsheet

WSL - Windows Subsystem for Linux

Before you can install WSL 2 it is necessary to ensure your processor is capable of supporting Virtualization, and VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS.

How to Find Out If Intel VT-x or AMD-V Virtualization Technology is Supported?

Next make sure Virtualization is configured in Windows, search for Turn Windows features on or off

Virtual Machine Platform - enabled
Windows Subsystem for Linux - enabled
Windows Hypervisor Platform - only enable if you want Hyper-V and have a license that supports it

It should also be possible to do this from the command line

PS> dsim.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all
PS> dsim.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart

Reboot your computer.

From the Microsoft Store install Windows Subsystem for Linux and Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS or Ubuntu.

Alternatively directly install Ubuntu from the command line.

PS> wsl --install

A further reboot maybe necessary, but Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS or Ubuntu should now work.

PS> wsl --list
PS> wsl --help
PS> wsl
Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

sjfke@wallace:~$                       # UNIX home directory, /home/sjfke
sjfke@wallace:~$ cd /mnt/c/Users/geoff # Change to Windows home directory
sjfk@eWALLACE:/mnt/c/Users/geoff$ ls   # Windows home directory

Oh My Posh

Note

Laptop must be configured to run scripts, PowerShell Scripting Cheatsheet - Introduction

PS> Get-ExecutionPolicy -List

        Scope ExecutionPolicy
        ----- ---------------
MachinePolicy       Undefined
   UserPolicy       Undefined
      Process       Undefined
  CurrentUser    RemoteSigned
 LocalMachine       Undefined

Install Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store
Install oh-my-posh from the Microsoft Store, or from the command line.

PS> winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s winget

Download Meslo LGM NF fonts and unzip them.
In the font folder select all the 73 font files, .ttf and right-click to install them.
Open Windows Terminal
- Settings > Windows PowerShell > Appearance > Color Scheme choose Campbell PowerShell
- Settings > Windows PowerShell > Appearance > Font face choose MesloLGM Nerd Font
Configure Oh My Posh prompt by choosing a Theme

PS> Test-Path $PROFILE -PathType Leaf         # If FALSE, then create it using New-Item
PS> New-Item -Path $PROFILE -Type File -Force # Create the PowerShell_profile.ps1 file

PS> notepad $PROFILE                          # Choose your theme and Invoke it

PS> Get-Content -Path $PROFILE
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\paradox.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\dracula.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\remk.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\jtracey93.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\mt.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\agnoster.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
# oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\agnosterplus.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

PS> . $PROFILE                                # If errors, test by opening a new PowerShell

Update notifications via the Microsoft Store do not work, oh-my-posh update command line update alerts do not always trigger, so manually check on a regular basis, see Oh My Posh upgrades

PS> oh-my-posh notice                                # Upgrade available? (unreliable)

PS> oh-my-posh version                               # Existing version
PS> winget upgrade JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh -s winget # Upgrade (do weekly, upgrades are frequent)
PS> oh-my-posh version                               # New version

Summary of the oh-my-posh commands

PS> oh-my-posh help        # help summary
PS> oh-my-posh help --help # help on the 'help' command

Use Terminal Icons to add color and icons to oh-my-posh directory listings

PS> Install-Module -Name Terminal-Icons -Repository PSGallery -Scope CurrentUser
PS> Import-Module -Name Terminal-Icons

# Add to $PROFILE
PS> Get-Content -Path $PROFILE
oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:POSH_THEMES_PATH\agnoster.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression
Import-Module -Name Terminal-Icons

Warning

Exercise caution when installing from PowerShell Gallery

Want more, see My Ultimate PowerShell prompt with Oh My Posh and the Windows Terminal

Updating Git For Windows

Git for Windows We bring the awesome Git SCM to Windows

PS> git update-git-for-windows
Git for Windows 2.50.0.windows.2 (64-bit)
Update 2.50.1.windows.1 is available
Download and install Git for Windows 2.50.1 [N/y]? y
######################################################################################### 100.0%
PS> git update-git-for-windows
Git for Windows 2.50.1.windows.1 (64-bit)
Up to date

Are Files Identical?

One novel approach is to use certutil to compute a hash to see if they are the same.

certutil supports hash algorithms: MD2, MD4, MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA384 SHA512
Commonly used hash algorithms being, SHA1 default, MD5 and SHA256

PS> certutil -hashfile file1.txt
SHA1 hash of file1.txt:
2236964ee87bff078491008b506044391975e2a6
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

PS> certutil -hashfile file1.txt MD5
MD5 hash of file1.txt:
4ead6a1f65b3f97d86a093dfb87a8be2
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

PS> certutil -hashfile file1.txt SHA256
SHA256 hash of file1.txt:
dde3f13078dae2baf1d1a12ad3be20ce6cc0d370cbab0f579fca16dcc4791394
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

PS> certutil -hashfile Fred_Flintstone.png SHA256
SHA256 hash of Fred_Flintstone.png:
a4c8843ce4fb12654ccbe7aa14256c7e0243739d42874d42b531e74bc27ba32c
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

PS> sha256_hash = Invoke-Expression "certutil -hashfile Fred_Flintstone.png SHA256 | Select-Object -Index 1"
PS> write($sha256_hash) # a4c8843ce4fb12654ccbe7aa14256c7e0243739d42874d42b531e74bc27ba32c

PS> certutil -hashfile .\kustomize.exe SHA256
SHA256 hash of .\kustomize.exe:
2cd041a2e4d3533ffa6f5f03dc2d9e0828bae7931021cc5d11dfcd644bd8b4c0
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

Utility certutil is intended for manipulating certificates and so can do much more.

Base 64 Encode/Decode

PS> [Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes("EncodeMe-in-Base64"))
RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0

PS> [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String('RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0'))
EncodeMe-in-Base64

Using wsl, if installed

PS> wsl
$ echo -n 'EncodeMe-in-Base64' | base64
RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0

$ echo -n 'RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0' | base64 -d
EncodeMe-in-Base64

Using Python, if installed

>>> import base64
>>> _ascii = "EncodeMe-in-Base64".encode("ascii")
>>> _b64bytes = base64.b64encode(_ascii)
>>> print(_b64bytes.decode("ascii"))
RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0

>>> import base64
>>> _ascii = "RW5jb2RlTWUtaW4tQmFzZTY0".encode("ascii")
>>> _b64bytes = base64.b64decode(_ascii)
>>> print(_b64bytes.decode("ascii"))
EncodeMe-in-Base64

JSON, YAML File Filtering

jq is a lightweight command-line JSON processor, similar to sed.
yq is a Python command-line (jq wrapper) YAML/XML processor.

# Installation
PS> winget install jqlang.jq

# Command Line examples
PS> Write-Output '{"fruit":{"name":"apple","color":"green","price":1.20}}' | jq '.' # pretty-print
{
  "fruit": {
    "name": "apple",
    "color": "green",
    "price": 1.2
  }
}

# {JSON} Placeholder - Free fake and reliable API for testing and prototyping.
PS> Invoke-RestMethod -uri https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1 | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10 | jq '.'
{
  "userId": 1,
  "id": 1,
  "title": "delectus aut autem",
  "completed": false
}

# Get International Space Station Current Location
PS> Invoke-RestMethod -uri http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10 | jq '.'
# -or-
PS> Invoke-RestMethod -uri http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json -outfile iss-now.json
PS> jq '.' .\iss-now.json # pretty-print
{
  "message": "success",
  "iss_position": {
    "latitude": "-1.5479",
    "longitude": "-51.8420"
  },
  "timestamp": 1719839316
}

# Installation
PS> winget install --id MikeFarah.yq

# Command Line examples
PS> Write-Output '{"fruit":{"name":"apple","color":"green","price":1.20}}' | yq '.'
{"fruit": {"name": "apple", "color": "green", "price": 1.20}}

# {JSON} Placeholder - Free fake and reliable API for testing and prototyping.
PS> Invoke-RestMethod -uri https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1 | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10 | yq '.'
{"userId": 1, "id": 1, "title": "delectus aut autem", "completed": false}

# Get International Space Station Current Location
PS> Invoke-RestMethod -uri http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 10 | yq '.'
# -or-
PS> Invoke-RestMethod -uri http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json -outfile iss-now.json
PS> yq '.' .\iss-now.json # pretty-print
{
  "message": "success",
  "iss_position": {
    "latitude": "-32.9725",
    "longitude": "-24.9078"
  },
  "timestamp": 1719839968
}

JSON Examples, see “jq JSON Cheatsheet”
YAML, JSON Examples, see “yq YAML/JSON Cheatsheet”
{JSON} Placeholder Free fake and reliable API for testing and prototyping.

Wipe a USB drive on Windows 11

Start a CMD shell as Administrator

C:\Windows\System32>diskpart
DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          476 GB  2048 KB        *
  Disk 1    Online           57 GB      0 B        *

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> clean all

Note

The clean all may appear to hang, unplug USB device if this happens.

Testing Remote Connections

The examples are testing for SSH daemon (port 22) on host 192.168.0.1

Test-NetConnection

PowerShell provides Test-NetConnection

PS> Test-NetConnection -ComputerName 192.168.0.1 -Port 22
PS> get-help Test-NetConnection

Python: telnetlib — Telnet client 

Warning

‘telnetlib’ was deprecated in Python 3.12 and removed in Python 3.13

PS> python3.12 -c "import telnetlib; tel=telnetlib.Telnet('192.168.0.1','22',10); print(tel.host,tel.port); tel.close()"
PS> python
>>> import telnetlib
>>> tel = telnetlib.Telnet('192.168.0.1', 22, 10) # 10 second timeout
>>> print(tel.host, tel.port) # 192.168.0.1 22
>>> tel.close()
>>> exit()

Python: socket — Low-level networking interface 

PS> python3 -c "import socket; s = socket.socket(); s.settimeout(10); s.connect(('192.168.0.1', 22)); print(s)"
PS> python3
>>> import socket
>>> s = socket.socket()
>>> s.settimeout(10)
>>> s.connect(('192.168.0.1', 22))
>>> print(s) # "<socket.socket fd=1376, family=2, type=1, proto=0, laddr=('127.0.0.1', 52243), raddr=('192.168.0.1', 22)>"
>>> exit()

curl - transfer a URL 

cURL can do much much more see, cURL on Windows

PS> winget install cURL.cURL                  # installation
PS> curl.exe -v telnet://<remote server>:port # typical command
PS> curl.exe -v telnet://192.168.0.1:22       # test

cURL on Windows

There are a vast amount of use-cases for curl, such as:

FTP upload, Proxy support, SSL connections, HTTP post

It also supports the use of all the following protocols: DICT, FILE, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER, HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, IMAPS, LDAP, LDAPS, POP3, POP3S, RTMP, RTSP, SCP, SFTP, SMB, SMBS, SMTP, SMTPS, TELNET, and TFTP.

cURL installation

# Package Installation: '%localappdata%\Microsoft\WinGet\Packages'
# Package Links: '%localappdata%\Microsoft\WinGet\Links\'
PS> winget install cURL.cURL # installation
PS> winget list curl         # version installed
PS> curl.exe -h              # help

Warning

Use curl.exe because Invoke-WebRequest has a curl alias

cURL examples

PS> curl.exe https://www.nonbleedingedge.com  # HTTP GET
PS> curl.exe -I https://nonbleedingedge.com   # get HTTP headers
PS> curl.exe -D - https://nonbleedingedge.com # store the HTTP headers that a site sends back

PS> curl.exe -o favicon.ico https://nonbleedingedge.com/_static/favicon.ico # get/save icon image

PS> curl.exe --request POST https://nonbleedingedge.com   # examples see 'Everything curl' URL above
PS> curl.exe --request DELETE https://nonbleedingedge.com # examples see 'Everything curl' URL above
PS> curl.exe --request PUT https://nonbleedingedge.com    # examples see 'Everything curl' URL above

PS> curl.exe -v telnet://<remote server>:port # test remote connection
PS> curl.exe -v telnet://192.168.0.1:22 # test for ssh (port 22) on server 192.168.0.1

Simple PUT and DELETE examples

Windows Tricks Cheatsheet

WSL - Windows Subsystem for Linux

Oh My Posh

Updating Git For Windows

Are Files Identical?

Base 64 Encode/Decode

JSON, YAML File Filtering

Wipe a USB drive on Windows 11

Testing Remote Connections

Test-NetConnection

Python: telnetlib — Telnet client

Python: socket — Low-level networking interface

curl - transfer a URL

cURL on Windows

cURL installation

cURL examples

Python: telnetlib — Telnet client 

Python: socket — Low-level networking interface 

curl - transfer a URL 