PwshTips / field notes for admins

PowerShell for real administration

Practical scripts, troubleshooting notes, and repeatable workflows for Windows, PowerShell, WSL, Linux, and automation.

Start with a focused guide, copy a tested command, and adapt it to your environment.

PwshTips PowerShell and Windows administration

Clear commands. Real constraints. Fewer surprises.

Diagram of the blog publishing pipeline from WSL to Cloudflare Pages
Blogging

From WSL to the World: How This Blog Gets Published

The full publishing pipeline behind pwshtips.com: write in WSL, preview with local Hugo, push to GitHub, and let Cloudflare Pages deploy it live in under two minutes.

October 1, 2026 · 6 min · PwshTips
Diagram of a 4-node Tailscale tailnet
Networking

I Replaced Port Forwarding with Tailscale Across 4 Machines (and What Broke)

No open ports, no DDNS, no router config. How I built a private tailnet across a Windows laptop, a Fedora VM, an Oracle VPS, and an ephemeral cloud VM — and the failures that taught me how it really works.

October 1, 2026 · 6 min · PwshTips
Terminal showing winget installing WSL
Windows

Install and Configure WSL: From Zero to Productive

A practical guide to installing WSL on Windows, configuring your Linux user, moving files between Windows and Linux, and going further with web servers, PowerShell, and VS Code.

October 1, 2026 · 9 min · PwshTips
Terminal showing a zombie job re-executing a deploy on every relay restart
Linux

Zero-Byte Deploys and Zombie Jobs: A Failover War Story

Building a 60-second failover standby for my dev environment — and the two outages that taught me to never trust an all-green deploy chain.

October 1, 2026 · 9 min · PwshTips
Message flow diagram of commands relayed from AI agent through VPS to WSL
Linux

Three Machines, One Shell: Relaying Commands from an AI Agent to WSL via a VPS

A persistent, bidirectional command channel between an AI agent VM, a small VPS relay, and a Windows laptop's WSL — what each piece does, how to set it up, and the dozen pitfalls I actually hit.

September 30, 2026 · 9 min · PwshTips
NTFS permissions dialog locking down a PowerShell watchdog script
Windows

Protecting a PowerShell Watchdog Script from Tampering

A scheduled PowerShell script running as SYSTEM is a high-value target. Lock it down with NTFS ACLs, code signing, auditing, and central deployment.

September 29, 2026 · 9 min · PwshTips
PowerShell watchdog script checking cellular APN status via netsh
Windows

Create a Watchdog in Windows: Keep Your Cellular APN Correct and Connected

A scheduled PowerShell watchdog that checks the Windows WWAN APN every 5 minutes and reinstalls the profile and reconnects when it drifts.

September 28, 2026 · 13 min · PwshTips
Three-node connection flow from a laptop through the Oracle VPS to the Muse VM
VPS

Tailscale Postmortem: Control Plane vs SSH Failures

A Tailscale terminal-access postmortem: separate control-plane failures from SSH, trace TCP resets, and choose an authenticated access path.

September 27, 2026 · 14 min · PwshTips
Copilot opened from GitHub.com in the Microsoft Edge sidebar
AI

Copilot for Windows Admins: Which One Do You Actually Need?

A practical guide to Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft 365, GitHub Copilot, phone and web apps, IDE integrations, prices, and alternatives.

September 26, 2026 · 11 min · PwshTips
OCI ingress rules with port 443 limited to source 10.0.0.0/16
VPS

SSH Tunnel to VPS: A Reverse Tunnel Blocked by Egress Filtering

A reverse SSH tunnel test with an Oracle Cloud VPS, Ubuntu socket activation, proxy diagnostics, and the egress policy that stopped connectivity.

September 25, 2026 · 12 min · PwshTips