Powershell Script - Push-Patch - remote installation for KB hotfix, MSI, MSU, or EXE files

Here's a wickedly useful function I threw together based on a strong need to push emergency patches to thousands of servers without the standard route of using a patching deployment system like SCCM, WSUS, Altiris, or HPSA.  All of these tools have their strengths and are generally considered superior to just manually pushing patches, but the sheer versatility of ease of being able to quickly deploy patches is what I required to make tight patching deadlines.

I recommend using this function with Get-HotFix, or Get-WmiObject -class Win32_product for a list of installed patches/software to determine if installation is needed and/or was successful.  You can also come in after the push and look at the log files on the servers in an automated fashion to see how things went.

This script does require PSRemoting to be enabled on target servers, which is true by default on all Windows Server 2012 R2 installs, but needs to be turned on either by GPO or by hand on previous versions.  There's a built in workaround if you pull down PSExec which will work on older servers without PSRemoting.

Powershell Script - Get-LocalUsers - Remotely query all local users and details

Here's a lovely script that runs with parallel pipeline queries using the [ADSI] .NET class to remotely query SAM to build nice object outputs which are great for security audits.  Here's some sample output:

PS C:\> 'Server1','Server2' | Get-LocalUsers


Server          : Server1
UserName        : Administrator
Active          : True
PasswordExpired : False
PasswordAgeDays : 16
LastLogin       : 6/3/2015 6:34:27 PM
Groups          : Administrators
Description     : Built-in account for administering the computer/domain

Server          : Server1
UserName        : Guest
Active          : False
PasswordExpired : False
PasswordAgeDays : 0
LastLogin       : 
Groups          : Guests
Description     : Built-in account for guest access to the computer/domain

Server          : Server2
UserName        : Administrator
Active          : True
PasswordExpired : False
PasswordAgeDays : 1
LastLogin       : 3/5/2015 7:28:14 PM
Groups          : Administrators
Description     : Built-in account for administering the computer/domain

Server          : Server2
UserName        : Guest
Active          : False
PasswordExpired : False
PasswordAgeDays : 0
LastLogin       : 
Groups          : Guests
Description     : Built-in account for guest access to the computer/domain


PS C:\> 

And the code: