How to Permanently Change PowerShell Prompt

 The PowerShell command prompt indicates that PowerShell is ready to run a command,

PS C:\>

It is determined by the built-in Prompt function and can be customized by running following command to re-define Prompt function,

  function prompt {"<Script block>"}

Here, <Script block> is script block which will determine/generate prompt value (character string). For example, following have prompt include current date and time

PS C:\>

PS C:\> function Prompt {"$(Get-Date)> "}

06/03/2021 11:39:23>

06/03/2021 11:39:25>

The change is only valid for current session, the prompt of new session is still default value. In order to keep new prompt for all sessions, you have to create your own Prompt function and saving it in your PowerShell profile as following,

1. Find out your PowerShell profile file with "$profile"

PS C:\> $profile

C:\Users\admin\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

PS C:\>

2. Add customized Prompt function to profile

If the file or directory does not exist, you can manually create it, then add customized Prompt function to the file. For example, add following lines

function Prompt { "PS [" + ${ENV:USERNAME} + "@" + ${ENV:COMPUTERNAME} + "]> "}

The prompt will be in the format "PS [user-name@computer-name]> " in all new PowerShell sessions.

Windows How to log all output on the console to text file

Windows Command Prompt console does not have built-in facility to log the console output to file. In order to implement logging function, PowerShell has to be used instead of normal command console.

To enable logging, running following command under PowerShell prompt,

  Start-Transcript [-Path] "<file-name>" [-Append]

Here, 

  -Path parameter is used to specify the file "<file-name>" and "<file-name>" is full path of log file in which output messages will be saved

  -Append Indicates that the logging text will be added to the end of an existing file instead of overriding.

To stop logging, running command

  Stop-Trasnscript

Note: PowerShell can be started on Windows by clicking "Windows PowerShell" applicaiton or running command "PowerShell" in normal "Command Prompt" console, but DO NOT start PowerShell in "Windows Terminal". If the PowerShell is started from "Window Terminal", Start-Transcript may not be able to log everything. For example, non-Windows built-in command (e.g. sqlplus) output cannot be completely logged.

  

Example

PS> Start-Transcript -Path "C:\temp\test.log"

Transcript started, output file is C:\temp\test.log

PS>

PS> sqlplus system/oracle@orcl

SQL*Plus: Release 12.2.0.1.0 Production on Sun May 9 20:30:15 2021

Copyright (c) 1982, 2016, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Last Successful login time: Tue Apr 13 2021 16:46:29 -04:00

Connected to:

Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production

system@orcl> select host_name from v$instance;

HOST_NAME

----------------------------------------------------------------

host01

system@orcl> exit

Disconnected from Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production

PS>

PS> Stop-Transcript

Transcript stopped, output file is C:\temp\test.log

The content of file C:\temp\test.log

**********************

Windows PowerShell transcript start

Start time: 20210509202857

Username: dbaplus

RunAs User: dbaplus

Configuration Name: 

Machine: wkstn01 (Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19042.0)

Host Application: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

Process ID: 15732

PSVersion: 5.1.19041.906

PSEdition: Desktop

PSCompatibleVersions: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1.19041.906

BuildVersion: 10.0.19041.906

CLRVersion: 4.0.30319.42000

WSManStackVersion: 3.0

PSRemotingProtocolVersion: 2.3

SerializationVersion: 1.1.0.1

**********************

Transcript started, output file is C:\temp\test.log

PS> sqlplus system/oracle@orcl

SQL*Plus: Release 12.2.0.1.0 Production on Sun May 9 20:30:15 2021

Copyright (c) 1982, 2016, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Last Successful login time: Tue Apr 13 2021 16:46:29 -04:00

Connected to:

Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production

system@orcl> select host_name from v$instance;

HOST_NAME

----------------------------------------------------------------

host01

system@orcl> exit

Disconnected from Oracle Database 19c Enterprise Edition Release 19.0.0.0.0 - Production

PS> Stop-Transcript

**********************

Windows PowerShell transcript end

End time: 20210509203043

**********************

Configure SQL Server 2016 Always On with Core Version of Windows Server 2016 without Active Directory Domain

This is a step by step demonstration to help database administrator deploy SQL Server 2016 Always On high availability solution on core version of Windows server 2016 without Active Directory domain. The demonstration environment will be created as following,