PowerShell Modules

A collection of useful, high-quality PowerShell modules for automation and productivity.

📋 Table of Contents

• psdict - DICT protocol client.
• Start-ForegroundProcess - Force windows to the foreground.
• Set-ClipboardFile - Copy actual files to the clipboard.
• GitBinProxy - Proxy Git's GNU utilities.
• New-ScoopShim - Create Scoop-style command shims.
• Testing
• Credits
• License

📦 Modules

1. psdict

A pure PowerShell client for the DICT protocol (RFC 2229). It allows you to query dictionary servers (like dict.org) directly from your command line without any external dependencies.

Features:

• No dependencies: Uses .NET TcpClient directly.
• Interactive: If a word isn't found in the default database, it offers a list of other available databases.
• Scriptable: easy to integrate into other scripts.

Usage:

# Simple lookup
psdict "automation"

# List available databases
psdict -ListAvailableDatabases

# Search in a specific database
psdict "kernel" -Database "jargon"

2. Start-ForegroundProcess

A robust utility to launch processes and forcefully bring them to the foreground. This solves the common issue where automated scripts launch windows that get stuck behind other applications.

Features:

• Window Focus: Uses Win32 APIs (P/Invoke) to attach to the process and force it to the top.
• Output Capture: Correctly captures stdout and stderr from the process, which usually gets lost when using complex Start-Process configurations.
• Wait Support: Can wait for the process to exit, just like Start-Process.

Usage:

# Launch Notepad and force it to the front
Start-ForegroundProcess -FilePath "notepad.exe"

# Run a command, wait for it, and capture output
Start-ForegroundProcess -FilePath "cmd.exe" -ArgumentList "/c echo Hello" -Wait

3. Set-ClipboardFile

A utility to set actual files to the Windows clipboard so they can be pasted into File Explorer, emails, or other applications.

Features:

• Actual File Copy: Unlike Set-Clipboard (which copies the text of a path), this copies the file object itself (FileDropList).
• Explorer Integration: Files behave exactly like files copied from within Explorer (Ctrl+C).
• Batch Support: Copy multiple files at once using wildcards or the pipeline.
• Alias: scbf (specifically for Files, differentiating from scb for Set-Clipboard).
• Detailed Output: Lists the files copied by default (use -Quiet to suppress).

Usage:

# Copy a single file
Set-ClipboardFile -Path "C:\MyFolder\Report.pdf"

# Copy all images, listing them as they are copied
scbf *.jpg

# Copy silently
scbf *.png -Quiet

4. GitBinProxy

A lightweight PowerShell module that proxies the GNU utilities included with Git for Windows (like sed, awk, grep, ls, etc.) into a single command: gbin.

5. New-ScoopShim

A utility to create Scoop-style shims and binary pairs. It allows you to create global aliases for any executable with predefined arguments, leveraging the Scoop shim architecture.

🧪 Testing

A test script is included in tests/Test-Comparison.ps1 to verify the behavior of Start-ForegroundProcess against standard PowerShell commands.

📜 Credits

Set-ClipboardFile

The core logic for Set-ClipboardFile was adapted from a Stack Overflow answer by Eric Eskildsen, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.