#PSTip Quickly load Microsoft KB articles

Note: This tip requires PowerShell 2.0 or above.

As system administrators, when troubleshooting an issue, we are often required to take a look at a certain knowledge base article from Microsoft. The base URL for KB articles always start with http://support.microsoft.com/kb/ followed by a KB id number, such as: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968930.

Now, between us, will you remember that URL while working on an important issue? You’ll probably (like I do) launch your browser and rely on its address completion or use a search engine to locate it.

Instead, why not automating it with a simple one-liner function? Give it a try.

function kb($id) { Start-Process "http://support.microsoft.com/kb/$id" }
PS> kb 968930