Mastering: System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

Chapter 4. Using the DPM Management Shell

Technology: No Place for Wimps!

—Scott Adams, "Dilbert"

Windows has a reputation for being an operating system that is hostile to the command line and only allows you to do things in the GUI. Over the years, this perception has had an on-again off again relationship with the facts. Early versions of Windows (and by "early" we're talking Windows 3. x) offered practically no way to perform tasks from the command line, short of launching programs from a DOS prompt or editing various .INI text files to tweak advanced options; modern versions of Windows offer a nearly complete array of tools, technologies, and utilities to control virtually every aspect of your computer's configuration and operation. In fact, the Server Core configuration, a stripped-down installation option that offers only a command-line interface (CLI) has been one of the most eagerly anticipated new features offered in Windows Server 2008.

This continued drive for support for the command line amazes and confuses a lot of people. We blame Hollywood for perpetuating the myth that "typing stuff on computers to make them do things can only be done by really smart people who will use this power for evil purposes such as crashing airliners, transferring fractional pennies into back accounts, or taking food out of the mouths of starving widows and orphans by downloading the latest movies." This myth is helped along by a certain breed of computer professionals who want to appear wise ...