Professional Windows 7 Development Guide

Chapter 23. Interacting Directly with PowerShell

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Using cmdlets to interact with an application

• Handling system events

• Obtaining application status information

• Updating an application configuration

• Accessing remote locations

Executing commands directly at the PS prompt is one way to use Windows PowerShell. In fact, that's the way you used Windows PowerShell throughout Chapters 20, 21, and 22. However, Microsoft intends for you to do a lot more than simply issue commands at the PS prompt and see something happen. Windows PowerShell is designed to interact with applications in various ways. In fact, one of the biggest uses for Windows PowerShell today is Microsoft Exchange, which relies on the PS prompt for configuration purposes and to obtain application information.

At some point, you can bet that Microsoft will begin using Windows PowerShell extensively for all kinds of tasks. For example, read the article at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2008/04/15/iis-7-0-powershell-support.aspx for a discussion of the near miss of Windows PowerShell support for Internet Information Server (IIS) 7.0. The current version of IIS does have Windows PowerShell support in the form of cmdlets. There isn't any reason why you can't use Windows PowerShell for all sorts of tasks with your application today. You'll gain the security, ease of use, and reliability features of Windows PowerShell in the bargain.

You can also use Windows PowerShell for a number of standard tasks that ...