Professional Windows® PowerShell

Chapter 1. Getting Started with Windows PowerShell

If you are like me, then when you begin to look seriously at an interesting piece of software, you like to get your hands dirty and play with it from the beginning. In this chapter, I show you how to get started using Windows PowerShell, and I'll show you enough of the PowerShell commands to let you begin to find your way around effectively. In the rest of the book, I help you build on that initial knowledge so that you can use PowerShell for a wide range of useful tasks, depending on your requirements.

Windows PowerShell, as you probably already know, is Microsoft's new command shell and scripting language. It provides a command line environment for interactive exploration and administration of computers, and by storing and running Windows PowerShell commands in a script file, you can run scripts to carry out administrative tasks multiple times. Windows PowerShell differs in detail from existing command line environments on the Windows and Unix platforms, although it has similarities to past environments. In Chapter 3, in particular, I explain more about the PowerShell approach, although differences from existing command shells and scripting languages will emerge in every chapter.

Once you have had a brief taste of PowerShell, you will need to understand a little of the assumptions and approach that lie behind the design decisions that have made PowerShell the useful tool that it is. In Chapter 2, I step back from using the PowerShell ...