Windows Developer Power Tools

23.9 Bringing .NET to the Command Line with PowerShell

Not so long ago, command-line user interfaces were the only way to interact with a computer. Advances in graphical user interfaces have made command-line shells unfashionable, and many people have made predictions about those shells disappearing completely. So why has Microsoft created yet another command-line interface?

The command line has one advantage that GUIs lack—ease of automation. The limiting console interface is the greatest weakness, but it is also the greatest strength, as it offers a standardized way to “talk” to programs. That standardization allows us to write scripts that drive long-running and complex processes. The Windows PowerShell (previously known as “Monad”) team has gone even further by changing text pipelining between commands into object pipelining.

Windows PowerShell at a Glance
Tool	Windows PowerShell (previously known as “Monad”)
Version covered	RC1
Home page	http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx
Power Tools page	http://www.windevpowertools.com/tools/171
Summary	An interactive command-line shell and complete scripting environment
License type	Microsoft EULA
Online resources	Documentation, examples, newsgroups, team blog
Supported Frameworks	.NET 2.0
Related tools in this book	PowerShell IDE

Getting Started

The only prerequisite for the shell is the Microsoft .NET 2.0 runtime. PowerShell will run ...