Windows PowerShell® 2.0 Bible

Introduction

Welcome to Windows PowerShell 2.0 Bible. We hope that through reading this book and working through the sample code we provide, you will learn a great deal about using Windows PowerShell. This standard automation tool is sure to be one of the most useful tools in your administration toolbox. Join us as, together, we explore this powerful tool and how you can use it.

Overview of the Book and Technology

When the authors of this book got together to discuss the content of the book, we came to a consensus that this book had to follow a new direction. We wanted to create a book that was different from all of the existing Windows PowerShell books. And with “Bible” in the name, we knew we had to really step it up.

All of the existing Windows PowerShell books fell into one of two categories:

• Core fundamentals books that explained the Windows PowerShell language itself, but rarely demonstrated real-world application examples.
• Application-oriented books that explained how to use Windows PowerShell to manage a single specific application.

We wanted this book to be unique among all of the other Windows PowerShell books. We cover the core language fundamentals for users who are new to Windows PowerShell and/or Version 2, but we also take a selection of some of the most prevalent applications in the IT ecosystem and dedicate an entire chapter to them. This book serves as a reference guide for any system administrator managing Windows computers.

How This Book Is Organized

This ...