Windows PowerShell Cookbook

A Guided Tour of Windows PowerShell

Introduction

Windows PowerShell promises to revolutionize the world of system management and command-line shells. From its object-based pipelines, to its administrator focus, to its enormous reach into other Microsoft management technologies, PowerShell drastically improves the productivity of administrators and power-users alike.

When learning a new technology, it is natural to feel bewildered at first by all the unfamiliar features and functionality. This perhaps rings especially true for users new to Windows PowerShell, because it may be their first experience with a fully featured command-line shell. Or worse, they’ve heard stories of PowerShell’s fantastic integrated scripting capabilities and fear being forced into a world of programming that they’ve actively avoided until now.

Fortunately, these fears are entirely misguided: PowerShell is a shell that both grows with you and grows on you. Let’s take a tour to see what it is capable of:

• PowerShell works with standard Windows commands and applications. You don’t have to throw away what you already know and use.

• PowerShell introduces a powerful new type of command. PowerShell commands (called cmdlets) share a common Verb-Noun syntax and offer many usability improvements over standard commands.

• PowerShell understands objects. Working directly with richly structured objects makes working with (and combining) PowerShell commands immensely easier than working in the plain-text world of traditional shells. ...