Windows PowerShell for Developers

Appendix A. Productive PowerShell

I recently saw a tweet saying, “If you repeat it, PowerShell it.” I couldn’t agree more.

In this appendix, I want to share a spectrum of examples to illustrate PowerShell’s reach and primarily, to demonstrate that learning and using PowerShell in your day-to-day tasks will save you time. It’s easy to sit back and think, “It’s just a simple scripting language; I don’t have time to invest in another technology that may not pan out,” or “It’ll take longer to automate than it will to just do it, and there are only a few steps to this, so I’ll knock it out.”

PowerShell’s depth and reach is more than you can imagine, and growing every day. Plus, it is dynamic and powerful enough that if either Microsoft or the PowerShell community hasn’t delivered a solution, PowerShell itself can take you the last mile.

Note

Automation is quickly moving from a “nice to have” feature to critical for delivering software in an ever-changing landscape.

Here, I’ll present some places where developers choose not to automate, and I’ll provide some PowerShell automation alternatives. In addition, one of the great perks of being a PowerShell MVP is being in the company of outstanding PowerShell MVPs (Table A-1). This is a group of passionate, smart people who are leveraging PowerShell in so many creative ways. Luckily for us, they are also generous—they have shared ideas and PowerShell snippets for me to include here.

Table A-1. PowerShell ...