Windows PowerShell™ 2 For Dummies®

Chapter 1. The Windows PowerShell Rap Sheet

In This Chapter

• Following the birth and evolution of Windows PowerShell

• Installing Windows PowerShell 2

• Interacting with the Windows PowerShell command shell

• Using the Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE)

I'm a really lazy person by nature. I'm not lazy in the sense that I like to sit down and do nothing all day long, but rather I hate doing things over and over again. Whenever I find myself doing something very mundane, the first thing that pops into mind is "there has to be a way to automate this!" Computers are great work horses. They can run day in and day out and never complain. Logically, it makes sense to make your computer work for you rather than the other way around, so in my infinite laziness I'm constantly cooking up ways to make my computer work harder so I can have time to do more important things . . . like write this book for you.

Whether you're completely new to scripting or have done some level of automation in the past using other scripting languages, you'll really love Windows PowerShell. It gives Windows users a true shell that provides the same power over the Windows system that only people in the Unix/Linux community enjoyed previously. Microsoft has spent years and years trying to make Windows easier to use, and in the process of doing so have made some things quite frustrating for power users. (Remember when Microsoft was trying to force you to use wizards only?) Windows PowerShell is, in my mind, Microsoft's way of ...