Learning Windows PowerShell

Trace PowerShell's history from monad and PowerShell 1.0 through to 5.0, highlighting remoting, hundreds of cmdlets, workflows, ISE, and the rise of DSC within WMF.

PowerShell is an object-based scripting language built on the .NET framework, offering easier handling of command results and access to Windows functionalities beyond CMD.

Explore how dot net integration connects PowerShell to the dot net framework, enabling object-oriented manipulation of Windows resources through in-memory objects and classes, demonstrated with a Windows form example.

Discover dot net integration by modeling disk files with the file class, exposing properties like size and name, and using read and write data methods in power shell.

Explore backward compatibility across PowerShell versions 1.0 to 5.0, learn how scripts may fail between versions, and master checking and switching versions with PSVersionTable.

Choose and install the right Windows PowerShell version for your machine, from built-in options or Microsoft downloads, noting compatibility with different Windows versions and avoiding production deployment without testing.

Understand how your Windows version determines PowerShell installation, note .NET framework requirements, and avoid risky server updates without testing.

PowerShell runs by default with normal user privileges, but you can elevate to administrative rights using Run as administrator or start-process PowerShell -Verb RunAs, emphasizing UAC and security.

Install and update the PowerShell help files, set the execution policy to allow scripts, and enable remoting on remote computers to begin scripting tasks.

Learn to configure the Windows PowerShell console to suit your workflow by adjusting properties, fonts, colors, history, and window and buffer sizes saved in the registry.

Explore PowerShell IDE options, from the built-in PowerShell integrated scripting environment to free and paid scripting tools, and practice scripting with commands, modules, and intellisense.

Discover PowerShell profiles, text files with a .ps1 extension that load on startup to persist aliases, functions, and variables, including the four types and their locations.

Create and customize a PowerShell profile using the built-in $PROFILE path, verify its existence with Test-Path, and use New-Item to create the profile file for a consistent environment across machines.

Learn cmdlet fundamentals in Windows PowerShell, including the verb-noun structure and common verbs like Get, Set, New, and Remove. Practice piping objects between commands and using Get-Process for named processes.

Learn to navigate PowerShell with the Get-Help system, using Get-Help to view command details, examples, and full technical information, including show window and different help levels.

Learn to use get-help in PowerShell to explore get-process, view command syntax and examples, and access online and detailed help for remote and local processes.

Use get-command in windows powershell to discover available commands across versions. Explore results with get-help and paging, and learn which command types appear.

Explore how to control PowerShell output with format commands, including format wide, format list, and format table, to display specific properties and create readable views.

Master PowerShell output with format-table and format-list, learn auto size, wrap, and group by to display process data by company, path, and name, improving readability and quick data insights.

Explore how Get-Member reveals the properties and methods of .NET objects in PowerShell, using a simple variable example to inspect members and practice filters for properties or methods.

Discover how everything in PowerShell is a .NET object, examine its properties and methods with Get-Member, and learn how objects derive from classes in the .NET framework through inheritance.

Discover how dot net framework classes and objects define behavior through inheritance, and how PowerShell commands like get member expose methods and properties for powerful, minimal-code tasks.

Explore classes and objects in PowerShell by building a simple C-sharp class, creating an object, and invoking a method, then examine the object with Get-Member.

Define a PowerShell class with properties is admin and is on duty and a send message method; load the DLL and inspect its methods with get-member and reflection.

Learn how to use get-childitem to list items across file system drives, registry, and other containers, including recursive exploration and include or exclude filtering.

Explore the PowerShell pipeline, piping output from one command to the next, and see how get-childitem and sort-object, then get-service with where-object filter display names such as sql server.

Learn to use tab completion in PowerShell to quickly find and complete commands and parameters. Practice with wild cards and help, using Get process as guidance.

Create a PowerShell script by writing commands in a text file and saving it with the .ps1 extension; execute it by calling the file name, with commands running sequentially.

Learn to execute a PowerShell script by configuring execution policy and by specifying a script path or using period backslash for the current directory.

Launch PowerShell scripts from desktop shortcuts by configuring a shortcut to call PowerShell.exe with bypassed execution policy and the target script. Double-click to run and quickly execute.

PowerShell variables store data as underlying .NET objects, declared with the dollar sign or the new-variable command, and use explicit types to prevent unintended changes.

Create constants in Power Shell by converting variables to read only or constant using set variable, preventing overwrites; remove variable to redefine as a true constant with a new name.

Master PowerShell comparison operators, including -eq, -lt, -gt, -ge, -le, and -ne, learn string comparisons with case sensitivity (-ceq) and default case-insensitive behavior, and combine conditions with -not, -and, -or.

Explore the if statement in PowerShell to branch scripts with conditions, use else if and else for multiple options, and apply comparisons like day equals 12 in practical examples.

Explore looping constructs in PowerShell: for each, for, while, do while, and do until, and learn how each handles condition checks and iterations with arrays and strings.

Explore PowerShell looping constructs with do while and do until, including hands-on coding tips, execution order, and how to run and modify sample scripts in your working files folder.

Explore regular expressions in PowerShell, covering literal and pattern matches, case sensitivity, quantifiers, escapes, and shortcuts like \d, \w, and \s.

Explore part two of regular expressions in PowerShell, using dot net framework patterns to validate IP addresses and Social Security numbers with practical examples.

Learn to use the escape character and comments in PowerShell, including the grave accent for new lines, tabs, line continuation, and embedding quotes in output.

Learn how to pass input parameters to PowerShell scripts using the parameter block, including mandatory parameters, data types, and practical examples to tailor scripts to objects and conditions.

Learn how PowerShell providers expose external data as PowerShell drives, turning the registry and other stores into familiar file system-like structures.

Explore how PowerShell providers expose drives, with the file system provider as the default, and use commands like get-location, set-location, and new-item to work with PS drives.

Learn the Windows PowerShell file system provider, the default for managing files and folders, and use Get-ChildItem with Set-Location and -Force to inspect the mode column and reveal hidden files.

Learn how the PowerShell alias provider lets you map short names to commands like get-child-item and set-location, speeding workflow. Create, manage, and persist aliases across sessions using profiles.

Explore the variable and function providers in PowerShell, using the variable drive to view and create dollar-sign variables and the function drive to define and call reusable code.

Explore the environment provider in PowerShell to view and edit system and user environment variables, using Get-ChildItem, format-list, and Get-Item to inspect OS, username, and user profile.

Explore the registry provider in PowerShell, easily navigate and modify registry keys and values using familiar file-system commands, including searching, creating keys, and managing ACLs.

Explore the certificate provider in PowerShell to view certificate stores, export details to CSV, and open data in Excel, with tips for current user and local machine scopes.

Explore how Windows PowerShell simplifies managing files and folders, using Get-ChildItem with -Force and -Recurse, filtering by last write time, and parameterizing scripts for flexible file discovery.

Learn to read and write data files in PowerShell using redirection, new-item, set-content, add-content, and get-content, with practical examples for creating, overwriting, and appending to log files.

Learn how to output PowerShell results to HTML using ConvertTo-HTML, filter for running services, and create a shareable HTML report for intranet viewing.

Learn to save and exchange PowerShell data by exporting pipeline results to XML with export-clixml and re-importing with import-clixml, enabling easy read/write of objects.

Learn to read and write csv (comma separated values) with PowerShell, export and import csv data, and view results in Excel for easy data movement and analysis.

Learn to manage Windows processes with PowerShell by using Get-Process, Start-Process, and Stop-Process to monitor working set memory, CPU usage, and identify hung or resource hogs.

Explore Windows management instrumentation (WMI) and CIM in PowerShell, learn two approaches—WMI and CIM cmdlets—to query hardware and software data, using namespaces like root\cimv2.

Explore PowerShell v5 features and Windows Management Framework 5.0, including zip file handling with cmdlets, network switch management, and dsc enhancements, with notes on preview releases and upgrade paths.

PowerShell v5 features OneGet for managing software repositories and package installation, enhanced desired state configuration for roles, services, and settings, and network switch cmdlets certified for Windows for native management.

Master PowerShell basics through a concise wrap-up that highlights providers, basic commands, syntax, and piping, and points to essential resources for steady practice.