PowerShell in Depth

Summary

PowerShell in Depth, Second Edition is the go-to reference for administrators working with Windows PowerShell. Every major technique, technology, and tactic is carefully explained and demonstrated, providing a hands-on guide to almost everything an admin would do in the shell. Written by three experienced authors and PowerShell MVPs, this is the PowerShell book you’ll keep next to your monitor—not on your bookshelf!

About the Book

A Windows admin using PowerShell every day may not have the time to search the net every time he or she hits a snag. Wouldn’t it be great to have a team of seasoned PowerShell experts ready to answer even the toughest questions? That’s what you get with this book.

PowerShell in Depth, Second Edition is the go-to reference for administrators working with Windows PowerShell. Every major technique, technology, and tactic is carefully explained and demonstrated, providing a hands-on guide to almost everything an admin would do in the shell. Written by PowerShell MVPs Don Jones, Jeffrey Hicks, and Richard Siddaway, each valuable technique was developed and thoroughly tested, so you’ll be able to consistently write production-quality, maintainable scripts while saving hours of time and effort.

This book assumes you know the basics of PowerShell.

What’s Inside

• Automating tasks
• Packaging and deploying scripts
• Introduction to Desired State Configuration
• PowerShell security
• Covers PowerShell version 3 and later

Table of Contents

PART 1 POWERSHELL FUNDAMENTALS

1 ■ Introduction

2 ■ PowerShell hosts

3 ■ Using the PowerShell help system

4 ■ The basics of PowerShell syntax

5 ■ Working with PSSnapins and modules

6 ■ Operators

7 ■ Working with objects

8 ■ The PowerShell pipeline

9 ■ Formatting

PART 2 POWERSHELL MANAGEMENT

10 ■ PowerShell Remoting

11 ■ Background jobs and scheduling

12 ■ Working with credentials

13 ■ Regular expressions

14 ■ Working with HTML and XML data

15 ■ PSDrives and PSProviders

16 ■ Variables, arrays, hash tables, and script blocks

17 ■ PowerShell security

18 ■ Advanced PowerShell syntax

PART 3 POWERSHELL SCRIPTING AND AUTOMATION

19 ■ PowerShell’s scripting language

20 ■ Basic scripts and functions

21 ■ Creating objects for ouput

22 ■ Scope

23 ■ PowerShell workflows

24 ■ Advanced syntax for scripts and functions

25 ■ Script modules and manifest modules

26 ■ Custom formatting views

27 ■ Custom type extensions

28 ■ Data language and internationalization

29 ■ Writing help

30 ■ Error handling techniques

31 ■ Debugging tools and techniques

32 ■ Functions that work like cmdlets

33 ■ Tips and tricks for creating reports

PART 4 ADVANCED POWERSHELL

34 ■ Working with the Component Object Model (COM)

35 ■ Working with .NET Framework objects

36 ■ Accessing databases

37 ■ Proxy functions

38 ■ Building a GUI

39 ■ WMI and CIM

40 ■ Working with the web

41 ■ Desired State Configuration

About the Authors

Don Jones is a PowerShell MVP, speaker, and trainer. He developed the Microsoft PowerShell courseware and has taught PowerShell to more than 20,000 IT pros. Don writes the PowerShell column for TechNet Magazine and blogs about PowerShell at PowerShell.com. Ask Don your PowerShell questions at http://bit.ly/AskDon.

Jeffery Hicks is a PowerShell MVP with 20 years of IT experience. Jeff works as an independent consultant, trainer, and author and he has taught PowerShell to IT Professionals all over the world. He writes the popular Prof.PowerShell column for MCPMag.com and is a weekly contributor to the Petri IT Knowledgebase.