about this book

Most of what you’ll need to know about this book is covered in chapter 1, but there are a few things that we should mention up front.

First of all, if you plan to follow along with my examples and complete the hands-on exercises, you’ll need a virtual machine or computer running Windows Server 2008 R2. I cover that in more detail in chapter 1.

Second, be prepared to read this book from start to finish, covering each chapter in order. Again, this is something I’ll explain in more detail in chapter 1, but the idea is that each chapter introduces a few new things that you will need in subsequent chapters.

Third, this book contains a lot of code snippets. Most of them are quite short, so you should be able to type them quite easily. In fact, I recommend that you do type them, since doing so will help reinforce an essential PowerShell skill: accurate typing! Longer code snippets are given in listings and are available for download at http://Morelunches.com or from the publisher’s website at www.manning.com/LearnWindowsPowerShellinaMonthofLunches.

That said, there are a few conventions that you should be aware of. Code will always appear in a special font, just like this example:

That example also illustrates the line-continuation character used in this book. It indicates that those two lines should actually be typed as a single line in PowerShell. In other words, don’t hit Enter or Return after Win32_OperatingSystem—keep right on typing. PowerShell allows for very long lines, but the pages of this book can only hold so much.

Sometimes, you’ll also see that code font within the text itself, such as when I write Get-Command. That just lets you know that you’re looking at a command, parameter, or other element that you would actually type within the shell.

Fourth is a tricky topic that I’ll bring up again in several chapters: the backtick character (`). Here’s an example:

The character at the end of the first line isn’t a stray bit of ink—it’s a real character that you would type. On a U.S. keyboard, the backtick (or grave accent) is usually near the upper left, under the Escape key, on the same key as the tilde character (~). When you see the backtick in a code listing, type it exactly as is. Furthermore, when it appears at the end of a line—as in the preceding example—make sure that it’s the very last character on that line. If you allow any spaces or tabs to appear after it, the backtick won’t work correctly, and neither will the code example.

Finally, I’ll occasionally direct you to internet resources. Where those URLs are particularly long and difficult to type, I’ve replaced them with Manning-based shortened URLs that look like http://mng.bz/S085 (you’ll see that one in chapter 1).

Author Online

The purchase of Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches includes access to a private forum run by Manning Publications where you can make comments about the book, ask technical questions, and receive help from the author and other users. To access and subscribe to the forum, point your browser to www.manning.com/LearnWindowsPowerShellinaMonthofLunches, and click the Author Online link. This page provides information on how to get on the forum once you are registered, what kind of help is available, and the rules of conduct in the forum.

Manning’s commitment to our readers is to provide a venue where a meaningful dialogue between individual readers and between readers and the author can take place. It’s not a commitment to any specific amount of participation on the part of the author, whose contribution to the book’s forum remains voluntary (and unpaid). We suggest you try asking the author some challenging questions, lest his interest stray!

The Author Online forum and the archives of previous discussions will be accessible from the publisher’s website as long as the book is in print.