contents

preface
about this book
about the author
acknowledgments
1 Before you begin
1.1 Why you can’t afford to ignore PowerShell
1.2 Is this book for you?
1.3 How to use this book
1.4 Setting up your lab environment
1.5 Installing Windows PowerShell
1.6 Online resources
1.7 Being immediately effective with PowerShell
2 Running commands
2.1 Not scripting: just running commands
2.2 Opening PowerShell
2.3 Managing files and folders—you know this!
2.4 Accuracy counts
2.5 Not just files and folders: introducing PSDrives
2.6 Support for external commands
2.7 The same old commands—almost
2.8 Common points of confusion
2.9 Lab
3 Using the help system
3.1 The help system: how you discover commands
3.2 Asking for help
3.3 Using help to find commands
3.4 Interpreting the help
3.5 Accessing “about” topics
3.6 Accessing online help
3.7 Lab
3.8 Ideas for on your own
4 The pipeline: connecting commands
4.1 Connect one command to another: less work for you!
4.2 Exporting to a CSV or XML file
4.3 Piping to a file or printer
4.4 Converting to HTML
4.5 Using cmdlets to kill processes and stop services
4.6 Lab
5 Adding commands
5.1 How one shell can do everything
5.2 About product-specific management shells
5.3 Extensions: finding and adding snap-ins
5.4 Extensions: finding and adding modules
5.5 Command conflict and removing extensions
5.6 Finding help on newly added commands
5.7 Playing with Server Manager via command line!
5.8 Profile scripts: preloading extensions when the shell starts
5.9 Common points of confusion
5.10 Lab
5.11 Ideas for on your own
6 Objects: just data by another name
6.1 What are objects?
6.2 Why PowerShell uses objects
6.3 Discovering objects: Get-Member
6.4 Object attributes, or “properties”
6.5 Object actions, or “methods”
6.6 Sorting objects
6.7 Selecting the properties you want
6.8 Objects until the very end
6.9 Common points of confusion
6.10 Lab
7 The pipeline, deeper
7.1 The pipeline: enabling power with less typing
7.2 Pipeline input ByValue, or why Stop-Service works
7.3 Parentheses instead of pipelines
7.4 Pipeline input ByPropertyName
7.5 Creating new AD users, fast and easy
7.6 When things don’t line up: custom properties
7.7 Extracting the value from a single property
7.8 Lab
8 Formatting—and why it’s done on the right
8.1 Formatting: making what you see prettier
8.2 About the default formatting
8.3 Formatting tables
8.4 Formatting lists
8.5 Formatting wide
8.6 Custom columns and list entries
8.7 Going out: to a file, a printer, or the host
8.8 Another out: GridViews
8.9 Common points of confusion
8.10 Lab
8.11 Ideas for on your own
9 Filtering and comparisons
9.1 Making the shell give you just what you need
9.2 Filter left
9.3 Comparison operators
9.4 Filtering objects out of the pipeline
9.5 The iterative command-line model
9.6 Common points of confusion
9.7 Lab
9.8 Ideas for on your own
10 Remote control: one to one, and one to many
10.1 The idea behind remote PowerShell
10.2 WinRM overview
10.3 Using Enter-PSSession and Exit-PSSession for 1:1 remoting
10.4 Using Invoke-Command for one-to-many remoting
10.5 Differences between remote and local commands
10.6 But wait, there’s more
10.7 Common points of confusion
10.8 Lab
10.9 Ideas for on your own
11 Tackling Windows Management Instrumentation
11.1 Retrieving management information
11.2 A WMI primer
11.3 The bad news about WMI
11.4 Exploring WMI
11.5 Using Get-WmiObject
11.6 WMI documentation
11.7 Common points of confusion
11.8 Lab
11.9 Ideas for on your own
12 Multitasking with background jobs
12.1 Making PowerShell do multiple things at the same time
12.2 Synchronous versus asynchronous
12.3 Creating a local job
12.4 WMI, as a job
12.5 Remoting, as a job
12.6 Getting job results
12.7 Working with child jobs
12.8 Commands for managing jobs
12.9 Common points of confusion
13 Working with bunches of objects, one at a time
13.1 Automation for mass management
13.2 The preferred way: batch cmdlets
13.3 The WMI way: invoking WMI methods
13.4 The backup plan: enumerating objects
13.5 Common points of confusion
13.6 Lab
14 Security alert!
14.1 Keeping the shell secure
14.2 Windows PowerShell security goals
14.3 Execution policy and code signing
14.4 Other security measures
14.5 Other security holes?
14.6 Security recommendations
14.7 Lab
15 Variables: a place to store your stuff
15.1 Introduction to variables
15.2 Storing values in variables
15.3 Fun tricks with quotes
15.4 Storing lots of objects in a variable
15.5 Declaring a variable’s type
15.6 Commands for working with variables
15.7 Variable best practices
15.8 Common points of confusion
15.9 Lab
15.10 Ideas for on your own
16 Input and output
16.1 Prompting for, and displaying, information
16.2 Read-Host
16.3 Write-Host
16.4 Write-Output
16.5 Other ways to write
16.6 Lab
16.7 Ideas for on your own
17 You call this scripting?
17.1 Not programming … more like batch files
17.2 Making commands repeatable
17.3 Parameterizing commands
17.4 Creating a parameterized script
17.5 Documenting your script
17.6 One script, one pipeline
17.7 A quick look at scope
17.8 Lab
17.9 Ideas for on your own
18 Sessions: remote control, with less work
18.1 Making PowerShell remoting a bit easier
18.2 Creating and using reusable sessions
18.3 Using sessions with Enter-PSSession
18.4 Using sessions with Invoke-Command
18.5 Implicit remoting: importing a session
18.6 Lab
18.7 Ideas for on your own
19 From command to script to function
19.1 Turning a command into a reusable tool
19.2 Modularizing: one task, one function
19.3 Simple and parameterized functions
19.4 Returning a value from a function
19.5 Returning objects from a function
19.6 Lab
19.7 Ideas for on your own
20 Adding logic and loops
20.1 Automating complex, multi-step processes
20.2 Now we’re “scripting”
20.3 The If construct
20.4 The Switch construct
20.5 The For construct
20.6 The ForEach construct
20.7 Why scripting isn’t always necessary
20.8 Lab
21 Creating your own “cmdlets” and modules
21.1 Turning a reusable tool into a full-fledged cmdlet
21.2 Functions that work in the pipeline
21.3 Functions that look like cmdlets
21.4 Bundling functions into modules
21.5 Keeping support functions private
21.6 Lab
21.7 Ideas for on your own
22 Trapping and handling errors
22.1 Dealing with errors you just knew were going to happen
22.2 Errors and exceptions
22.3 The $ErrorActionPreference variable
22.4 The -ErrorAction parameter
22.5 Using a Trap construct
22.6 Trap scope
22.7 Using a Try construct
22.8 The -ErrorVariable parameter
22.9 Common points of confusion
22.10 Lab
22.11 Ideas for on your own
23 Debugging techniques
23.1 An easy guide to eliminating bugs
23.2 Identifying your expectations
23.3 Adding trace code
23.4 Working with breakpoints
23.5 Common points of confusion
23.6 Lab
24 Additional random tips, tricks, and techniques
24.1 Profiles, prompts, and colors: customizing the shell
24.2 Operators: -as, -is, -replace, -join, -split
24.3 String manipulation
24.4 Date manipulation
24.5 Dealing with WMI dates
25 Final exam: tackling an administrative task from scratch
25.1 Tips before you begin
25.2 Lab
25.3 Lab solution
26 Beyond the operating system: taking PowerShell further
26.1 Everything you’ve learned works the same everywhere
26.2 SharePoint Server 2010
26.3 VMware vSphere and vCenter
26.4 Third-party Active Directory management
27 Never the end
27.1 Ideas for further exploration
27.2 “Now that I’m done, where do I start?”
27.3 Other resources you’ll grow to love
28 PowerShell cheat sheet
28.1 Punctuation
28.2 Help file
28.3 Operators
28.4 Custom property and column syntax
28.5 Pipeline parameter input
28.6 When to use $_

index