PowerShell Pro! » PowerShell Documents

PowerShell Alias Tutorial Launched Today

Jesse Hamrick — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:31:14 +0000

Continuing with my series of PowerShell tutorials thought-out for beginners, I launched a tutorial on PowerShell Aliases. Why PowerShell Aliases? Just wanted to supply a little more content than what was presented in the PowerShell Users Guide. Topics include:

Built-in PowerShell Aliases.
User-defined PowerShell Aliases.
Importing/Exporting User-defined Aliases.
User-defined Aliases using PowerShell Profile.

Tutorial Name: PowerShell Aliases. You can find this tutorial as well as others in the "TUTORIALS" section…

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Start Your (no cost) PowerShell Training Today

Jesse Hamrick — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:27:05 +0000

PowerShell Pro launches PowerShell tutorials.

Formal Training is just too expensive and out of reach for many. I could attend a semester of college with the prices I've seen. If you have the luxury of working for a large company with a training budget, you are one of the lucky ones… What do you do if you can not meet the cost of training?

August of 2007, I have launched a series of PowerShell tutorials that will assist with learning PowerShell. This series will run for the next couple of months and will be covering: The PowerShell console, PowerShell basics, formatting output, working will the Windows file system, WMI, and .NET. New tutorials will be launched on a weekly basis. There is no cost and no set-up fee, just visit the "Tutorials" section each week and enjoy each new installment.

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Learn PowerShell in Under 30 Pages – Microsoft Switzerland to the Rescue

Jesse Hamrick — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:31:33 +0000

Microsoft Switzerland just translated into English, a PowerShell pdf designed to assist in the quest of PowerShell knowledge, I think? I may have been taken back a little by the loose translation. Here's the example: "An Introduction to scripting technologies for people with no real background knowledge." O.k. I know what they mean (no real background in PowerShell) but for a split-second I was unsure. So I read on…

I have made the PowerShell pdf from Microsoft Switzerland available below. If you truly have no real bacground knowledge, "in PowerShell," this is a good quick-start guide. One example I found interesting was sending output to an .html file. Outputting to HTML is a process I have been doing with VBScript for awhile now. It truly scores points with the Chart and Picture readers aka Upper Management. Here is the example from the book:

get-service | ConvertTo-Html -Property Name,Status |
foreach { if($_ -like "*Running*") {$_ -replace "", ""}
else {$_ -replace "", ""}} >.\get-service.html

The code enumerates each service running on a machine. Services with a status of "running" are placed in a table row that is green. Services with a status of "stopped" are in red. Pretty cool stuff…

Note: Be aware that you should familiarize yourself with page 30 (solutions page) when working with the examples in the book. Trying to do the examples as someone with "no real knowledge" (o.k. last time I mention that) will prove difficult.

Download PDF here. If you have trouble launching Adobe Acrobat, Windows clients can right-click on link and "Save Target As…"

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Cool, the PowerShell scripting guide is Free…

Jesse Hamrick — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:45:22 +0000

A big mistake I made when learning VBScript was the purchase of the Windows 2000 Scripting Guide ($49.95). It's a great resource, it sits on my desk, and yes I still use is frequently. So why was buying it a mistake? Because, the online version is available on Microsoft's site, for $.00. Before purchasing PowerShell books I checked Microsoft's site, guess what? Microsoft has made available the "Windows PowerShell 1.0 Documentation Pack."

The PowerShell Documentation Pack is… "Packed!" I would recommend downloading and reading ASAP. What you will find in the download:

Getting Started Doc – "The primary focus of this document is to help Windows PowerShell users get started with Windows PowerShell. This document describes the features of the shell that you need to start using the shell. For a detailed examination of the shell, its features, and examples of how to use the shell, see the Windows PowerShell Primer." -Microsoft

User Guide (aka The PowerShell Primer) – "The Windows PowerShell Primer is intended for IT professionals, programmers, and power users who have no prior background with Windows PowerShell. Although a background in scripting and WMI are helpful, they are not assumed or required to understand this document." -Microsoft

Quadfold – Windows PowerShell Quick Language Reference guide.

Release Notes

Download the 356 KB option for English Only.
Download the PowerShell Documentation Pack

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