Introduction

Windows PowerShell (or just PowerShell, for short) was introduced by Microsoft in late 2006 accompanied by little fanfare. In the last seven years, PowerShell has gone from being what might have seemed like a research project to what is now the mainstay of Windows automation and is included in every Windows operating system and most of the major Microsoft products including Exchange, System Center, SQL Server, SharePoint, and Azure.

PowerShell is often thought of as a command-line language, and that is an accurate (but incomplete) view. Working on the command line in PowerShell is a joy compared to MS-DOS batch files and most of the command-line tools that IT professionals are used to having at their fingertips work with no changes in the PowerShell environment. PowerShell is also a first-class scripting language where the knowledge you gain from the command line pays off big time. Unlike MS-DOS, PowerShell was designed from the beginning to be a powerful tool for scripting. Unlike VBScript, there is an interactive PowerShell console that allows you to iteratively develop solutions a bit at a time as you work your way through a sequence of objects, methods, and properties.

PowerShell includes several different elements that work together to create a very powerful and flexible ecosystem. While this chapter will give you an overview of several of these pieces, be aware that the PowerShell language is the subject of many books. For in-depth coverage of these topics, refer to PowerShell In Practice by Don Jones, Jeffery Hicks, and Richard Siddaway, Manning Publications.