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Featured Webcast Series
PowerShell Essentials for the Busy Admin (Part 1 of 5): PowerShell 'SmowerShell'—Why You Should Learn Windows PowerShell
Series: Part 1 of 5
Duration: 58 minutes 17 Seconds
Date: March 26, 2012
In this session, Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson discusses a number of compelling reasons for learning Windows PowerShell scripting. These reasons include: It is powerful and provides the ability to collect and consolidate information from multiple remote systems into a centralized view of the data. It is safer than many other tools and offers the ability to prototype a command prior to the command execution. There is a confirmation mode that lets a network administrator or other IT professional selectively step through a group of commands to pick commands to execute or ignore. It has built-in logging that provides documentation of what commands are executed and the resultant output from those commands. This session is heavy with practical tips and demonstrations.
PowerShell Essentials for the Busy Admin (Part 2 of 5): Heard It through the Pipeline—How to Compound Windows PowerShell Commands for Fun and Profit
Series: Part 2 of 5
Duration: 63 minutes 34 Seconds
Date: March 26, 2012
One of the most basic, as well as one of the most powerful, features of Windows PowerShell is the pipeline. By using the Windows PowerShell pipeline, you can take a basic set of cmdlets and build a nearly infinite assortment of useful commands. And yet, all of this boils down to using the pipeline to perform essentially four different types of activities. The first is to use the pipeline to retrieve items and to work on them. The second is to use the pipeline to filter out data. The third is to persist information, and the fourth is to use the pipeline to format output. This session covers all four basic uses of the pipeline and includes a heavy dose of demonstrations.
PowerShell Essentials for the Busy Admin (Part 3 of 5): Sole Provider? Not Hardly—A Look at Windows PowerShell Providers
Series: Part 3 of 5
Duration: 54 minutes 48 Seconds
Date: March 26, 2012
One of the revolutionary concepts in Windows PowerShell is the idea of Windows PowerShell providers. Windows PowerShell providers give a singular way to access different types of data that are stored in different locations. Default providers include a file system, registry, alias, variable, function, and environmental variable. This means that you can use Get-Item to access content that is stored in any of these different locations. Not only that, but these providers are extensible, which means that different Microsoft teams (and third party developers) can create additional providers.
PowerShell Essentials for the Busy Admin (Part 4 of 5): The Main Event—Windows PowerShell Does Event Logs
Series: Part 4 of 5
Duration: 62 minutes 28 Seconds
Date: March 26, 2012
Regardless of one's position, it seems that at some point or another everyone will be involved in looking at event logs. And why not? Especially since Windows has such great logging support. Whether it is for security reasons or troubleshooting reasons or general Windows health monitoring, the logs contain nearly all the required information that one seeks. In this session, Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson discusses the classic and the newer ETW style of logs and looks at the tools that are used with each type of log.
PowerShell Essentials for the Busy Admin (Part 5 of 5): More Than Remotely Possible—Using Windows PowerShell to Manage the Remote Desktop
Series: Part 5 of 5
Duration: 62 minutes 57 Seconds
Date: March 26, 2012
Let's face it: even though there are lots of commercial products out there that assist in managing desktops or servers, most are very complex and require a dedicated support team to manage them. Even in organizations where such tools exist, the team's agenda and the front line administrator's agenda often clash. For ad hoc situations, using Windows PowerShell to manage remote machines fills in the gray area. In this session, Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson discusses using Windows PowerShell to manage remote machines.
Learn the basics of Windows PowerShell from Microsoft Scripting Guy Ed Wilson. In this five-part webcast series, Ed demonstrates starting and stopping processes and services, working with event logs, writing your first Windows PowerShell script, working with files, and more. (March 28, 2011)
Take a Windows PowerShell Quiz This is a quick quiz to help you determine if you are an advanced scripter or a beginning scripter. You might even learn a thing or two along the way.
TechNet Radio
Ed Wilson makes regular appearances on TechNet Radio, sharing his knowledge of scripting and Windows PowerShell.
Seven days each week, Scripting Guy Ed Wilson answers your questions about Windows PowerShell. Learning this stuff could be daunting. Ed makes sure it's not.
Hey, Scripting Guy! Getting Started posts Take advantage of the Getting Started tag on the blog so you can easily find Windows PowerShell content intended for beginners.
Windows PowerShell Script Repository Browse a repository of sample Windows PowerShell scripts written by MVPs, IT pros, Microsoft employees, and others.
This Getting Started guide provides an introduction to Windows PowerShell that includes the language, the cmdlets, the providers, and the use of objects.
The Windows PowerShell User's Guide is intended for IT professionals, programmers, and power users who have no prior background with Windows PowerShell.
If you are a VBScript script writer looking to try your hand at Windows PowerShell, take a look at this conversion guide, which shows you how to replicate VBScript functions and methods in Windows PowerShell.
Download Windows PowerShell 2.0 This Windows Management Framework download includes Windows PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0, and BITS 4.0. Download it today!
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