Windows PowerShellTM 2 For Dummies

Introduction. Part I: Get ting a Bird's-Eye View of PowerShell 2. Chapter 1: The Windows PowerShell Rap Sheet. Chapter 2: Customizing and Shortcutting the Environment. Chapter 3: A Pinch of Shell, a Pound of Power. Part II: PowerShell's Basic Structure and Syntax. Chapter 4: Shelling Out Commands and Scripts. Chapter 5: When Dollars Turn into Variables. Chapter 6: A Bit of Logic to Save the Day. Chapter 7: Working on a Pipeline. Part III: Complex Data Description and Sharing. Chapter 8: Working with Windows Management Instrumentation. Chapter 9: Bringing Strings into the Limelight. Chapter 10: I'll Take Numbers for $100, Please. Chapter 11: Grouping Data Using Arrays and Hash Tables. Chapter 12: Readin' and Writin' Files. Chapter 13: Going On a Date with PowerShell. Part IV: Controlling Where and How You Operate PowerShell. Chapter 14: Using Functions to Divide and Conquer. Chapter 15: PowerShell Ninjas: Running Jobs Remotely or in the Background. Chapter 16: Making Your Script Speak Different Languages. Chapter 17: Smashing Those Bugs. Part V: Real-World Windows Administration Using PowerShell. Chapter 18: Mission Control: All Systems Go. Chapter 19: Taming the Windows Registry. Chapter 20: Reaching Out to Active Directory. Chapter 21: PowerShell Lockdown. Chapter 22: Converting Your Old Scripts: Out with the Old, In with the New. Part VI: Configuring and Reporting Via PowerShell. Chapter 23: Controlling Your Network Confi guration. Chapter 24: Managing Your Hardware. Chapter 25: Making Reporting Easy. Part VII: The Par t of Tens. Chapter 26: The Ten Most Important Cmdlets. Chapter 27: Ten Common PowerShell Mistakes. Bonus Chapter 1: Handling Exceptions. Index. Windows Power Shell 2 For Dummies® 1 About the Author 5 Dedication 5 Author’s Acknowledgments 7 Contents at a Glance 9 Table of Contents 11 Introduction 21 About This Book 21 Conventions Used in This Book 22 What You’re Not to Read 23 Foolish Assumptions 23 How This Book Is Organized 24 Icons Used in This Book 27 What’s on the Web Site 27 Where to Go from Here 27 Part I: Getting a Bird's Eye View of PowerShell 2 29 Chapter 1: The Windows PowerShell Rap Sheet 31 Addressing the Need for a Powerful, Windows-Focused Scripting Language 32 Windows PowerShell 2, the Next Evolution 34 Installing Windows PowerShell 2 35 Firing up the Windows PowerShell Command Shell 36 Going GUI: The Windows PowerShell Integrated Shell Environment (ISE) 38 Chapter 2: Customizing and Shortcutting the Environment 41 Personalizing the Look and Feel of the Command Shell 42 Changing Your PowerShell Profile 44 Making the Windows PowerShell ISE Work for You 47 Creating Aliases 50 Deleting Aliases 51 Accessing the Alias Drive 52 Creating Persistent Aliases 53 Getting to Know Tab Expansion 54 Chapter 3: A Pinch of Shell, a Pound of Power 57 Getting a Taste of Windows PowerShell 58 Creating Your First Script 59 Breaking Down Your First Script 61 Sneaking a Peek at Complex Scripts 63 Examining the Nuts and Bolts of the Complist Script 65 Part II: PowerShell's Basic Structure and Syntax 67 Chapter 4: Shelling Out Commands and Scripts 69 Cmdlets: The Little Commands That Could! 69 One Shell to Rule Them All 75 Chapter 5: When Dollars Turn into Variables 81 Discovering Variables: They Vary Very Much 82 Getting to Know Data Types 82 Constant and Read-Only Variables 90 Understanding Automatic Variables 91 Working with Objects through Variables 94 Chapter 6: A Bit of Logic to Save the Day 97 A Logic Primer 97 Branching Using If/Else 100 Using the Switch Statement 103 Doing It Over and Over and Over Again with Loops 103 Chapter 7: Working on a Pipeline 109 Using Pipelines to Streamline Your Commands 110 Stringing Commands Together 111 Getting the Right Output 114 Part III: Complex Data Description and Sharing 117 Chapter 8; Working with Windows Management Instrumentation 119 Getting Familiar with Windows Management Instrumentation 120 Making Windows PowerShell Interact with WMI 123 Using SQL Syntax in WMI to Get WQL 126 Harnessing the Power of WMI 128 Changing WMI Authentication Levels 129 Pretending to Be Someone Else Using Impersonation 131 Using the New WMI Cmdlets 132 Chapter 9: Bringing Strings into the Limelight 137 Taking Your First Look at Strings 137 Performing String Surgery 140 Working with String Positions 145 Changing the Case of Strings 147 Using Regular Expressions 147 Chapter 10: I’ll Take Numbers for $100, Please 157 Putting Numeric Data Types under a Microscope 157 Doing Some Calculations 159 Rounding Off Values 164 Creating Random Numbers 165 Converting Numbers 165 Watching Out for Overflow 166 Chapter 11: Grouping Data Using Arrays and Hash Tables 167 Taking an In-Depth Look at Arrays 168 Creating and Using Arrays 168 Growing Arrays Dynamically 171 Creating Multidimensional Arrays 172 Finding Other Uses for Arrays 173 Working with Hash Tables: The Array’s Useful Cousin 175 Chapter 12: Readin’ and Writin’ Files 179 Having Some Fun with the File System 179 Reading Text Files 183 Writing Files 184 Working with XML 186 Working with HTML 191 Chapter 13: Going On a Date with PowerShell 195 Going On Your First Date 195 179 Using Date Math (It’s Not Just for Nerds) 199 Dealing with Time Zones 202 Part IV: Controlling Where and How You Operate PowerShell 205 Chapter 14: Using Functions to Divide and Conquer 207 Reusing Code Using Functions 207 Using Scope 213 Creating Your Own Cmdlets — Advanced Functions! 217 Chapter 15: PowerShell Ninjas: Running Jobs Remotely or in the Background 229 Using Background Jobs 230 Running Commands Remotely 235 Chapter 16: Making Your Script Speak Different Languages 243 Seeing the Importance of Internationalizing Scripts 244 Giving Your Scripts Different Tongues 244 Sharing Scripts with Others 249 Chapter 17: Smashing Those Bugs 251 Finding Out Where the Bugs Come From 251 Understanding the Debugging Process 253 Working On Your Defense 255 Working with Debugging Tools 257 Part V: Real-World Windows Administration Using PowerShell 265 Chapter 18: Mission Control: All Systems Go 267 Monitoring Drive Space 267 Converting to Windows Management Infrastructure from System.IO.DriveInfo 271 Managing Windows Services 273 Checking Your Event Logs 277 Querying EventLogs Using WMI 278 Chapter 19: Taming the Windows Registry 281 Following the Registry Tree 282 Connecting to the Windows Registry 283 Reading Keys and Values 287 Writing Keys and Values 288 Renaming and Deleting Registry Keys and Values 290 Chapter 20: Reaching Out to Active Directory 293 A Really Brief Active Directory Primer 294 Connecting to Active Directory 294 Querying for Objects and Attributes 295 Modifying Object Attributes 303 Updating Group Membership 304 Getting to the Raw ADSI Object Using psbase 305 Chapter 21: PowerShell Lockdown 307 PowerShell Security Features 308 Generating a Code-Signing Certificate 310 Browsing the Certificate Store 314 Signing Your Scripts 315 Managing the Windows Firewall 317 Chapter 22: Converting Your Old Scripts: Out with the Old, In with the New 321 Converting a Windows Shell Script to Windows PowerShell 322 Converting a Windows Scripting Host Script to Windows PowerShell 326 Part VI: Configuring and Reporting Via PowerShell 337 Chapter 23: Controlling Your Network Configuration 339 Managing Your Network Settings 340 Managing Your Windows Firewall 345 Chapter 24: Managing Your Hardware 351 Polling Your Hardware 352 Controlling Your Printers 361 Chapter 25: Making Reporting Easy 365 Using Built-In Reporting Cmdlets 366 Generating Reports 366 Making Reports Pretty 372 Formatting Using Cascading Style Sheets 373 Using Third-Party Reporting Tools 375 Part VII: The Part of Tens 377 Chapter 26: The Ten Most Important Cmdlets 379 Getting Help with Get-Help 379 Getting to Know Your Objects with Get-Member 380 Navigating with Set-Location 380 Reading Text Files with Get-Content 381 Writing to a File with Out-File 381 Leveraging WMI with Get-WMIObject 382 Creating New Objects with New-Object 382 Getting Picky with Select-Object 382 Going Through Collections with Foreach-Object 383 Controlling the Pipeline with Where-Object 384 Chapter 27: Ten Common PowerShell Mistakes 385 Forgetting to Change the Execution Policy 385 Using Commas to Separate Parameters When Calling a Function 386 Defining Functions After You Use Them 387 Treating Pipeline Data as Strings 388 Forgetting to Cast Variables as a String 389 Using Incorrect Comparison Operators 390 Trying to Do Too Much in One Pipeline 392 Forgetting About Variable Scope 392 Not Using the Debugger 393 Not Using .NET Classes When Available 394 Index 395

Prepare for the future of Microsoft automation with this no-nonsense guide

Windows PowerShell 2 is the scripting language that enables automation within the Windows operating system. Packed with powerful new features, this latest version is complex, and Windows PowerShell 2 For Dummies is the perfect guide to help system administrators get up to speed.

Written by a Microsoft MVP with direct access to the program managers and developers, this book covers every new feature of Windows PowerShell 2 in a friendly, easy-to-follow format.

• Windows PowerShell 2 is the updated scripting language that enables system administrators to automate Windows operating systems
• System administrators with limited scripting experience will find this book helps them learn the fundamentals of Windows PowerShell 2 quickly and easily
• Translates the jargon and complex syntax of Windows PowerShell 2
• Covers script debugging improvements, the ability to invoke commands remotely, and the new user interface
• Uses real-world applications to clarify the theory, fundamentals, and techniques of the scripting language
• Written by a Microsoft MVP with direct access to the developers of Windows PowerShell 2

Windows PowerShell 2 For Dummies makes this tool easily accessible to administrators of every experience level.