Table Of ContentMastering Windows PowerShell
Scripting
Second Edition
One-stop guide to automating administrative tasks
Chris Dent
Brenton J.W. Blawat
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting
Second Edition
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First published: April 2015
Second edition: October 2017
Production reference: 1251017
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Credits
Authors Project Coordinator
Chris Dent Kinjal Bari
Brenton J.W. Blawat
Reviewer Proofreader
Paul Broadwith Safis Editing
Acquisition Editor Indexer
Meeta Rajani Tejal Daruwale Soni
Content Development Editor Graphics
Mamata Walkar Kirk D'penha
Technical Editor Production Coordinator
Varsha Shivhare Nilesh Mohite
Copy Editors
Safis Editing
Ulka Manjrekar
About the Authors
Chris Dent is a professional PowerShell developer based in and around London with over 8
years experience in that language alone. He is also proficient in C#, VBScript, Perl, and
Python, but PowerShell is his favorite by a wide margin. He is also the author of dnshell.
He describes himself as being a toolset or module developer (he rarely writes scripts in the
one-off sense); he has a deep interest in formalized development approaches, continuous
integration, secure coding practices, and creating supportable automation frameworks
within organizations.
Brenton J.W. Blawat is an entrepreneur, strategic technical advisor, author, and enterprise
architect, who has a passion for the procurement of technology in profit-based
organizations. He is business-centric and technology-minded. Brenton has many years of
experience in bridging the gap between technical staff and decision-makers in several
organizations. He takes pride in his ability to effectively communicate with a diverse
audience and provide strategic direction for large and small organizations alike.
In 2013, Brenton authored his first book, PowerShell 3.0 WMI Starter, Packt Publishing. In
March 2015, he authored his second book, Mastering Windows PowerShell Scripting, with
Packt Publishing.
Brenton currently works at CDW as an Enterprise Architect in strategic solutions and
services. CDW is a leading multibrand technology solutions provider in the fields of
business, government, education, and healthcare. A Fortune 500 company, it was founded
in 1984 and employs approximately 7,200 coworkers. In 2016, the company generated net
sales of more than $13.0 billion.
His current specialization sits on top of 15 years of experience spread across (predominantly
Microsoft) systems, (Juniper and Cisco) networking, and security.
About the Reviewer
Paul Broadwith is a senior technology professional freelancing in Scotland. He has over 25
years of experience in diverse sectors, from manufacturing and financial services to the
public sector and managed IT services.
With particular expertise in Microsoft and Linux technologies, he has interest in PowerShell
on both platforms. An advocate of a common-sense approach to coding, best practice, and
code reusability, he enjoys practicing what he preaches in his code and mentoring new
professionals.
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Table of Contents
Preface
1
Chapter 1: Introduction to PowerShell
6
What is PowerShell? 7
Quick reference 7
Comments 7
Special characters 7
Tick in PowerShell 7
Common operators 9
Dropping unwanted output 9
Creating arrays and hashtables 9
Strings 10
Common reserved variables 11
Quick commands and hot keys 12
PowerShell editors 12
PowerShell ISE 13
Features 14
Installing ISE Preview 14
Starting ISE 15
Visual Studio Code 15
Features 15
Console 16
Version control (Git) 18
PowerShell on Linux 19
Installing PowerShell 20
Where are the PowerShell files? 20
Changing the shell 21
Profiles 21
Multiplatform scripting 22
Line endings 23
File encoding 23
Path separator 24
Example 24
Summary 25
Chapter 2: Working with PowerShell
26
Getting help 26
Updatable help 27
The Get-Help command 28
Syntax 29
Examples 29
Parameter 30
Detailed and Full switches 30
Save-Help 31
Update-Help 32
About help files 33
Command naming and discovery 34
Verbs 34
Nouns 35
Finding commands 35
Aliases 36
Parameters and parameter sets 37
Parameters 37
Optional parameters 37
Optional positional parameters 38
Mandatory parameters 38
Mandatory positional parameters 38
Switch parameters 39
Common parameters 39
Parameter values 40
Parameter sets 41
Confirm, WhatIf, and Force 42
Confirm parameter 42
ConfirmPreference 43
WhatIf parameter 45
WhatIfPreference 45
Force parameter 46
Providers 46
Drives using providers 47
Using providers 49
Summary 51
Chapter 3: Modules and Snap-Ins
52
What is a module? 53
What is the PowerShell Gallery? 54
The Get-Module command 56
The Import-Module command 57
The Remove-Module command 58
The Find-Module command 59
The Install-Module command 59
[ ii ]
