PowerShell in Depth, 2nd Edition

Summary

PowerShell in Depth, Second Edition is the go-to reference for administrators working with Windows PowerShell. Every major technique, technology, and tactic is carefully explained and demonstrated, providing a hands-on guide to almost everything an admin would do in the shell. Written by three experienced authors and PowerShell MVPs, this is the PowerShell book you’ll keep next to your monitor—not on your bookshelf!

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the Book

A Windows admin using PowerShell every day may not have the time to search the net every time he or she hits a snag. Wouldn’t it be great to have a team of seasoned PowerShell experts ready to answer even the toughest questions? That’s what you get with this book.

PowerShell in Depth, Second Edition is the go-to reference for administrators working with Windows PowerShell. Every major technique, technology, and tactic is carefully explained and demonstrated, providing a hands-on guide to almost everything an admin would do in the shell. Written by PowerShell MVPs Don Jones, Jeffrey Hicks, and Richard Siddaway, each valuable technique was developed and thoroughly tested, so you’ll be able to consistently write production-quality, maintainable scripts while saving hours of time and effort.

This book assumes you know the basics of PowerShell.

What’s Inside

• Automating tasks
• Packaging and deploying scripts
• Introduction to Desired State Configuration
• PowerShell security
• Covers PowerShell version 3 and later

About the Authors

Don Jones, Jeffery Hicks, and Richard Siddaway are Microsoft MVPs, trainers, and administrators. Collectively, they’ve authored nearly three dozen books on PowerShell and Windows administration.

Table of Contents

PART 1 POWERSHELL FUNDAMENTALS
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. PowerShell hosts
Chapter 3. Using the PowerShell help system
Chapter 4. The basics of PowerShell syntax
Chapter 5. Working with PSSnapins and modules
Chapter 6. Operators
Chapter 7. Working with objects
Chapter 8. The PowerShell pipeline
Chapter 9. Formatting

PART 2 POWERSHELL MANAGEMENT
Chapter 1. PowerShell Remoting
Chapter 2. Background jobs and scheduling
Chapter 3. Working with credentials
Chapter 4. Regular expressions
Chapter 5. Working with HTML and XML data
Chapter 6. PSDrives and PSProviders
Chapter 7. Variables, arrays, hash tables, and script blocks
Chapter 8. PowerShell security
Chapter 9. Advanced PowerShell syntax

PART 3 POWERSHELL SCRIPTING AND AUTOMATION
Chapter 1. PowerShell’s scripting language
Chapter 2. Basic scripts and functions
Chapter 3. Creating objects for output
Chapter 4. Scope
Chapter 5. PowerShell workflows
Chapter 6. Advanced syntax for scripts and functions
Chapter 7. Script modules and manifest modules
Chapter 8. Custom formatting views
Chapter 9. Custom type extensions
Chapter 10. Data language and internationalization
Chapter 11. Writing help
Chapter 12. Error handling techniques
Chapter 13. Debugging tools and techniques
Chapter 14. Functions that work like cmdlets
Chapter 15. Tips and tricks for creating reports

PART 4 ADVANCED POWERSHELL
Chapter 1. Working with the Component Object Model (COM)
Chapter 2. Working with .NET Framework objects
Chapter 3. Accessing databases
Chapter 4. Proxy functions
Chapter 5. Building a GUI
Chapter 6. WMI and CIM
Chapter 7. Working with the web
Chapter 8. Desired State Configuration