Powershell

The Windows PowerShell Owner’s Manual: Version 2.0
Jean Ross and Greg Stemp Microsoft Communications Server UA

This document is provided “as-is”. Information and views expressed in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, may change without notice. You bear the risk of using it. Some examples depicted herein are provided for illustration only and are fictitious.No real association or connection is intended or should be inferred. This document does not provide you with any legal rights to any intellectual property in any Microsoft product. You may copy and use this document for your internal, reference purposes. Copyright © 2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Active Directory, Outlook, SQL Server, Visio, Windows, Windows Server, andWindows Vista are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Contents
PowerShell Terminology ........... 5
A quick overview of fundamental Windows PowerShell terminology.

Customizing the Console .............30
After all, you wouldn’t let us tell you what color shirt to wear. Would you?

Getting Started......................... 6
What better way to get started with Windows PowerShell than by reading the Getting Started chapter?

Aliases .........................................36
Pick new names for your cmdlets. And see how you can rely on some old friends (like dir and cd) to help you perform new tasks.

Piping and the Pipeline ........... 17
If one Windows PowerShell cmdlet is good (and it is) imaginehow cool it would be to string several cmdlets together.

Profiles ........................................45
Windows PowerShell will do pretty much anything you want it to. All you have to do is ask.

Tab Expansion ........................ 23
The most powerful key on your keyboard? Could it really be the TAB key?

Scripting ......................................49
Type commands at thecommand prompt, or write scripts to carry out those same commands? With Windows PowerShell, you no longer have to choose.

Shortcut Keys ......................... 26
Tips and tricks that make it easier -- and faster -- to type command in Windows PowerShell.

Remoting.....................................59
Manage all your computers from the comfort of your own workstation.

About ThisOwner’s Manual
A couple of years ago we were asked to lead an instructor-led lab at TechEd in Orlando, Florida. Okay, that’s not entirely true. We wanted to go to TechEd to meet with customers and hand out a bunch of fun stuff, but our managers back then said we couldn’t go unless we got in for free as speakers. Since our area of expertise was in system administration scripting and Windows PowerShell1.0 was still very new, we sent a proposal to the TechEd organizers to do a pre-conference seminar. Why a preconference seminar? Well, because it takes more than a one-hour talk to teach people Windows PowerShell, and if we were going to teach PowerShell we were going to do it right. Well, as it turned out, the preconference seminars were all booked up for that year. But the TechEd organizers hadanother proposal for us: a 75-minute instructor-led hands-on lab. Did we mention that you can’t teach Windows PowerShell in an hour? But an hour and 15 minutes? Hey, no problem! Whatever it takes to get in the door, right? Believe it or not, the labs wound up being pretty successful, and even a lot of fun. But because we couldn’t do a full seminar, and because we wanted people to have something toremind them of everything they learned (and then some) after they’d gone home, we came up with a little thing we called the Windows PowerShell Owner’s Manual. This is that manual. Well, okay, once again that’s not entirely true. This is the newand-improved Owner’s Manual. For starters, it’s been updated for Windows PowerShell 2.0. We’ve also added bits of new content here and there. We hope you...