Scripting with PowerShell

PowerShell Overview

In PowerShell, administrative tasks are generally performed by cmdlets, which are specialized .NET classes implementing a particular operation. These work by accessing data in different data stores, like the file system or registry, which are made available to PowerShell via providers.

• PowerShell Overview
• Brushing up on objects
• PowerShell Versions
• Windows PowerShell versus PowerShell Core
• Concepts and Terminology
• Getting Commands
• Getting Help
• Providers and Drives
• PowerShell Aliases

PowerShell Shells

The Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) is a host application for Windows PowerShell. In Windows PowerShell ISE, you can run commands and write, test, and debug scripts in a single Windows-based graphic user interface with multiline editing, tab completion, syntax coloring, selective execution, context-sensitive help, and support for right-to-left languages. In addition to the PowerShell ISE, PowerShell is also well-supported in Visual Studio Code. Furthermore, the ISE is not supported with PowerShell Core, while Visual Studio Code is supported for PowerShell Core on all platforms (Windows, macOS, and Linux).

• PowerShell Console
• Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE)
• Visual Studio Code
• Azure Cloud Shell

Core Concepts

The Windows PowerShell design integrates concepts from many different environments. Several of them are familiar to people with experience in specific shells or programming environments, but very few people will know about all of them. Looking at some of these concepts provides a useful overview of the shell.

• Viewing Object Structure
• Object Pipeline
• Using Format Cmdlets to Change Output
• Filtering with Where-Object
• Creating Loops with Foreach-Object
• Using Variables to Store Objects

Working with Objects

PowerShell provides full access to COM, WMI and .NET, enabling administrators to perform administrative tasks on both local and remote Windows systems.

• Files and Folders
• Registry Keys and Values
• COM Objects
• WMI Objects
• .NET Objects
• Static Classes

Extending PowerShell Functionality

A module is a set of related Windows PowerShell functionalities, grouped together as a convenient unit (usually saved in a single directory). By defining a set of related script files, assemblies, and related resources as a module, you can reference, load, persist, and share your code much easier than you would otherwise.
PowerShell Package Manager allows you to find, install and remove software all from within PowerShell from various repositories on the Internet and without having to search around the Internet or your network to find software installers.

• Built-in Windows Modules
• Installing Modules
• Package Manager
• PowerShell Gallery
• Search for and Install Software
• PowerShell Profiles
• Operators and Expressions

PowerShell Remoting

PowerShell Remoting lets you run PowerShell commands or access full PowerShell sessions on remote Windows systems.

• PowerShell Remoting Overview
• WS-Management (WSMAN)
• Remote CIM Sessions
• Import/Export Remote Sessions
• WinRM Security
• WinRM Double Hop Problem
• Remoting with PowerShell Core

PowerShell Security

The execution policy is part of the security strategy of Windows PowerShell. It determines whether you can load configuration files and run scripts, and it determines which scripts, if any, must be digitally signed before they will run.

• PowerShell Execution Policy
• Script Signing
• Security Sensitive Information in Scripts

PowerShell Scripting

Windows PowerShell includes a dynamically typed scripting language which can implement complex operations using cmdlets imperatively. The scripting language supports variables, functions, branching, loops, structured error/exception handling and closures/lambda expressions, as well as integration with .NET.

• Foreach
• For
• While – do while – do until
• If - Switch
• Break - Continue

Error Handling

With the out of the box possibilities, you can easily debug your scripts before running them in production. You can set breakpoints and use standard debugging options like step over, step into, step out. To modify the default PowerShell error handling behavior, you can write a try-catch statement and run special code when errors are encountered.

• Debugging options
• Error Handling

Managing Your Environment

The goal of PowerShell is to ease your work as an administrator. In this module we will talk about basic management tasks that you need to perform and how you can accomplish this through PowerShell. Configuring network settings, settings security on files and folders, managing Active Directory.

• Networking
• File Shares
• Data Import
• Security
• Server Management
• Active Directory