Chapter 1, Getting Started with Windows PowerShell, introduces us to Windows PowerShell and the new features in Version 4.0. It also introduces us to the difference between PowerShell, other command-line tools, and programming languages. Also, it covers the syntax fundamentals and grammar of the language.

Chapter 2, Unleashing Your Development Skills with PowerShell, demonstrates both simple and advanced examples of how to make use of PowerShell integration with technologies such as .NET, WMI, CIM, and COM. It also covers extending Windows PowerShell's capabilities for writing scripts and building modules.

Chapter 3, PowerShell for Your Daily Administration Tasks, focuses on using Windows PowerShell with different technologies and tools that you might use on a daily basis, such as Windows Server, SQL Server, and Internet Information Services.

Chapter 4, PowerShell and Web Technologies, focuses on unveiling the hidden power of PowerShell cmdlets to work with web technologies, including but not limited to web services, RESTful applications, and social networking.

Chapter 5, PowerShell and Team Foundation Server, provides instructions on how to use PowerShell to work with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server for more productive and effortless automated application lifecycle management.

This book requires you to have Windows PowerShell 4.0, which is available out of the box in Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. It is also available for earlier versions of Windows as a part of Microsoft Windows Management Framework (WMF) Version 4.0.

This book is mainly about using Windows PowerShell with different technologies and tools, so you must have the following software in order to proceed:

This book is intended for the .NET developers who are willing to learn Windows PowerShell and want to quickly come up on discovering Windows PowerShell and its capabilities with different tools and technologies.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "You can get this path within your PowerShell by using a predefined variable called $PSHome."

A block of code is set as follows:

Function Reload-Module($ModuleName)
{ 
if((get-module -list | where{$_.name -eq "$ModuleName"} | measure-object).count -gt 0)
{ 
  if((get-module -all | where{$_.Name -eq "$ModuleName"} | measure-object).count -gt 0)
  {
    Remove-Module $ModuleName
    Write-Host "Module $ModuleName Unloading"
  } 
  Import-Module $ModuleName
  Write-Host "Module $ModuleName Loaded"
}
Else
{
  Write-Host "Module $ModuleName Doesn't Exist"
}
}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

PS C:\> Get-CimInstance -Query $Query | Select DeviceID, Name
DeviceID              Name                                                                       
--------              ----                                                                       
0                     Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection                                
2                     Intel(R) Centrino(R) Ultimate-N 6300 AGN

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen."

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