Working with output and data is the most common thing you'll be doing in PowerShell. From generating data for reports, to quickly reviewing a system's status, to the bulk-insertion of values into a database table: everything has to do with data and output.
We'll cover a lot of ground in this chapter and, with simple recipes, you'll see how to access the certificate stores, the registry on a Windows machine and the filesystem on any OS. You'll also learn how to properly work with variables.
In this chapter, we'll cover the following recipes:
- Working with output
- Storing data
- Read-only and constant variables
- Variable scoping
- The six streams
- Stream redirection
- Working with the filesystem provider
- Working with the registry provider
- Working with the certificate provider
- Creating your own provider
- NTFS alternate data streams