Book Image

Instant Windows PowerShell

By : Vinith Menon
Book Image

Instant Windows PowerShell

By: Vinith Menon

Overview of this book

Windows PowerShell comprises numerous major features that extend its use, advance its usability, and allow you to control and manage Windows-based environments.Windows PowerShell is backward-compatible. Cmdlets, providers, modules, snap-ins, scripts, functions, and profiles that were designed for Windows PowerShell 2.0 work in Windows PowerShell 3.0 without any changes.A practical, hands-on guide that provides you with a number of clear step-by-step exercises which will help you take advantage of the real power that is Windows PowerShell.Starting by listing the New Features in PowerShell 3.0, this book goes on to break down the mystery and confusion that surrounds which feature to use and when. It will take you through a number of clear, practical sections that will help you to take advantage of PowerShell, easily and quickly.You will also learn how to use PowerShell for file and folder management in a Windows Server Environment. The book will also also show you how to use PowerShell Web Access for secure Windows Management anywhere, any time, on any device.Learn how to secure and sign the scripts you write using the script signing feature in PowerShell, understand how to use PowerShell to secure and administer a PKI environment, and discover how to use a BPA module to analyze the security integrity of a system as per Microsoft requirements. If you want to take your first step into PowerShell 3.0 to manage your Windows environment, then this is the book for you.
Table of Contents (7 chapters)

So, what is new in PowerShell 3.0?


Windows PowerShell 3.0 includes various new features that enhance its ease of use and allow you to manage and administer your Windows-based environment.

Windows PowerShell 3.0 is compatible with the cmdlets, modules, snap-ins, scripts, functions, and profiles that are intended for Windows PowerShell 2.0.

Here is a list of some of the important new features present in PowerShell 3.0:

  • Windows PowerShell Workflow: Workflows are sequences of tasks, which can be repeated and also run parallel with other workflows. Workflows can be resumed after an interruption, such as a network outage, a Windows restart, or a power failure.

  • Windows PowerShell Web Access: This is a Windows Server 2012 feature that lets clients run Windows PowerShell scripts in an online web-based console.

  • New Windows PowerShell ISE features: For Windows PowerShell, Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) has numerous new features, which include IntelliSense, Show-Command window, a unified console pane, and so on.

  • Disconnected sessions: In Windows PowerShell, persistent sessions (PSSessions) that you make by utilizing the New-PSSession cmdlet are safeguarded on the remote computer.

  • Robust session connectivity: Windows PowerShell 3.0 discovers an abrupt disconnection between the client and server, and attempts to restore connectivity and resume execution immediately. Assuming that the client-server association can't be restored in the dispensed time, the client is advised and the session is disengaged.

  • Updatable help system: You can now download the help documents for the cmdlets in your modules, and always have the latest up-to-date help. The Update-Help cmdlet recognizes the most current help files, downloads them from the Internet, unpacks them, accepts them, and installs them in the appropriate directory of the PowerShell module.

  • CIM integration: Windows PowerShell includes CIM cmdlets for standards-based management.

  • Scheduled jobs and task scheduler integration: You can now plan and schedule Windows PowerShell background jobs, and supervise them in Windows PowerShell and Windows Task Scheduler. Windows PowerShell-scheduled jobs are a combination of Windows PowerShell background jobs and task scheduler tasks.

  • Module auto-loading: You no longer need to import a module to use its cmdlets. In Windows PowerShell, you can just use any cmdlet and it would autoimport the module.