11/21/2016

ABeginner'sIntroductiontoWindowsPowerShell

ABeginnersIntroductiontoWindowsPowerShell

TOPUDEMYCOURSES:

MAY12,2014BYJENNIFERMARSH

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WindowsPowerShellisanevolutionofthecommandlinea
combinationofaDOSshellandscriptingenvironment.Itcan

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helpwithrepetitivetasksprocessesactingonmanyfilesatonce
automatingandschedulingtasksandconfiguringWindows

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componentsandservices.PowerShellisnotonlyforrunning
DOScommands,itisfarmoreflexiblethanthat.Itsupports
complexdecisionmaking,connectingtoawidevarietyofdata

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sources,andevenbuildinggraphicaluserinterfaces.

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PowerShellisnowanessentialskillforITandserver
administrators,andisoftenusedwhendeploying

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maintenancescriptsacrossanentireorganization.Gettingthosescriptstorunsafelyonallmachinescanbeatechnical
process,buttipsandhelpareavailableforPowerShellusersworkingwithEnterpriseDesktopmachines.

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Despitethefocusonadministrativetasks,homeusersandsoftwaredeveloperscanoftensavetimebymakinguseofthe
facilitiesavailable.

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DownloadingandRunningPowerShell
MicrosoftincludesPowerShellwithWindows7and8.ForusersofWindowsXPandVista,youcandownloaditfrom
thedownloadsareaoftheMicrosoftScriptingCenter.

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Onceinstalled,therearevariouswaysofrunningPowerShell:
OnWindows8,fromtheStartScreen,begintypingpowershellandeitherpressEnteraftertypingthewhole

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word,orclickthesearchresultnamedWindowsPowerShell.
OnWindows8,fromthedesktop,rightclicktheStartmenuicon,clickRun,andthentypepowershellandpress

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Enter.
OnallversionsofWindows,presstheWindowslogokey+R,thentypepowershellandpressEnter.

GettingHelp
PowerShellintroducesoverahundrednewcommands,andthatisalottolearnwhenyoufirststart.However,it

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includesacomprehensivehelpsystemthatcanhelpyoufindcommandstoaccomplishtasks,anditexplainshowtouse
thosecommands.

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Thecommandforgettinghelpisgethelpanditacceptsavarietyofdifferentarguments.Youcandisplayhelpfora
particularcommandbyspecifyingthecommandsnameaftergethelp.Forexample,todisplaythehelpfileentryforthe
gethelpcommand,type:

gethelpgethelp

AndthenpressEnter.

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Gethelpalsoacceptsakeywordforsearchingthedocumentation,andreturnsalistofresultscontainingthatkeyword.
Thiscanbeausefulwayoffindingthenamesofcommandsrelatedtospecifictopics.Tosearchforcommandsandhelp
filesrelatingtoWindowsservices,youcanrun:

gethelpservices

Helpfileentriesaredisplayeddirectlyintheconsole.However,byusingtheparameteronlineyoucanopenaweb
browserandviewthehelponMicrosoftsTechNetwebsite:

gethelpstartserviceonline

UsingtheConsole
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TheconsolewillbefamiliarinappearancetoanyonewhohasusedMSDOS,aDOSshell,orcommandlineonany
otheroperatingsystem.InPowerShell,specialcommands(knownascmdlets)aretypedinaftertheprompt,andare
executedwhenyoupresstheEnterkey.
Navigatingthroughthelocalfilesystemisthesameaswhenworkingintheearliershells,andyoucanstillusemanyof
theolderDOScommands.Forexample:

Executethenewcmdletsthesamewaytypetheirname,anyadditionalarguments,andthenpressEnter.Allcmdlets
followastandardnamingpatternofverbnoun,andnewPowerShellspecificcmdletsexistforalloftheearlierDOS
commands,althoughyouarenotrequiredtousethem.
Cmdletsappeartodisplaytheirresultsintheconsole,however,mostactuallyreturnanobjectthatisprocessedbythe
consoleandthendisplayed.Theydonotwritetothescreendirectly.ThisisapowerfulconceptandiswherePowerShell
haschangedsignificantlyfromearliershells.Insteadofsendingobjectstotheconsole,itispossibletosendobjectsto
othercmdletswithatechniqueknownaspiping.
Forexample,usethecmdletgetitempropertywiththenameofafiletodisplayitsbasicattributes:

getitempropertyc:\windows\regedit.exe

Theresultofthiscommandisactuallytoreturnanobjecttotheconsole,andthisobjectcontainsmanymorepiecesof
informationthanthedefaultviewshows.Bypipingtheobjecttoformatlist,otherpiecesofinformationaredisplayed:

getitempropertyc:\windows\regedit.exe|formatlist

Thepipesymbol(|)isusedtoseparatethetwocmdlets,andindicatesthattheoutputofthefirstcommandissentasthe
inputtothesecondcommand.
Whentheresultofacmdletconsistsofacollectionofobjects,pipingwilloftenprocesseachoneindividually.For
example:

dir|getitemproperty|formatlist

Theresultofdirisacollectionoffilesanddirectories,whicharepipedonebyoneintothecmdletgetitemproperty.The
itemspropertiesarethenpipedtoformatlisttodisplaythedetailedfileinformation.
Theexampleaboveshowsthreecommandsconnectedbypipes,butmorecomplicatedtaskscanuseasmanypipesas
needed.Thecodebelowtakeseachpieceofdetailedinformationandpipesittotheoutfilecmdlettowritethe
informationtoafile,insteadofreturningthetexttotheconsoleforviewingonscreen.

dir|getitemproperty|formatlist|outfileinfo.txt

ScriptinginPowerShell
Scriptsaretextfilesthatcontainsequencesofcallstocmdlets,andthesefileshavetheextension.ps1.However,unlike
workingintheconsole,eachoperationdoesnothavetobetypedinandexecutedimmediately.ThisallowsPowerShell
topreprocessthefileandextendthefacilitiestoincludethosecommonlyassociatedwithwritingsoftware,suchasuse
ofvariables,conditionalstatements,anduserdefinedfunctions.
Beforeyoucanwriteandrunscripts,youshouldbeawarethatWindowsisnotconfiguredtoallowtheexecutionof
unsignedscriptsbecausetheycanbeusedtodamagethesystem.Anindepthdiscussionofsecuritymodelsandcode

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signingisbeyondthescopeofthisarticle,buttoconfigureyourexecutionpolicysothatyoucanrunscriptsyouhave
written,butnotonesdownloadedfromtheInternet,youcanusethecommandsetexecutionpolicy:

setexecutionpolicyremotesigned

Asademonstration,thefollowingscriptusesthesamecmdletsastheexampleearliertooutputthedetailedinformation
foreveryfileordirectoryinthecurrentdirectory:

$list=dir
getitemproperty$list|formatlist|outfileout.txt

Wherethisscriptdiffersfromtheearlierconsoleoperationisthattheresultofdir(acollectionoffileanddirectory
references)isnotpipeddirectlyintogetitempropertyitisfirststoredinavariablenamedlist.Variablesaredeclared
andusedinPowerShellbyplacingadollarsigninfrontoftheirname.
ThattwolinescriptcanbecreatedinNotepad,thensavedinthecurrentdirectorywiththefilenametest.ps1.Youcan
thenrunthescriptbytypingitspathandfilenameintheconsoleandpressingEnter.
.\test.ps1
Youcanrerunthescriptatanytime,savingyoufromhavingtotypeallthestatementsagainandasthescriptfileis
portable,youcanrunthesamescriptondifferentmachines.
Scriptingishighlyflexible,asshownbelow:

$list=dir
foreach($itemin$list){
$fn=$item.name+"_.txt"
getitemproperty$item|formatlist|outfile$fn
}

Asbefore,thedirectorylistingisstoredinthevariablelist.However,thistimeeachitemisprocessedindividuallybythe
scriptandnotbythecmdlet.
Theforeachlooprunsthrougheveryiteminthelistandtheinstructionsbetweencurlybracesarerunforeachone:
1.Thecurrentitemfromlistisassignedtothevariableitem.Eachitemisanobjectdescribingthepropertiesofa
fileordirectory.
2.Anewvariablefniscreatedthisisavaluecalculatedbytakingthename(filename)propertyoftheitem,and
addinganunderscoreand.txt.
3.Thedetailedpropertiesforeachitemarethenretrievedbypassingthecurrentitemasanargumenttoget
itemproperty.
4.Thereturnedobjectispipedintoformatlisttogetthedetailedview.
5.Finally,thepropertiesoftheitemarewrittentoanewtextfileusingthefilenamethatwascalculatedonthe
precedingline.
Ifyourunthatsamplecodeinadirectorywithalotofcontents,alargenumberofnewtextfileswillbecreated.Youcan
removethembywritinganotherPowerShellscript:

$list=dir
foreach($itemin$list){
$fn=$item.name+"_.txt"
if(testpath$fn){
del$fn
}
}

Theexampleaboveprocessesthedirectorylistinginasimilarwaytothepreviousscript.Thistime,however,the
conditionalstatementifandthecmdlettestpathareusedtocheckifthefileexistsandifthatistrue,thescriptdeletes
thefile.

FurtherReading
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ABeginner'sIntroductiontoWindowsPowerShell

AsthisisonlyashortintroductiontoPowerShell,itisnotpossibletoshowalloftheavailablecmdletsorfeaturesofthe
scriptinglanguage.AndthereisnotspacetoshowhowPowerShellcanbeusedtocommunicatewithWindows
processesandservices,whichisanimportantpartofitsuseforITadministrators.PowerShellfortheEnterprise
DesktopandPowerShell:AGettingStartedGuideforITAdminsofferafarmoredetailedintroduction,
includingtheconceptsandcommandsthathavenotbeendescribedabove.
PowerShellisbasedonMicrosofts.NETframework,andsodeveloperscanwritetheirowncmdletsusingMicrosoft
VisualStudioandthelanguagessupportedbythecommonlanguageruntime(CLR),suchasC#.Cmdletsareintendedto
replaceconsoleapplications,andcompletebeginnerscanlearnC#programmingtobeginwritingtheirown,in
muchthesamewayastheywouldwriteacommandlineprogram.

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ABeginner'sIntroductiontoWindowsPowerShell

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