PowerShell: An Introduction to PowerShell

PowerShell Tutorials (Day 1) : An Introduction to PowerShell

Hey there!! This is the first article of the Series PowerShell Tutorials – A series of articles which will walk you through the basics of PowerShell. It will help you in understanding what’s happening under the hood and will gradually take you to an expert level in PowerShell Scripting if you follow along.

First of all, why Windows PowerShell?

1)     PowerShell provides command-line tools for Windows Administrators

·        Similar to the tools that Unix/Linux administrators have utilized for many years.

·        It also has the following functionalities:

Ø  It is based on Windows Operating System

Ø  Integration with .NET Framework (Just imagine the power you get with PowerShell)

2)     On top of that, PowerShell also provides the following cool features:

·        Cmdlets for performing common system administration tasks to manage the following:

Ø  The Registry

Ø  Services

Ø  Processes

Ø  Event Logs

Ø  Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

·        A task-based scripting language and support for existing scripts and command-line tools.

·        Consistent design, common syntax and naming conventions.

·        Support for pipelining.

·        Simplified, command-based navigation of the operating system

§  For example, the registry and other data sources can be accessed by using the same techniques that are used to navigate the file system.

·        Powerful object manipulation capabilities, i.e. objects can be directly manipulated or sent to other tools or databases.

·        Extensible Interface

§  For example, Independent software vendors and enterprise developers can build custom tools and utilities to administer their software.

History of PowerShell

In this section, let’s visit some interesting facts in the History of PowerShell to get a better idea of its usefulness and popularity.

v PowerShell 1.0

Ø  Originally called Monad.

Ø  First introduced in September 2003 at a developer conference.

Ø  Released with a name change to PowerShell in November 2006.

Ø  It was part of:

§   Windows XP SP2/SP3

§  Windows Vista

§  Windows Server 2003

v PowerShell 2.0

Ø  Released in August 2009.

Ø  Included support for:

§  Windows 7

§  Windows Server 2008 R2

Ø  Major improvements and enhancements over 1.0

§  PowerShell remoting greatly simplified, executing commands on remote computer was way easier now.

§  Added hundreds of new Cmdlets and features

v PowerShell 3.0

Ø  Released in 2012.

Ø  More new features and capabilities.

Ø  Introduced support for workflows.

Ø  Improved the graphical PowerShell tool

§  Renamed to Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE).

Ø  Improved the tab completion feature.

v PowerShell 4.0

Ø  Released in 2013, just one year after PowerShell 3.0 was released (by this you can guess the momentum and enthusiasm in the community for PoweShell).

Ø  One really big feature i.e. Desired State Configuration(DSC) was added.

§  Manages the deployment and configuration of Windows Services and their settings.

§  It can manage files, directories and registry settings.

§  Stops and starts any services or processes.

§  Provides cmdlets for user and group account management.

§  Discover current configuration status and restore configuration.

§  Deploy new software.

v PowerShell 5.0

Ø  The PowerShell 5.0 Preview was released in May 2014.

Ø  Introduces PowerShellGet.

§  A new way to discover, install and update PowerShell modules.

Ø  Adds NetworkSwitch cmdlets.

§  Adds the ability to manage Network Switches.

Ø  Introduces OneGet.

§  A new way to discover and install software packages from around the web.

There is much more to PowerShell than we saw here. Stay tuned for the next series of articles on PowerShell Tutorials and I promise you will be able to tame the huge beast called PowerShell. In the next series of articles, we will get our hands dirty and play with PowerShell Scripting.

Cheers!!