Microsoft Windows PowerShell v1.0

[tarquel]

Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT Professionals achieve greater productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT Professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation. Windows PowerShell is easy to adopt, learn, and use, because it works with your existing IT infrastructure and existing script investments, and because it runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server “Longhorn”. Exchange Server 2007, System Center Operations Manager 2007, System Center Data Protection Manager V2, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager leverage Windows PowerShell to improve efficiency and productivity.

 

You can get it from here:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/download.mspx

 

Nath.

[Geoff]

Just tried the x86 download. What an earth is an MSU file?

[eejit]

I've downloaded and installed it here too, but no idea what to do with it

 

I guess loads more documentation to plough through

[Geoff]

Ah ha, I downloaded the vista version by accident.

[CyberNerd]

Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT Professionals achieve greater productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT Professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation. Windows PowerShell is easy to adopt, learn, and use, because it works with your existing IT infrastructure and existing script investments, and because it runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server “Longhorn”. Exchange Server 2007, System Center Operations Manager 2007, System Center Data Protection Manager V2, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager leverage Windows PowerShell to improve efficiency and productivity.

 

sed 's/Windows Powershell/Cygwin Bash Shell/g'

 

From the description its been available for years:

http://www.cygwin.com/

[ChrisH]

More powerful basically. You can interface with a lot more stuff. It's really Visual Basic .net if you like sorta

[CyberNerd]

more powerfull than a bash shell ! or is this just the MS marketing machine in action?

[Geoff]

Well I'd compromise with 'as powerful'. Nice one MS. Reinventing the wheel 20 years to late.

[bossman]

Now Now Geoff let's not get too cynical BTW 20years too late (showing your age there Geoff) now we know your not 25 like you keep telling everyone hehe.

[Geoff]

Obligatory wikipedia link

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourne_shell

 

I am allowed to own computer hardware that's older than me you know.

[webman]

It's ood to see MS innovati.... I mean stealing ideas as usual

[ChrisH]

I meant a more power MS scripting language before you all start quibbling.... oh too late

[browolf]

wow its amazing!

[eejit]

What have you found browolf?

[browolf]

well i havent got much working yet, just messing with it

but

PS C:\> foreach ($x in net view | findstr \\ {echo $x.remove(0,2)}

 

gives a list of computers with the '\\' removed

 

i got remove from here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string_methods.aspx

 

i suspect all these string methods would work, which could be pretty handy

 

you can browse the registry from the command prompt as if it was a file system!

 

you can create softlinks and aliases

 

wmi integrated with a get-wmi command.

 

piping seems to work a lot better

[browolf]

ooh there's built-in wget like functionality

 

PS C:\>$wc = new-object System.Net.WebClient
PS C:\>$wc.DownloadString('http://www.google.com') | out-file c:\temp\ss2.txt

[CyberNerd]

Anyone find something it does that bash doesn't already do?

I still don't get the point of learning so that it can only be applied to MS servers when you can learn a more established (and faster developing) technolgy that can be applied to MS as well as *nix machines.

Not aimed at enyone particular but people so often complain that they can't implement a particular technogy becasue they don't have the sills, then happily learn a restrictive technology such as powershell/vbs that I don't see has any advantage -except maybe it doesn't require an installer.

[Geoff]

Indeed, you've already got a choice of Cygwn (including bash and friends), Python (including Microsofts own IronPython.NET implementation), Perl, Ruby, VBS and a host of other scripting solutions. Do we really need any more?

 

OTOH, I do think the command line needed an overhaul. However, as I said, I don't think this is the right direction to head off in.

[browolf]

well perhaps its not for everyone. Ive always liked dos cos its fairly simple but a bit limited. Vbscript is can be overly complicated for some things. Im just hoping powershell is somewhere in-between.

Generally I'm all for *nix stuff as long as someone else does it.

[Geoff]

I thought powershell was going to be the default command line interface in Vista?

[NetworkGeezer]

Well, after Geoff and CyberNerd's glowing reviews, I thougtht I'd give it a bash (d'ya see what I did there).

 

I can now CD to UNCs without drive mapping. You can also CD in to the registry. "Far out man!"

 

Command completion woohoo! At last I don't have to memorise the contents of system32 anymore. Command substitution without the venerable FOR /F.

 

Also, like *nix shells we now have aliases and an rc files (both per user and system wide)

 

The thing that makes PowerShell different from *nix shells is that it is object oriented and gives you access to the .net framework

It's as OO as you can get in MS admin scripting without falling into C#.

 

It'll make processing the XML from the SIMS.net commandReporter a lot easier. I can then slip into ADSI without breaking a sweat to create/update user accounts in AD.

 

The syntax and general look of the language is a bit odd though. Maybe they thought "If we make it arcane then the *nix guys will come over to take a look".

 

People on the *nix side might be complaining now but there will probably be borrowings as with .net to Mono.