Timothy L. Warner - Windows PowerShell in 24 Hours

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Timothy Warner

800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46240 USA

Sams Teach Yourself Windows PowerShell in 24 Hours
Copyright 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN-13: 9780672337284

ISBN-10: 0672337282

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015900973

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing May 2015

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Timothy Warner is an IT professional and technical trainer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Tim became acquainted with information technology in 1982 when his dad bought the family a Timex Sinclair 1000 home computer and he taught himself BASIC programming. Today he works as an author/evangelist for Pluralsight and shares Windows PowerShell knowledge with anyone wholl listen at his Two Minute PowerShell blog: http://2minutepowershell.com. You can reach Tim directly via LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/timothywarner.

To all my students, past and present.
Thank you for giving me a professional calling,
and I hope that my work helps you attain your goals.

The Windows PowerShell community is a terrific group of people. Thank you, Jeffrey Snover, Bruce Payette, and Lee Holmes et al. for giving the world Windows PowerShell. Thanks to all the PowerShell experts in the world for being so kind and willing to share your knowledge. I seek to emulate your actions every day.

It may take a village to raise a child, but I know that it takes a large office full of talented professionals to publish a book. To that end, I want to thank my wonderful editor Joan Murray for having faith in my abilities. Thanks to my publisher, Greg Wiegand, for being so receptive to my ideas.

Editorial and production staff rarely receive the credit they deserve. Thanks so much to Windows PowerShell MVP Jeff Wouters, my technical editor, for being so thorough with the manuscript. Truly, this book is at least twice as good as it originally was thanks to you.

Thanks to Keith Cline, my copyeditor, for making my writing easier to follow. Keith knows that I gave his editing skills quite a workout, for sure. Sorry, Keith!

I extend my gratitude as well to Andy Beaster, my production editor, and to the ever-helpful Cindy Teeters for streamlining the entire book publishing process. Andy and Cindy are professionals in every sense of the word.

Thanks to my family, friends, and colleagues for your never-ending love and support. Finally, thank you, my reader. I hope that this book helps you accomplish your next professional goal.

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Try not. Do...or do not. There is no try

Yoda, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Hello, and welcome to the world of Windows PowerShell. Im your instructor, Tim Warner. To me, its a good sign that youre actually reading this Introduction (so few readers of tech books do, in my experience). Perhaps your first question is, Whats in it for me? and Im here to give you those details with minimal muss and fuss.