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A Guided Tour of Windows PowerShell
Introduction
Windows PowerShell promises to revolutionize the world of system management and command-line shells. From its object-based pipelines to its administrator focus to its enormous reach into other Microsoft management technologies, PowerShell drastically improves the productivity of administrators and power users alike.
When youre learning a new technology, it is natural to feel bewildered at first by all the unfamiliar features and functionality. This perhaps rings especially true for users new to Windows PowerShell because it may be their first experience with a fully featured command-line shell. Or worse, theyve heard stories of PowerShells fantastic integrated scripting capabilities and fear being forced into a world of programming that theyve actively avoided until now.
Fortunately, these fears are entirely misguided; PowerShell is a shell that both grows with you and grows on you. Lets take a tour to see what it is capable of:
PowerShell works with standard Windows commands and applications. You dont have to throw away what you already know and use.
PowerShell introduces a powerful new type of command. PowerShell commands (called cmdlets ) share a common Verb-Noun
syntax and offer many usability improvements over standard commands.
PowerShell understands objects. Working directly with richly structured objects makes working with (and combining) PowerShell commands immensely easier than working in the plain-text world of traditional shells.
PowerShell caters to administrators. Even with all its advances, PowerShell focuses strongly on its use as an interactive shell: the experience of entering commands in a running PowerShell application.