Professional Windows PowerShell Book

Introduction     xv
Acknowledgments     xx
Finding Your Way Around Windows PowerShell     1
Getting Started with Windows PowerShell     3
Installing Windows PowerShell     3
Installing .NET Framework 2.0     4
Installing Windows PowerShell     7
Starting and Stopping PowerShell     8
Starting PowerShell     8
Exiting PowerShell     10
Startup Options     10
Finding Available Commands     11
Getting Help     14
Basic Housekeeping     17
Case Insensitivity     18
What You Get in PowerShell     19
Interactive Command Shell     19
Cmdlets     20
Scripting Language     21
Summary     23
The Need for Windows PowerShell     25
Limitations of CMD.exe     27
Batch Files     28
Inconsistency of Implementation     28
Inability to Answer Questions     29
Lack of Integration with GUI Tools     29
The GUI Emphasis in Windows     29
Previous Attempted Solutions     29
Windows Script Host     30
WindowsManagement Instrumentation     30
Summary     31
The Windows PowerShell Approach     33
A New Architecture     33
.NET Framework-Based Architecture     34
Object-Based Architecture     35
A New Cross-Tool Approach     38
GUI Shell (MMC Layered over PowerShell)     39
Command Line     39
Command Scripting     41
COM Scripting     43
Namespaces as Drives     45
File System Provider     47
Registry     47
Aliases     48
Variables     49
Active Directory     50
Certificates     51
Extensibility and Backward Compatibility     51
Aliases     51
Use Existing Utilities     53
Use Familiar Commands     55
Long Term Roadmap: Complete Coverage in 3 to 5 Years     55
COM Access     56
WMI Access     56
.NET Class Access     56
Object-Based Approach in PowerShell     56
Object-Based Pipelines     56
A Consistent Verb-Noun Naming Scheme     57
Coping with a Diverse World     58
Upgrade Path to C#     58
Working with Errors     58
Debugging in PowerShell     59
Additional PowerShell Features     59
Extended Wildcards     59
Automatic Variables     60
Summary     62
Using the Interactive Shell     63
Windows PowerShell's Two Command Line Parsing Approaches     63
Expression Mode Examples     65
Command Mode Examples     66
Mixing Expressions and Commands     69
Exploring a Windows System with Windows PowerShell     69
Finding Running Processes     69
Filtering Processes Using where-object     71
Filtering Processes Using Wildcards     72
Finding Out about Services     73
Finding Running Services     74
Finding Other Windows PowerShell Commands     75
Using Abbreviated Commands     76
Command Completion     76
Aliases     77
Working with Object Pipelines     78
Sequences of Commands     78
Filtering Using where-object     79
Sorting     81
Grouping     83
Pros and Cons of Verbosity     85
Interactive      85
Stored Commands     87
Summary     87
Using Snapins, Startup Files, and Preferences     89
Startup     89
Snapins     90
Profiles     97
Profile.ps1     98
Aliases     100
The export-alias Cmdlet     105
The get-alias Cmdlet     107
The import-alias Cmdlet     108
The new-alias Cmdlet     108
The set-alias Cmdlet     109
The Help Alias     111
Command Completion     112
Prompts     113
Preference Variables     115
Summary     116
Parameters     117
Using Parameters     118
Finding Parameters for a Cmdlet     121
Named Parameters     124
Wildcards in Parameter Values     125
Positional Parameters     127
Common Parameters     132
Using Variables as Parameters     133
Summary     135
Filtering and Formatting Output     137
Using the where-object Cmdlet     137
Simple Filtering     138
Using Multiple Tests     140
Using Parameters to where-object     142
The where-object Operators     144
Using the select-object Cmdlet     144
Selecting Properties     145
Expanding Properties     146
Selecting Unique Values     147
First and Last     148
Default Formatting     151
Using the format-table Cmdlet     155
Using the property Parameter     156
Using the autosize Parameter     157
Hiding Table Headers     158
Grouping Output     158
Specifying Labels and Column Widths     159
Using the format-list Cmdlet     161
Using the update-formatdata and update-typedata Cmdlets     162
Summary     163
Using Trusting Operations     165
Look Before You Leap     166
Using the remove-item Cmdlet     166
Using the whatif Parameter     175
Using the stop-process Cmdlet     175
Using the stop-service Cmdlet     178
Using the confirm Parameter     180
Using the verbose Parameter     181
Summary     182
Retrieving and Working with Data     183
Windows PowerShell Providers      183
Using the get-psdrive Cmdlet     184
Using the set-location Cmdlet     188
Using the passthru Parameter     190
Using the get-childitem Cmdlet     191
Using the get-location Cmdlet     194
Using the get-content Cmdlet     196
Using the measure-object Cmdlet     201
The new-item Cmdlet     203
The new-psdrive Cmdlet     204
Summary     205
Scripting with Windows PowerShell     207
Enabling Scripts on Your Machine     207
Using the read-host Cmdlet     212
Using the write-host Cmdlet     214
The Arithmetic Operators     218
Operator Precedence     219
The Assignment Operators     220
The Comparison Operators     222
The Logical Operators     225
The Unary Operators     226
Using the set-variable and Related Cmdlets     227
The set-variable Cmdlet     228
The new-variable Cmdlet     229
The get-variable Cmdlet     230
The clear-variable Cmdlet     231
The remove-variable Cmdlet     232
Summary     234
Additional Windows PowerShell Language Constructs     235
Arrays     235
Creating Typed Arrays     239
Modifying the Structure of Arrays     241
Working from the End of Arrays     245
Concatenating Arrays     248
Associative Arrays     249
Conditional Expressions     250
The if Statement     251
The switch Statement     254
Looping Constructs     256
The for Loop     256
The while Loop     258
The do/while Loop     259
The foreach Statement     260
Summary     262
Processing Text     263
The .NET String Class     263
Working with String Methods     267
Casting Strings to Other Classes     287
URI     287
Datetime     288
XML     289
Regex     289
Summary     291
COM Automation     293
Using the new-object Cmdlet     293
Working with Specific Applications     294
Working with Internet Explorer     294
Working with Windows Script Host     299
Working with Word     301
Working with Excel     302
Accessing Data in an Access Database     303
Working with a Network Share     305
Using Synthetic Types     306
Summary     308
Working with .NET     309
Windows PowerShell and the .NET Framework     309
Creating .NET Objects     311
The new-object Cmdlet     311
Other Techniques to Create New Objects     317
Inspecting Properties and Methods     320
Using the get-member Cmdlet     320
Using .NET Reflection     324
Using the GetMembers() Method     324
Using the GetMember() Method     326
Using the GetMethods() Method     328
Using the GetMethod() Method     329
Using the GetProperties() Method     330
Using the GetProperty() Method     331
Using System.Type Members     333
Summary     334
Putting Windows PowerShell to Work     335
Using Windows PowerShell Tools for Discovery     337
Exploring System State     338
Using the get-location Cmdlet     338
Handling Errors     345
Namespaces     346
PowerShell Aliases      346
PowerShell Functions and Filters     349
PowerShell Variables     350
Exploring the Environment Variables     351
Exploring the Current Application Domain     353
Exploring Services     357
Using the get-service Cmdlet     358
Using the new-service Cmdlet     360
Using the restart-service Cmdlet     361
Using the set-service Cmdlet     362
Using the start-service Cmdlet     362
Using the stop-service Cmdlet     363
Using the suspend-service Cmdlet     364
Summary     365
Security     367
Minimizing the Default Risk     368
The Certificate Namespace     374
Signed Scripts     376
Creating a Certificate     376
The set-authenticodesignature Cmdlet     377
The get-authenticodesignature Cmdlet     379
Summary     379
Working with Errors and Exceptions     381
Errors in PowerShell     381
{dollar}Error     383
Using Error-Related variables     388
Using the {dollar}ErrorView variable     389
Using the {dollar}ErrorActionPreference variable     390
Trap Statement     392
Using Common Parameters     397
Using the ErrorAction Parameter     397
Using the ErrorVariable Parameter     399
The write-error Cmdlet     400
Summary     401
Debugging     403
Handling Syntax Errors     403
The set-PSDebug Cmdlet     408
The write-debug Cmdlet     413
Tracing     418
The trace-command Cmdlet     419
The set-tracesource Cmdlet     422
The get-tracesource Cmdlet     422
Summary     423
Working with the File System     425
Path Names in Windows PowerShell     426
Fully Qualified Path Names     427
Relative Path Names     430
Path Names and Running Commands     431
Simple Tasks with Folders and Files     434
Finding the drives on a system     434
Finding Folders and Files     434
Finding File Characteristics     436
Exploring Files Using the select-object Cmdlet     439
Finding Hidden Files     442
Tab Completion     443
Redirection     445
Creating Custom Drives      447
Cmdlets for File Actions     449
Using the out-file Cmdlet     449
Using Cmdlets to Work with Paths     450
Summary     453
Working with the Registry     455
Introduction to the Registry     455
Exploring the Registry Using Windows PowerShell     458
Selecting a Hive     458
Navigating to a Desired Key     459
Changing the Registry     461
Summary     464
Working with Environment Variables     465
Environment Variables Overview     465
The Environment Command Shell Provider     468
Exploring Environment Variables     470
Modifying Environment Variables     471
Summary     473
Language Reference     475
Working with Logs     477
Event Log Basics     477
The get-eventlog Cmdlet     480
Summary     494
Working with WMI     495
Introducing Windows Management Instrumentation     496
Managed Resources     496
WMI Infrastructure     497
CIM Object Manager     498
The CIM Repository     499
WMI Consumers      499
WMI Tools     499
Using the get-wmiobject Cmdlet     502
Finding WMI Classes and Members     506
Exploring a Windows System     509
Characterizing the CPU     509
Finding Memory     510
Exploring Services     512
Exploring Remote Machines     513
Summary     514
Index     515