PowerShell Team
Automating the world one-liner at a time…
Latest posts
Function Help Cannot Share a Cmdlet Help File
In Windows PowerShell 2.0, you can write help topics for functions, scripts, and modules, just as you do for cmdlets and providers. In fact, as a best practice, you should always include help topics for all shared PowerShell items. And we make it easy. For functions and scripts, you can write comment-based help topics right in the script or function (see about_Comment_Based_Help) or you can write XML-based help topics that use the same schema as cmdlet help topics. .To do so, just add the .ExternalHelp comment keyword to the function or script followed by the path and name of the XML file that contains the...
PowerScripting Podcast update
PowerScripting Podcast hosted by MVP Hal Rottenberg will have MVPs Joel Bennett & Oisin Grehan. They will talk about PoshCode See it live tonight at 9pm EDT http://www.ustream.tv/channel/powerscripting-podcast Next week: MVP Don Jones will talk about security in PowerShell. Thanks Osama
Assigning the Output of a SWITCH Statement
I was just reading the whitepaper Automating Citrix XenApp on XenServer deployments on HP ProLiant servers. The reason why this works well for them is that the HP Insight Rapid Deployment (RDP) software has the ability to launch scripts at various points. Citrix has a wide range of cmdlets so they are able to put together a pretty nice bundle and offer it in a way that allows you to change it if you don't like it. In fact my favorite part of the paper was this: Create your own cmdlets for a XenServer environment If the cmdlets developed by Citrix do not meet the needs of your environment, you ca...
WMI Performance
Andy Cheung wrote a very good blog on WMI performance HERE. Check it out. Enjoy! Jeffrey Snover [MSFT] Distinguished Engineer Visit the Windows PowerShell Team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell Visit the Windows PowerShell ScriptCenter at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx
Detection logic for PowerShell installation
"How do we programmatically detect that PowerShell is installed ?" - This question has started coming up frequently as more folks (both internally and externally) have started to build applications with PowerShell support. As we approach Win7/W2K8-R2 release, which will include PowerShell 2.0 in-box, it is pertinent to have the right guidance out for PowerShell detection logic. If you're writing an installer which relies on PowerShell presence, not only do you need to detect whether PowerShell is installed, but also what version of PowerShell is installed. Remember: Hemant Ma...
New Powershell Survey on Connect
PowerShell team wants to hear from you. How easy or difficult it is for you to search PowerShell stuff like learning materials, help , samples, scripts etc? how often do you search for these? and what are your best bets to find information? How it should be made better? Please answer these questions by completing this online survey https://connect.microsoft.com/Survey/Survey.aspx?SurveyID=8725&SiteID=99. Thanks Osama Sajid, PowerShell Program Manager. P.S. this is the first time you are accessing PowerShell connect site, you need to register first. Use a LiveID to sign-in and look for Powershell in "Con...
PowerShell Remoting Protocol Documentation Available
William Vambenepe has a great blog entry Native "SSH" on Windows via WS-Management that is well worth a read. I know that we've been busting our butts documenting our protocols but I hadn't realized that we actually were posting them where people could get them. Apparently that is the case. William found them and put 2 & 2 together and has a very good article explaining what we've done and the ramifications of it. He did a particularly good job on nailing the ramifications portion. I won't steal his thunder - you should go read his blog. He also provides links to the specif...
PowerShell trainings
PowerShell FAQ : Where I can find useful trainings to learn Poweshell? Answer: Thanks to PowerShell MVPs, we have this very useful page http://www.powershellcommunity.org/LearningResources.aspx And this online videos series from Don Jones is very good as well. http://www.idera.com/Promo/Practical-PowerShell/ Thanks Osama Sajid, Program Manager Disclaimer: Microsoft does not own, influence or benefit from the third party trainings listed on the page. This information is provided AS IS without any warranties.
PowerBoots 0.2 is Now Available
Joel 'Jaykul' Bennett has just published the 0.2 version of PowerBoots on CodePlex. PowerBoots is a library which allows you to write WPF GUIs in PowerShell. He has a great tutorial HERE that you should definitely check out. In fact, you should check it out even if you aren't interest in GUIs, it is a great example of the amazing sort of things you can do with PowerShell. Yup - that is right - Rich, powerful GUIs written in PowerShell. This has been a dream of the PowerShell team since the very beginning. We just love TK. TK was a library that allowed people to write G...