Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about Ask the Experts at TechEd 2014 in Houston, Texas. Oh man, dude, dude, dude (or dudette). Ask the Experts last night was totally awesome. The Scripting Guys and the Windows PowerShell team had three tables. We occupied an entire section, we had all the seats at the tables filled, and people were standing around in the aisles talking about Windows PowerShell. It was a total geek night. So, at 6:00 last night, they let the table owners (me and the Scripting Wife) come in. A few minutes after we found our tables and set out our signs, our experts began filtering over. We grabbed a quick bite to eat, sat down, and began to discuss our strategy. Here is our expert table as we are conversing. Members of the Windows PowerShell team showed up shortly afterwards. They were booking it to hurry over from the sold out DSC instructor led lab. But they quickly assimilated into the crowd and were bombarded with questions about DSC. Shown here are Hemant, Marc, Craig, and Hyper-V_Guy. Some of the questions last night were about starting and maintaining a Windows PowerShell User Group. Microsoft MVP, Teresa Wilson (aka Scripting Wife), helped connect several people and promised assistance in getting speakers and helping them to get registered. Here she is with Daniel Cruz one of our Scripting Games winners from a couple years ago. Some of the cool questions we got at Ask the Experts:

• What is the relationship of DSC and Puppet?
• How can I run a Windows PowerShell script to delete user profiles at a time when the computer is idle?
• How can I best learn about Windows PowerShell?
• How can I integrate DSC with a Windows PowerShell workflow?
• How do I install Windows PowerShell 4.0 on Windows 8?
• Can I use DSC on Windows Server 2003?
• Can I use DSC to configure my Linux boxes?
• I need to copy all file shares from server A to server B, and maintain all the permissions. How can I do that with Windows PowerShell?
• I have a script that is copying a bunch of logs, and I am using 7-Zip to archive the files. It works locally, but fails remotely. The problem is that it deletes the files after the script runs because it creates the archive, but there are no files in it. What am I doing wrong?

As you might imagine, it was a great event. We left Ask the Experts after shutting it down, and headed to the Aquarium in downtown Houston where the Windows Server and Tools group threw an MMC alumni party. It was extremely well done…and the rain earlier in the afternoon had cooled down the temperature to a nice 70 degrees F. Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy