Summary: Read sneak previews for Charlotte PowerShell Saturday sessions.

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Today is just one week before Windows PowerShell Saturday #002 in Charlotte, NC.  I hope you have registered so you do not miss any of this exciting Windows PowerShell goodness. Today, three of our presenters will give you a sneak preview of their sessions. For the schedule details and registration, see the PowerShell Saturday #2 website.

First off, Jeremy Engel…

I will be presenting Better Scripting for a Brighter Tomorrow. This class is designed to expand your knowledge of scripting beyond simple batch sequences and bring you into the dynamic and adaptive world of Windows PowerShell functions and scripts. You will learn the secrets of my ancient month-old philosophy of advanced function development, known as The Fourfold Path. This path to scripting enlightenment flows through four distinct, and yet, interwoven stages.

The first stage, Acceptance, deals with understanding the myriad of ways in which data can be accepted by the function, known as parameters. We’ll explore the various attributes and qualifications that you can put on a given parameter to make your function easy to use. We will also review the CmdletBinding attributes and learn about when you’ll find these useful.

The second stage, Transformation, deals with using that most PowerShell-ish of traits: the pipeline. We’ll discuss how to use Begin, Process, and End to make your functions and scripts act and feel like native Windows PowerShell cmdlets. Along with pipelines, we’ll discuss how to effectively use parameter sets to make your functions more dynamic and intuitive.

The third stage, Balance, deals with displaying information to the user in the form of normal text, warnings, and errors, and when it is most appropriate to utilize them. Furthermore, we’ll delve into displaying progress for processes that take a long time to complete. Lastly, we’ll cover the use of the ShouldProcess and WhatIf concepts.

The fourth stage, Harmony, deals with ensuring that certain components of your function (such as its name, parameters, object-based output, and the Help info) adhere to Windows PowerShell standards. This goes a long way toward making your function as user-friendly as possible. It also allows it to be useable by others if they want to take the output and apply it to other functions or export it in some way.

Finally, if there’s time, we’ll touch on how to develop Windows PowerShell modules and their benefits for your future scripting endeavors.

Through this class, my hope is that you will learn techniques and practices that will move you further along the path to scripting enlightenment. And through your newfound scripting acumen, you will empower not only yourself, but others.

~Jeremy

Next up is Ashley McGlone…

As a Microsoft premier field engineer, I meet many customers and help them with their Active Directory and Windows PowerShell needs. I’ve taken some of that experience and wrapped it into a presentation called Active Directory PowerShell Notes From the Field, and I’ll be sharing it with the attendees at the upcoming Windows PowerShell Saturday.

I’ll cover these topics in the session:

• Using Active Directory PowerShell to find schema update history
• Using Windows PowerShell to migrate DNS zones
• Using Active Directory PowerShell to remediate token size issues caused by SID history
• A brief look at what’s new in Active Directory PowerShell 3.0

When I gave this presentation at TechReady in July, it was rated the #10 session out of 600+ sessions.

Here is a sneak peak at one slide where I demonstrate using my SIDHistory module to remove SID history from Active Directory accounts.

Twitter: @GoateePFE
TechNet blog: Goatee PFE

I hope to see you in Charlotte on September 15.

~Ashley 

And last, but by no means least, Mark Schill…

I have always used third-party editors for my daily scripting needs. With the release of Windows PowerShell 2.0, Microsoft introduced the Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE). It was a basic environment for creating and editing your Windows PowerShell code. It had extensibility which allowed for the community to enhance its functionality. But, it was still extremely underpowered compared to the many third-party editors that were available. It missed many features that I required to manage my scripts and modules. The Windows PowerShell ISE was not adequate enough for my needs—that is, until I launched the ISE in version three.

Windows PowerShell ISE version three includes many new features that, in my opinion, make it a serious competitor to those third-party editors I have been using for so long. A robust intellisense environment, code folding, and snippets are only a few enhancements in this version. The new enhancements with the extensible framework that was already present create an editor that seriously competes with the third-party editors on the market. Did I mention that it is completely free and already installed everywhere you need it?

Come check out my session at Windows PowerShell Saturday in Charlotte to see how you can turn the ISE into your very own supercharged scripting environment.

Blog: String Theory: Mastering the laws of physics with Windows PowerShell
 Active Directory SID history blog series
Email: Mark.Schill@cmschill.net

~Mark

I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy