Learning PowerShell

Contents
Chapter 1: Getting Started and Setting Up
	Valid Platforms and Versions
	Two Important PowerShell Tools
	The PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE)
	The Windows PowerShell Console
	The Last Word
Chapter 2: The Basics of PowerShell
	Some Terminology and Definitions
	A Little about Aliases
	PowerShell Command Components
	Knowing Which Commands to Use and How to Use Them: Getting Help
	Looking for Help With an Idea or Concept
	Full, Unrestrained, Painstakingly Detailed Help
	A Little Interactive Handholding: Show-Command
	Understanding Error Messages
	Always Use Protection: Stopping You from Hurting Yourself
	The Last Word
Chapter 3: The PowerShell Pipeline
	Introducing the Pipeline
	Piping to the Screen and to Files
	To the Screen: Out-Host
	To Files: Out-File
	To Printers: Out-Printer
	Importing and Exporting Data for PowerShell to Work With
	Importing from Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files
	Exporting to Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files
	Converting Content
	The Last Word
Chapter 4: PowerShell Providers, Modules, and Snap-ins
	Introducing Providers
	How Providers Work
	Provider Capabilities and Drives
	Items
	Differences in Providers Matter
	A Provider Example: The Registry
	Introducing Modules and Snap-ins
	Modules
	Snap-ins
	About Management Shells
	Your Profile: Your Favorite Snap-Ins and Modules, Automatically Loaded
	The Last Word
Chapter 5: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Objects
	What Is an Object?
	Properties and Methods
	Objects and the Pipeline
	Inspecting an Object’s Properties and Methods
	Manipulating Objects
	Limiting or Selecting
	Sorting
	Remembering What Kinds of Objects are in the Pipeline
	The Last Word
Chapter 6: Filtering and Limiting
	Introducing Where-Object
	The Syntax for Where-Object
	Using the Where-Object Goods
	Getting Lists and Filtering on Them
	Filtering, in a Pragmatic Sense
	Another Example of Objects and Filtering
	Further Exploration
	The Last Word
Chapter 7: Creating Simple Scripts
	Introducing Scripts in PowerShell
	Making Scripts Useful, Phase 1: Variables
	Making Scripts Useful, Phase 2: If/Then, Do While, and ForEach
	The If/Then Construct
	Do While Constructs
	The ForEach Construct
	Putting It All Together: Scripts to Accomplish Something Useful
	Method 1
	Method 2
	A Simple Backup Strategy for Smaller Exchange Environments
	Clearing the Requests
	The Last Word
Chapter 8: More Work with Objects
	Comparing Two Objects
	Looking at Compare-Object
	Another Example
	Selecting Objects
	Selecting a Certain Number of Objects
	Selecting Certain Properties
	Grouping Objects with Common Characteristics
	Hash Tables
	PowerShell in the Real World: Grouping and Comparing Objects
	The Last Word
Chapter 9: To the Many, To the Few - PowerShell Remoting
	Introducing Remoting
	How Remoting Works
	Enabling PowerShell Remoting
	Remoting to One Computer at a Time
	Remoting to Many Computers at a Time
	Specifying a Script File Instead of a Command
	Specifying a Separate List of Computers
	The Caveats When Using Remote Commands
	The Last Word
Chapter 10: Useful PowerShell Tools
	Dell PowerGUI
	SAPIEN Technologies PowerShell Studio 2015
	Amazon AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell
	Microsoft Script Browser for Windows PowerShell ISE
	Adam Driscoll’s PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio
	Microsoft Windows PowerShell Web Access, via Control Panel
	PowerShell Training via the Microsoft Virtual Academy
	Master-PowerShell, an eBook from Dr. Tobias Weltner
	VMware vSphere PowerCLI
	The Last Word
Chapter 11: Using PowerShell to Manage Office 365
	Create a Script to Open a PowerShell Session to Office 365
	Assign Rights to Mailboxes
	Converting Regular Mailboxes to Shared Mailboxes
	Obtaining Last Logon Times for Office 365 Accounts
	Onboarding a List of New Users to Your Office 365 Tenant
	Lock Down and Configure Sharing on a SharePoint Online Tenant
	Examining Who Has External Access to a SharePoint Online Site
	Add and Remove People from Mailing Lists (Distribution Groups)
	Performing a Mass Password Change
	Place All Mailboxes on Litigation Hold
	The Last Word
Chapter 12: Desired State Configuration
	Understanding Desired State Configuration
	The Push and Pull Architectures
	Understanding Idempotence
	Desired State Configuration Resources
	The Desired State Configuration Syntax
	The Last Word
Chapter 13: Common Administrative Tasks with PowerShell
	Adding Users
	Deleting Dangerous Content from Exchange Mailboxes
	Elegantly Handling Departed Employees and Memberships
	Create a New CSV File and Populate It with Data
	Easily Connect to Office 365 from Your Hybrid Deployment
Appendix X: Quick Cheat Sheet of PowerShell Verbs
Index