Pro Windows PowerShell

Contents at a Glance

Contents

About the Author

About the Technical Reviewer

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Why Another Book on Windows PowerShell?

What’s in This Book?

Do I Need Prior Programming Experience?

Objects and Object Types

The Extended Type System

Built- in Types

Type Literals

Summary

Controlling Execution Flow

Conditional Expressions

Branching Instructions

Loops: Repeatedly Executing Blocks of Code

Summary

The Object Pipeline

Text-Based Pipelines

Object-Based Pipelines

Processing Collections Using ForEach- Object

Filtering Collections Using Where-Object

Adding or Deleting Properties Using Select-Object

Sorting Collections

Pipeline Tees

Grouping Objects

Gathering Collection Statistics

Detecting Changes and Differences Among Objects

The Object Pipeline and Functional Programming

Summary

Working with Script Blocks

Defining Script Blocks

Passing Parameters and Returning Values

Processing Pipeline Input

Invoking Strings as Expressions

Script Blocks as Delegates

Summary

Working with Functions

Defining Functions

Filters

Functions and Script Blocks

Summary

Command Aliases

Working with Aliases

Aliasing Tips, Techniques, and Pitfalls

Built- in Aliases

Summary

Providers

Enumerating Providers

Drives

Navigating to Drives

Provider Capabilities

Summary

Script Files

Creating Scripts

Executing PowerShell Scripts from Other Environments

Developing and Maintaining Script Libraries

Summary

Error Handling and Debugging

Handling Errors

Debugging Your Code

Summary

Signing Scripts

How Code Signing Works

Managing Certificates

Creating a Self- Signed Certificate

Signing Scripts

Running Scripts on Other Machines

Summary

The Shell Environment and Its Configuration

Shell Hosts

User Profile Scripts

Working with Saved Console Settings

Changing the Prompt Settings

Tab Expansion: How Command Completion Works

Summary

Extending the Type System

Modifying Objects and Types

Extending Object Formatting

Summary

Getting Help

The Help System

Getting Command Information

Getting Information About Objects

Using the Internet to Get Help

Summary

Taming Processes and Services

Working with Processes

Administering Services

Summary

Input and Output

Reading Content

Writing Content

Content Encoding

Extracting Data from Text

Summary

Monitoring Your System

Working with the Windows Event Log

Performance Counters

Summary

PowerShell and the World Wide Web

Laying the Foundation

Testing and Validating Web Sites

Working with News Feeds

Calling Web Services

Handling FTP Transactions

Summary

Sending E-mail

Using System. Net. Mail

Building a Reusable Script

Configuring Recipients

Working with Message Headers

Multipart Messages

Putting It All Together

Summary

Talking to COM Objects

How COM Works

How PowerShell Supports COM

Scripting Programs Through Their COM Interfaces

Windows Script Host Code Interoperability

Summary

Managing Windows with WMI

A Brief History of WMI

WBEM and WMI Components

PowerShell’s WMI Support

Language Support for WMI Objects

Exploring CIM Classes and Objects

Querying Hardware Devices

Getting Information About Software

The Network Configuration

Generating WMI Code

Summary

PowerShell Community Extensions

Installation and Configuration

File System Utilities

Network Utilities

Executing Processes and Commands

XML Tools

Working with Image Files

Clipboard Helpers

New Providers

Utility Applications

Summary

PSEventing: .NET Events in PowerShell

Introducing PSEventing

Event-Handling Mechanics

FileSystemWatcher: A Real- World Example

Monitoring Entries Written to the System Event Logs

Handling WMI Events

Detecting If Our Script Has Been Terminated by the User

Using Script Blocks As Event Handlers

Summary

Enhancing Tab Completion with PowerTab

Installation

How PowerTab Works

Configuring PowerTab

Summary

Index