Windows Powershell book - any good experiences?

Question

Hi betatester-fellows :) !

I'm currently looking for a recommendable book about psh which seems to be very a feature rich new shell. Therefore I'm looking for some kind of pragmatic documentation, aiming a little deeper. I'm using Unix Shells like zsh since ages, but Scripting on MS was never very effective. Until now. I'm interested in psh and it's .NET and .COM features, and how I could implement stuff with it in general.

Thanks for answers, Marius

Answer 1

Not sure if I can help but if I were you I'd edit the question to put "PowerShell" rather than "psh" in the title as I've never heard it called "psh" before.

Answer 2

In my opinion, Windows PowerShell in Action is the best book on the subject.
Quote from Amazon review:

Windows PowerShell in Action was written by Bruce Payette, one of the founding members of the Windows PowerShell team, co-designer of the PowerShell language and the principal author of the PowerShell language implementation. The book enables you to get the most out of the PowerShell environment. Using many examples, both small and large, this book illustrates the features of the language and environment and shows how to compose those features into solutions, quickly and effectively.

This book is designed for anyone who wants to learn PowerShell and use it well. Rather than simply being a book of recipes to read and apply, this book gives you the deep knowledge about how PowerShell works and how to apply it.

Answer 3

Powershell has had many names and nick names over its short lifetime.
Monad
Microsoft Shell
MSH
MuSH
Posh

Most of the documentation I've run across has been either advertising glitz, to convince people to use it or targeted at administrators. I haven't run across a single article or book targeting developers who want to efficiently write scripts.

Answer 4

I voted up Windows Powershell in Action because it's not only a very well written book on how to use Powershell, but Bruce Payette also explains the philosophy behind the language/shell and design decisions during the development process.

Answer 5

There are some good stuffs on Technet. I remember reading this free ebook which gave me a good start before moving to Windows Powershell in Action. Also, check out CTP 2 which has a GUI tool, debugger etc.

Answer 6

I liked these two books:

• Windows PowerShell in Action by Bruce Payette
• Windows PowerShell Pocket Reference by Lee Homes

Also, check out these sites:

• MS Script Center
• Scripting with Windows PowerShell
• The PowerShell blog
• PowerGUI

Answer 7

Thanks for the answers. Yes, psh, msh. It's quite common to me. Sorry for that. I grew up with DOS.

Really good answers though. Especially the book aku mentioned seems to perfect for my needs.

I can't log in because of OpenID problems - I have an OpenID account - doesn't work here. So I can't rate, but just say: Sweet As ;) and thanks.

Greetings, wishi

Answer 8

@Aku and @aphoria both have good suggestions for material. Also, there are great forums available, as well as a script repository, blogs, and other news at PowerShellCommunity.org.

Additional resources can be found at my answer to the How To Get Started With PowerShell question.

PowerShell is a great tool and will only increase in functionality as they work on Version 2. It is also expanding in support to different product teams. As part of the CEC (Common Engineering Criteria) for Microsoft, any server product released as of the 2009 product year (which started in July) has to support PowerShell. There has also been talk of supporting a PowerShell build environment in Visual Studio.

Answer 9

There are different books I recommend depending on your learning style. Of course, I'm going to recommend Windows PowerShell v1.0: TFM 2nd edition as a complete reference and tutorial. I also recommend Bruce Payette's PowerShell in Action because he gives you insights into how PowerShell is the way it is. Finally I recommend Lee Holmes' PowerShell Cookbook. It won't necessarily teach you PowerShell but it offers many practical applications and examples. I tell new comers to PowerShell to start with my book and Bruce's and then move to Lee's once you have some experience.

Answer 10

The first PowerShell book I got was Windows PowerShell Programming for the Absolute Beginner. It got good reviews on Amazon as an introductory book to PowerShell. Since I had no experience in PowerShell I thought this book would be a good bet. It was incredibly basic which I guess is understandable since it's aimed at people with no programming experience.

What wasn't understandable was why there were large sections of the book with practically no content. When the author created an example program he would often display the complete output that this program generated. Sometimes that meant you were looking at a two page directory listing of the folders on his computer. There were also many wasted pages which were essentially the online help pages put into a nice format.

I wouldn't waste your time on this book unless you really have zero programming experience.

Answer 11

I also tend to favor "Windows PowerShell: TFM," naturally. For the v1.0 2nd edition, we tried to make sure it covered EVERYTHING - all the way through advanced stuff like databases and graphical forms, although it starts at the VERY beginning.