Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Spend enough time performing routine system administration tasks and one word pops to mind: automation. For that, that I have two words for you: Windows PowerShell.

Windows PowerShell, as you might have learned, is the new shell scripting interface built on the Microsoft .NET framework that enables IT Pros and .NET developers to control and automate the administration of Windows and applications. It uses a new admin-focused scripting language and features more than 130 standard command-line tools.

WHY WINDOWS POWERSHELL?
What makes Windows Powershell so inherently important moving forward is the fact that, virtually all administrative tools for our products – Active Directory Users & Computers, Systems Management Server Administration, Exchange Admin, etc. – are all going to be rewritten (or they’ve already been rewritten, as in the case of Exchange Admin) to be GUI tools with scripting underneath it all.  That’s right:  The GUI’s are essentially just clicks that allow you to orchestrate scripted actions in the background. 

The obvious benefit of this is the ability to do everything WITHOUT the GUI.  You’ll be able to see all the script under the tool so that you can incorporate it into your own automation scripts for on-going management.

Today, you can download Windows PowerShell 1.0 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003, and the English language version of Windows PowerShell for Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn."

If you haven’t checked out the PowerShell scripting interface or you are new to scripting, do yourself a favor and download the Getting Started Guide and Quick Reference sheet. Those little one-liners can really improve your life. And if you’re interested in seeing some script examples, look at what’s going in the PowerShell blog or revisit Windows PowerShell Week, a series of on-demand webcasts.