PowerShell in Depth: An Administrator's Guide

by Don Jones, Richard Siddaway, Jeffrey Hicks

PowerShell is part of nearly everything a Windows administrator touches, and the soon-to-be-released version 3 adds even more powerful features. With PowerShell, almost every aspect of Windows systems and servers can be securely and efficiently automated. Designed to provide the know- how needed to master PowerShell, this book goes beyond the basics and offers the deep knowledge and insight needed to tackle any task.

PowerShell in Depth is a book that will be used again and again. Each of the 40 chapters is short, concise, to-the-point, and focused on a specific area of PowerShell. Written by three seasoned PowerShell experts, every technique has been thoroughly tested. With this book in hand, readers will save hours of time and effort while consistently and quickly creating production-quality, maintainable scripts.

Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Genres: Programming, Computers, Nonfiction, Reference, Coding

601 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 2012

About the author

Don Jones has written dozens and dozens of books and ebooks on information technology topics, and is perhaps most well-known in that space for his "Month of Lunches" series, published by Manning. Don's recently branched out into topics like business management, instructional design, and self-improvement/motivational, along with launching books in science fiction and fantasy. Don lives in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, is a huge fan of Disney Parks, and loves Figment best of all.

Reviews

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while, I admit (even though they were chapters I've skimmed through quickly).
First important point about this book: it's really **in depth**.
Well, author is not decompiling Powershell on his own :), but he covers some topics I've never seen covered in any other PowerShell book.

For instance:
* details of remoting
* good description of how credentials work in PS
* CIM (it's not that different from WMI, but it's still good to learn the diffs)
* DSC (brief description, but unlike to some other books - it covers & emphasizes some very valid points)
* Workflows (ok, I think they are useless ;P but now I have a better basis to claim that)

Neither time, nor money wasted.
Why 4 & not 5 stars then?
Some code samples were very easy-going, debugging chapter has disappointed me a lot, chapters like GUI/DB one doesn't make much sense TBH (it's about using .NET classes, so why bother?).
Anyway - if you want to refresh your Powershell-fu, this book is quite a good choice.

[Jorgon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes one has to get into the mind of an enemy, and this one helps an unlucky admin accomplish that. More seriously, if you have to work with PowerShell (and there can be worse fates), this will help you slog through weird variable definitions, cryptic error messages and garbled syntax--and you will even have some fun along the way. Plus, you can occupy yourself reading this while your PowerShell scripts execute with all the alacrity of a lethargic snail.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive guide to writing efficient, robust Power Shell scripts, and more.

Anybody facing admin tasks, automation, remote access, configuration or even extracting data for reports will benefit from this book.

Note: I read the sequel that is currently a MEAP: 3rd edition of the book that also covers PowerShell 4.0.

[Niels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insights on PowerShell. Good examples.