Book review: Windows PowerShell 2.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

David M Williams
Monday, 14 December 2009 18:45

Your IT - Entertainment

Microsoft has been putting greater emphasis on its PowerShell scripting language since Exchange Server 2007 and Windows Server 2008. For professionals who want to master PowerShell this book is a must.

This tidy little tome is written by William R Stanek who is a well-known author and instructor. In fact, he has authored 100 technical titles including certification preparation guides and deep systems administration books.

While in years past systems administrators might have got by with a smattering of DOS batch files and point-and-click interfaces today’s environments are much more challenging with large multi-server networks.

Here is where PowerShell comes in, providing a highly-capable and powerful scripting language that allows admins to shape the network to their will.

In fact, PowerShell has become much more important within Microsoft’s own products. Exchange Server 2007’s GUI console is clearly just a facade over PowerShell; every action taken in the GUI is translated into a PowerShell command and then executed.

Windows Server 2008 then introduced, for the first time, a GUI-less locked-down Windows server operating mode.

PowerShell isn’t just for the server space; Microsoft has pushed it out to Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 client computers through Windows Update meaning PowerShell can replace and modernise a litany of BAT files, KIX scripts, VBS files and other various prior programming models.

It’s important, I believe, for the modern Windows professional to know PowerShell, and you would be hard pressed to find a more meaty and eminently readable book on the topic than this one.

Stanek has performed a remarkable job in making PowerShell accessible and understandable, and most importantly, in empowering the reader to feel a sense of potential as they begin imagining the possibilities PowerShell opens.

Stanek goes well beyond a basic tutorial which might cover variables and looping and functions and explains how to really get under the hood, so to speak, and make the most of PowerShell exploiting its .NET heritage.

I recommend Windows PowerShell 2.0 Administrator’s Pocket Consultant for anyone who wants, or needs, to understand the language.

It is published by Microsoft Press under ISBN 978-0-7356-2595-2. The recommended retail price is $US 29.99 or $AUD 58.95. You can find it at Microsoft Press, and there is an Amazon.com price match guarantee.