Pro Windows PowerShell

Table of contents

1. Copyright
2. Dedication
3. About the Author
4. About the Technical Reviewer
5. Acknowledgments
6. Introduction
   1. Why Another Book on Windows PowerShell?
   2. What's in This Book?
   3. Do I Need Prior Programming Experience?
7. Objects and Object Types
   1. The Extended Type System
   2. Built-in Types
   3. Type Literals
   4. Summary
8. Controlling Execution Flow
   1. Conditional Expressions
   2. Branching Instructions
   3. Loops: Repeatedly Executing Blocks of Code
   4. Summary
9. The Object Pipeline
   1. Text-Based Pipelines
   2. Object-Based Pipelines
   3. Processing Collections Using ForEach-Object
   4. Filtering Collections Using Where-Object
   5. Adding or Deleting Properties Using Select-Object
   6. Sorting Collections
   7. Pipeline Tees
   8. Grouping Objects
   9. Gathering Collection Statistics
   10. Detecting Changes and Differences Among Objects
   11. The Object Pipeline and Functional Programming
   12. Summary
10. Working with Script Blocks
    1. Defining Script Blocks
    2. Passing Parameters and Returning Values
    3. Processing Pipeline Input
    4. Invoking Strings as Expressions
    5. Script Blocks as Delegates
    6. Summary
11. Working with Functions
    1. Defining Functions
    2. Filters
    3. Functions and Script Blocks
    4. Summary
12. Command Aliases
    1. Working with Aliases
    2. Aliasing Tips, Techniques, and Pitfalls
    3. Built-in Aliases
    4. Summary
13. Providers
    1. Enumerating Providers
    2. Drives
    3. Navigating to Drives
    4. Provider Capabilities
    5. Summary
14. Script Files
    1. Creating Scripts
    2. Executing PowerShell Scripts from Other Environments
    3. Developing and Maintaining Script Libraries
    4. Summary
15. Error Handling and Debugging
    1. Handling Errors
    2. Debugging Your Code
    3. Summary
16. Signing Scripts
    1. How Code Signing Works
    2. Managing Certificates
    3. Creating a Self-Signed Certificate
    4. Signing Scripts
    5. Running Scripts on Other Machines
    6. Summary
17. The Shell Environment and Its Configuration
    1. Shell Hosts
    2. User Profile Scripts
    3. Working with Saved Console Settings
    4. Changing the Prompt Settings
    5. Tab Expansion: How Command Completion Works
    6. Summary
18. Extending the Type System
    1. Modifying Objects and Types
    2. Extending Object Formatting
    3. Summary
19. Getting Help
    1. The Help System
    2. Getting Command Information
    3. Getting Information About Objects
    4. Using the Internet to Get Help
    5. Summary
20. Taming Processes and Services
    1. Working with Processes
    2. Administering Services
    3. Summary
21. Input and Output
    1. Reading Content
    2. Writing Content
    3. Content Encoding
    4. Getting Byte Content
    5. Extracting Data from Text
    6. Summary
22. Monitoring Your System
    1. Working with the Windows Event Log
    2. Performance Counters
    3. Summary
23. PowerShell and the World Wide Web
    1. Laying the Foundation
    2. Testing and Validating Web Sites
    3. Working with News Feeds
    4. Calling Web Services
    5. Handling FTP Transactions
    6. Summary
24. Sending E-mail
    1. Using System.Net.Mail
    2. Building a Reusable Script
    3. Configuring Recipients
    4. Working with Message Headers
    5. Multipart Messages
    6. Putting It All Together
    7. Summary
25. Talking to COM Objects
    1. How COM Works
    2. How PowerShell Supports COM
    3. Scripting Programs Through Their COM Interfaces
    4. Windows Script Host Code Interoperability
    5. Summary
26. Managing Windows with WMI
    1. A Brief History of WMI
    2. WBEM and WMI Components
    3. PowerShell's WMI Support
    4. Language Support for WMI Objects
    5. Exploring CIM Classes and Objects
    6. Querying Hardware Devices
    7. Getting Information About Software
    8. The Network Configuration
    9. Generating WMI Code
    10. Summary
27. PowerShell Community Extensions
    1. Installation and Configuration
    2. File System Utilities
    3. Network Utilities
    4. Executing Processes and Commands
    5. XML Tools
    6. Working with Image Files
    7. Clipboard Helpers
    8. New Providers
    9. Utility Applications
    10. Summary
28. PSEventing: .NET Events in PowerShell
    1. Introducing PSEventing
    2. Event-Handling Mechanics
    3. FileSystemWatcher: A Real-World Example
    4. Monitoring Entries Written to the System Event Logs
    5. Handling WMI Events
    6. Detecting If Our Script Has Been Terminated by the User
    7. Using Script Blocks As Event Handlers
    8. Summary
29. Enhancing Tab Completion with PowerTab
    1. Installation
    2. How PowerTab Works
    3. Configuring PowerTab
    4. Summary