Preface

Windows PowerShell introduces a revolution to the world of system management and command-line shells. From its object-based pipelines, to its administrator focus, to its enormous reach into other Microsoft management technologies, PowerShell drastically improves the productivity of administrators and power-users alike.

Much of this power comes from providing access to powerful technologies: an expressive scripting language, regular expressions, the .NET Framework, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), COM, the Windows registry, and much more.

Although help for these technologies is independently available, it is scattered, unfocused, and buried among documentation intended for a developer audience.

To solve that problem, this Pocket Reference summarizes the Windows PowerShell command shell and scripting language, while also providing a concise reference for the major tasks that make it so successful.

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