Part 1. Tools of the trade

Welcome to PowerShell and WMI. WMI is a mature administration technology that has been with us for a good number of years. PowerShell is the relatively new kid on the block that’s bringing automation to administrators who haven’t considered it in the past. PowerShell and WMI are a natural pairing, like Batman and Robin or fish and chips.

The book has three sections. In this first part of the book, we’ll look at the technologies in isolation.

Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the subject as well as some examples of the benefits that using PowerShell and WMI together will bring to your environment.

In chapter 2, we’ll turn our attention to PowerShell, looking at its major elements and how to use them. This isn’t intended to be a complete PowerShell tutorial, but taken together with appendix A, it will supply the information you need to get the most from this book.

WMI moves on stage in chapter 3, and you’ll learn what it is and how to use it with PowerShell. We’ll look at the WQL language along with some advanced topics, including using WMI and .NET together.

Finally, chapter 4 shows some ways to optimize your use of WMI and PowerShell. These suggestions are not intended to be prescriptions but are based on my accumulation of experience from using PowerShell and WMI. They will hopefully make using these technologies easier and more enjoyable. Learn from my mistakes, in other words.