Preface

While I was finishing another book project for Manning, a discussion developed about a PowerShell Deep Dives book. In the past Manning published two volumes of a SQL Server Deep Dives book written by a number of SQL Server MVPs and members of the SQL community. The chapters were intended as in-depth content on specific aspects of SQL Server. At the time, many of us involved in this book were also part of the developing PowerShell Deep Dives conference.

That event brought Microsoft MVPs and community members together for a few days of intense PowerShell togetherness. Think of it as a geeky Woodstock festival for PowerShell. The intent was to share PowerShell experiences and ideas on specific—or even niche—topics that would be hard to cover in a larger conference like Microsoft TechEd. The PowerShell Deep Dives conference eventually became the PowerShell Summit that we enjoy today.

The idea behind this book was to take that conference concept and put it into book format. The chapters would be short explorations of specific PowerShell ideas—things that might be presented at the PowerShell Summit. Some of the content in this book has actually been presented at these conferences.

I was “volunteered” to serve as lead editor and began my new career as cat wrangler. A call went out and many people offered to contribute chapters to the book as well as act as section editors. Eventually, we had a tentative table of contents and our volunteer authors started writing.