Chapter 1. Introduction
This chapter covers
- What the book will and won’t teach
- The boundaries of this book
- Going beyond PowerShell
As of this writing, Windows PowerShell is on to its seventh year of existence and in its fourth major release, with a fifth version in preview. In that time, it’s changed the way people look at administering many Microsoft, and even some non-Microsoft, products. Although the graphical user interface (GUI) will always be an important part of administration in many ways, PowerShell has given administrators options: Use an easy, intuitive GUI; manage from a rich, interactive command-line console; or fully automate with a simple scripting language. We’re delighted that so many administrators have started using PowerShell, and we’re honored that you’ve chosen this book to further your own PowerShell education.
We wrote this book for system administrators, not developers. In the Microsoft world, administrators go by the catchall title “IT professional” or “IT pro” and that’s who we had in mind. As such, we assume you’re not a full-time programmer, although if you have some programming or scripting experience it’ll make certain parts of PowerShell easier to learn.