Summary: Windows PowerShell MVP, Teresa Wilson, talks about fun things to do with Windows PowerShell.

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Today we have a guest blog post from Microsoft Honorary Scripting Guy and Windows PowerShell MVP, Teresa Wilson, who shares some fun things to do with Windows PowerShell.
Take it away, Teresa …

Hello everyone,

Sometimes when I am out and about, people will ask me what I do and where I work. It is easy to explain when you are talking to an IT Professional, but to explain it to the general public is not so easy. I usually give a pretty simple explanation of using a Windows PowerShell script to read a spreadsheet with new employee names and departments to create new users when you hire a group of people. When I'm working with an IT Pro who has never used Windows PowerShell, it is pretty easy to show the idea of reading log files and setting up scheduled tasks with a script.

The first thing that you need to remember is to use the right tool for the job. Windows PowerShell is not always the right tool, but when it is, it is well worth the time and effort to create a script to automate the task. Today, I thought I could take it a step further and give some examples that also include the script. I hope you think that the examples are useful.

First, I went to the Hey Scripting Guy blog and looked for the most viewed blog posts to see if there was a common theme or idea. I came up with this: List Files in Folders and subfolders with PowerShell. This blog post and its VBScript script version were two of the most viewed. That tells me that listing files in folders and subfolders is a popular task that you can perform with Windows PowerShell.

Next, I went to the Script Repository and found some interesting popular items.

The Windows Update PowerShell Module by MVP Michal Gajda has been downloaded more than 112,000 times. I am an accounting person so that number tells me that this blog post is popular.

One of the great things about Windows PowerShell is how you can change your scripts as time goes by. One popular item that has taken advantage of this capability is the updated and improved version of Create Active Directory Users Based On Excel Input. You know that I had to include this blog post especially because it is close to my generic example of what you can do with Windows PowerShell.

These two are just a couple of examples of more than 5,000 Windows PowerShell entries in the Script Repository.

New and exciting is the PowerShell Gallery. After you go to the home page, be sure to click the Get Started tab because there is a lot of information there. I am not going to reinvent the wheel by restating the words that you will find there.

That is all I have today. Hope you have a wonderful day.

~Teresa

I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy