It is really easy for me, as an Linux and open source enthusiast, to jump on the Microsoft hate wagon. If I have a choice, I will sit down in front of a Linux machine almost every time. There are so many choices and so much potential for customization, flexibility, and software freedom. That's not to say that Microsoft has absolutely no software that is good or that they aren't making strides (however small) to make their technologies more accessible and customizable. One specific product that they have been developing, fine-tuning, and resting their some of their Enterprise-class applications on is Power Shell.
If you are not familiar with it and you administer Windows, consider this a sign in big red letters to GET FAMILIAR WITH IT. If you need to automate a schedules process with a level of robustness that approaches Linux shell scripting or need to write up a quick and dirty end-user GUI script, Power Shell is the most practical platform to use for Windows as it is basically a command-line interface to the .NET library packaged with some pretty standard programming logic and an easy-to-learn object model. Not to mention that many (if not all) Microsoft server technologies available have a Power Shell module providing commands for management of that server.
The idea of this blog is to provide code snippets (maybe whole scripts if I get busy) that will help you learn Power Shell and some basic concepts. Since my usage of Power Shell is primarily within the realm of Exchange administration, it is likely that many examples will be Exchange related however many techniques used may be applied outside of Exchange.
Thanks for stopping by and check back in later.
