I'm starting to get into PowerShell, and figured I'd check to see who else out there is using it, and what resources there are out there.

So far, I've been looking through Microsoft's own sites on it, and have these bookmarked:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa973757(VS.85).aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell/

My long term goal is to try and use PowerShell instead of the older Cmd.exe based environment, both on my local machines and when scripting remote deployments. A few things have won me over so far, mostly due to common command parity between PowerShell and Unix commands. I've also run into quirks already, like invoke-item causing a network based app to not quite function properly.

If you're looking for command-parity with Unix commands, why not just install Cygwin?

If you'll pardon the minor thread jack, though, since you bring up Cmd.exe, does anyone know a decent console/shell program on Windows (where decent is defined by one that has tabbed shells, and, preferably, mouse copy-paste semantics akin to Linux?) I've found Console, but it has some... annoying idiosyncrasies.

Cygwin is decent for what it does, but it has a load of quirks to deal with when trying to run Windows processes. I figure since PowerShell is purposely built for Windows that it should fit in better. I don't necessarily need the unixland stuff in windows, just something similar in power.

As for the command parity comment, it was mostly due to my normal process of typing "ls" and other such unix commands everywhere. Including in cmd.exe windows, and getting back the typical "I have no idea what your asking about" response.

The only other one I recall is ColorConsole.

Urk. Looks pretty, but bad usability. Thanks for the suggestion, though -- I hadn't seen that one. I found Terminator last night, which makes me happy. It doesn't have the key bindings I'd prefer, but hooray for open source!

Ah, I see. PowerShell does look pretty nifty from that point of view.

Random tidbit I figured I'd toss in here. Security under Powershell is, well, very locked down by default due to concerns over normal users being e-mailed a script and running it.

The big thing for me was just getting .ps1 scripts to run both locally and remotely. By default, they won't, and most sites talk about using "SetExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned" to be able to run local unsigned scripts. However, that only covers the surface, and the security applies to 5 different scopes. Running the scripts remotely is a bit different. What finally helped is looking at "Get-ExecutionPolicy -list", as it shows the 5 different scopes and each security level. Ultimately for development I've ended up changing 3 of the 5 scopes to just full bypass mode.

Unless you want to mess about with generating a development/test CA and signing your scripts, that's about the only way to do it, to be honest.

Good to know. I'll look deeper into signing scripts down the road for production systems, since those machines will be more exposed. For now, I'm just working with local build boxes that are already on a secured network.

For my future reference

http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/Joe/archive/2009/01/13/powershell-abcs---p-is-for-parameters.aspx

params is quite handy for allowing scripts to use -flags instead of absolute positioning of command line arguments. Similar to OptionParser in python.

Necro posting to add some additional useful links. Making a new attempt to adopt Powershell when working on Windows. When I first made this, I successfully transformed the Vigil Build system to use Powershell scripts, however I didn't put much effort into also transitioning my personal usage of a command prompt on Windows. I'm now working to get more comfortable in the command prompt side, especially with the nice improvements to the built in console app of the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update.

Powershell offers various levels of profile scripts much like shells on the Unix side. System level for all users, user specific, and invocation specific. A good summary, and what variables to reference for them is here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...ror=-2147217396

Visual Studio when installed creates shortcuts to it's own CMD prompts that add a number of tools to the path. However as of the 2015 version, it doesn't create shortcuts to Powershell equivalents. This Stack Overflow link has something to add to the Powershell profile that can handle Visual Studio 2010-2015 versions: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21247...-prompt#2124759

I'm also working to retrain myself on Powershell specific ways to check certain things. One is checking the path, or appending to it.
Display the path:

Appending to the path:

Preserving past command history across sessions can be useful. There are some newer ways to do this under Powershell 3 and external scripts that also restore the ability to use the up arrow to cycle through past commands.

As the first step for my setup, I'm only concentrating on preserving history and getting it working with Powershell 2. If anyone else has experience with the more advanced methods that work with 3 or above, feel free to share it here.

I've added the following into my profile script (from an MS MVP on StackOverflow):