Installing and Running Windows PowerShell

Installation Requirements

Before you install Windows PowerShell, be sure that your system has the software programs that Windows PowerShell requires. Windows PowerShell requires the following programs:

· Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows 2003 Service Pack 1, or later versions of Windows

· Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

If any version of Windows PowerShell is already installed on the computer, use Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel to uninstall it before installing a new version.

Installing Windows PowerShell

To install Windows PowerShell:

1. Download the Windows PowerShell installation file. (The name of the file will differ with the platform, operating system, and language pack.)

2. To start the installation, click Open.

3. Follow the instructions on the installation wizard pages.

You can also save the Windows PowerShell files to a network share for installation on multiple computers.

To perform a silent installation, type:

For example,

On 32-bit versions of Windows, Windows PowerShell is installed, by default, in the %SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0  directory. On 64-bit versions of Windows, a 32-bit version of Windows PowerShell is installed in the %SystemRoot%\SystemWow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0 directory and a 64-bit version of Windows PowerShell is installed in the %SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0 directory.

Running Windows PowerShell

To start Windows PowerShell from the Start Menu, click Start, click All Programs, click Windows PowerShell 1.0, and then click the Windows PowerShell icon.

To start Windows PowerShell from the Run box, click Start, click Run, type powershell, and click OK.

To start Windows PowerShell from a Command Prompt (cmd.exe) window, at the command prompt, type powershell. Because Windows PowerShell runs in a console session, you can use this same technique to run it within a remote telnet or SSH session. To return to your Command Prompt session, type exit.

Windows PowerShell Basics

Graphical interfaces use some basic concepts that are well known to most computer users. Users rely on the familiarity of those interfaces to to accomplish tasks. Operating systems present users with a graphical representation of items that can be browsed, usually with drop-down menus for accessing specific functionality and context menus for accessing context-specific functionality.

A command-line interface (CLI), such as Windows PowerShell, must use a different approach to expose information, because it does not have menus or graphical systems to help the user. You need to know command names before you can use them. Although you can type complex commands that are equivalent to the features in a GUI environment, you must become familiar with commonly-used commands and command parameters.

Most CLIs do not have patterns that can help the user to learn the interface. Because CLIs were the first operating system shells, many command names and parameter names were selected arbitrarily. Terse command names were generally chosen over clear ones. Although help systems and command design standards are integrated into most CLIs, they have been generally designed for compatibility with the earliest commands, so the command set is still shaped by decisions made decades ago.

Windows PowerShell was designed to take advantage of a user's historic knowledge of CLIs. In this chapter, we will talk about some basic tools and concepts that you can use to learn Windows PowerShell quickly. They include:

· Using Get-Command

· Using Cmd.exe and UNIX commands

· Using External Commands

· Using Tab-Completion

· Using Get-Help