Powershell: What Can I Start Practicing With?
-
I don't have my Powershell book with me today, and I plan to bring it tomorrow, but...considering I sit around 95% of my day with nothing to do, I figure I can start learning myself some Powershell. This question is for @Rob-Dunn and @Martin9700 mostly, and @Bill-Kindle , but what kind of exercises can I do to practice my Powershell?
I think I'm going to take my script that I wrote for Pertino and make it a fully interactive Powershell version.
While I'm at it, I'll create a script that you can use to set all IP settings. We'll see if I can do this!
Thanks,
A.J. -
Pretty much come up with any task that you do and see if you can do it with PS. Then try to extend that in a useful way to doing it on multiple system.s
-
Start small and build on that.
Also, learn to use get-command and get-help. Plenty of examples tight there at your fingertips.
-
I usually learn coding type things by using pre-made scripts/examples and then take them apart to see what does what..
-
I think that the biggest thing is just to jump in and start doing it. Use it anywhere that you can.
-
Is there anything you find yourself doing over and over again? Can you PowerShell that? If you're doing mostly desktop support write a script that you could give an end-user and have them run to do some basic troubleshooting for you. You may never actually give it to them, but that's ok, sometimes the exercise is worth it.
Write an inventory script that'll gather basic computer information and output it as a custom object. Then take those objects and make an HTML report out of them
-
@Martin9700 said:
Is there anything you find yourself doing over and over again? Can you PowerShell that? If you're doing mostly desktop support write a script that you could give an end-user and have them run to do some basic troubleshooting for you. You may never actually give it to them, but that's ok, sometimes the exercise is worth it.
Write an inventory script that'll gather basic computer information and output it as a custom object. Then take those objects and make an HTML report out of them
That's a cool idea. I'm working through a book right now. The book is supposed to be REALLY good, as I've heard from several people. We'll see how it goes.
-
One of the things that I had been working on to learn some Powershell was an automated script to create an AD user and an Office 365 mail account at the same time. I got 70% of the functionality I wanted and haven't been able to get back to it.
-
@ajstringham said:
@Martin9700 said:
Is there anything you find yourself doing over and over again? Can you PowerShell that? If you're doing mostly desktop support write a script that you could give an end-user and have them run to do some basic troubleshooting for you. You may never actually give it to them, but that's ok, sometimes the exercise is worth it.
Write an inventory script that'll gather basic computer information and output it as a custom object. Then take those objects and make an HTML report out of them
That's a cool idea. I'm working through a book right now. The book is supposed to be REALLY good, as I've heard from several people. We'll see how it goes.
Month of Lunches? It is a very good book. The toolmaking one is also good. When finished, Mannings "PowerShell In Depth" is a good read as well.
-
@Bill-Kindle said:
@ajstringham said:
@Martin9700 said:
Is there anything you find yourself doing over and over again? Can you PowerShell that? If you're doing mostly desktop support write a script that you could give an end-user and have them run to do some basic troubleshooting for you. You may never actually give it to them, but that's ok, sometimes the exercise is worth it.
Write an inventory script that'll gather basic computer information and output it as a custom object. Then take those objects and make an HTML report out of them
That's a cool idea. I'm working through a book right now. The book is supposed to be REALLY good, as I've heard from several people. We'll see how it goes.
Month of Lunches? It is a very good book. The toolmaking one is also good. When finished, Mannings "PowerShell In Depth" is a good read as well.
Yup. I'm liking it so far.
-
@ajstringham said:
@Bill-Kindle said:
@ajstringham said:
@Martin9700 said:
Is there anything you find yourself doing over and over again? Can you PowerShell that? If you're doing mostly desktop support write a script that you could give an end-user and have them run to do some basic troubleshooting for you. You may never actually give it to them, but that's ok, sometimes the exercise is worth it.
Write an inventory script that'll gather basic computer information and output it as a custom object. Then take those objects and make an HTML report out of them
That's a cool idea. I'm working through a book right now. The book is supposed to be REALLY good, as I've heard from several people. We'll see how it goes.
Month of Lunches? It is a very good book. The toolmaking one is also good. When finished, Mannings "PowerShell In Depth" is a good read as well.
Yup. I'm liking it so far.
Use the videos and samples, should be mentioned already in the book. The PowerShell 3.0 JumpStart on MVA is another good series.
-
@Bill-Kindle said:
@ajstringham said:
@Bill-Kindle said:
@ajstringham said:
@Martin9700 said:
Is there anything you find yourself doing over and over again? Can you PowerShell that? If you're doing mostly desktop support write a script that you could give an end-user and have them run to do some basic troubleshooting for you. You may never actually give it to them, but that's ok, sometimes the exercise is worth it.
Write an inventory script that'll gather basic computer information and output it as a custom object. Then take those objects and make an HTML report out of them
That's a cool idea. I'm working through a book right now. The book is supposed to be REALLY good, as I've heard from several people. We'll see how it goes.
Month of Lunches? It is a very good book. The toolmaking one is also good. When finished, Mannings "PowerShell In Depth" is a good read as well.
Yup. I'm liking it so far.
Use the videos and samples, should be mentioned already in the book. The PowerShell 3.0 JumpStart on MVA is another good series.
It's kinda nice because I'm using Powershell v4 on the PC I'm on.
-
@ajstringham
A good start might be some cool registry checks.
As an example, I'm working on a WSUS troubleshooting tool (next gen script based on my VBScript that checks in and downloads/installs updates and emails a logfile). A big portion of my script is checking various registry keys and outputting those to the screen so I can quickly determine if there is a problem with my WSUS client configuration.
This is using (among other things) - get-itemproperty - fun little cmdlet!
-
@Rob-Dunn Cool! I haven't cracked my Powershell book today, as it's been busy enough to post all day.
