Here is how to start using it... The first time you start PowerShell (Under Administrative tools I selected Windows PowerShell Modules) you will get the following warning
Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
WARNING: File C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\PSDiagnostics\PSDiagnostics.psm1 cannot be loaded
because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see "get-help about_signing" for more details.
PS C:\Users\nfindlater>
To fix this do the following steps
1. Under Administrative tools select Server Manager
2. In the tree view select Server Manager/Features
3. Add Feature
4. Select Windows PowerShell
5. Next, Install
6. under Accessories in a directory caller PowerShell
PoweShell basics
Powershell respects admin rights. Certain commandlet information require elevated privileges. Meaning that if you need access to information that requires elevated privileges you need to start powershell as administrator.
Here is a simple example how powershell can be used. Start notepad then execute
get -process notepad
Stop-Process
This gets a list of processes named “notepad” and pipes them to a Stop-Process commandlet which has the effect of closing the notepad that you just opened.
There are other ways of getting to the same information, for example
PS C:\Users\nfindlater> get-process | where { $_.ProcessName -eq 'notepad' }
Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName
------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- -----------
47 2 1108 3732 61 0.20 3112 notepad
Here’s an example using the event log
PS C:\Users\nfindlater> get-eventlog -LogName application -Newest 3
Index Time EntryType Source InstanceID Message
----- ---- --------- ------ ---------- -------
77896 Oct 04 15:14 Information Microsoft-Windows... 1 The description for Event
77895 Oct 04 15:14 Information Desktop Window Ma... 1073750827 The Desktop Window Manager
77894 Oct 04 15:14 Information Winlogon 1073745925 Windows license validated.The output from a commandlet can be formatted in various ways, here are some examples:
get-process notepad
Format-List *
get-process
Format-Table name, starttime
get-process
where-object { $_.starttime }
Format-Table name, starttime
For WMI calls the command “get-wmiobject win32_service” does not give much detail. But the following provides plenty of detail:
get-wmiobject win32_service
Format-list *
Here are some examples of how to start applications
Start-process -FilePath notepad
Start-process -FilePath notepad -WindowStyle minimized
PS C:\Users\nfindlater> Get-EventLog application | where-object { $_.message -match 'Desk' }
Index Time EntryType Source InstanceID Message
----- ---- --------- ------ ---------- -------
77895 Oct 04 15:14 Information Desktop Window Ma... 1073750827 The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start ...
This is faster
C:\Users\nfindlater> Get-EventLog application -InstanceId 1001
PS C:\Users\nfindlater> Get-EventLog application -newest 1
Index Time EntryType Source InstanceID Message
----- ---- --------- ------ ---------- -------
77897 Oct 04 16:40 Information MSSQLSERVER 1073760088 Database backed up. Database: ICW_20081001_tRI_...
Here are some more examples using the eventlog
PS C:\Users\nfindlater> Get-EventLog application -newest 1
format-list *
EventID : 18264
MachineName : CHBByyyy.zzz.gggg.net
Data : {88, 71, 0, 0...}
Index : 77897
Category : Backup
etc
Here are some examples with dir.
Give me all files containing the string ground (Very usefull since in Windows 7 the text search function is missing)
dir *.* -recurs
select-string "ground"
Format-List FileName
Here’s a more elaborate version looking for files with “pro” in the name
dir *.* -recurs
Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*pro*"}
select-string "ground"
Format-List FileName
dir *.* -recurs
Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*"}
select-string "ground"
Format-List FileName
Get-Unique
Filename : myfile.vcxproj
dir *.* -recurs
Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*vcx*"}
select-string "ground"
Format-List LineNumber, Path
Get-Unique
LineNumber : 64
Path : D:\path\myfile.vcxproj
Here’s an example of how to replace a string in a file
(Get-Content .\File.TXT)
ForEach-Object {$_ -REPLACE "'", """" }
Set-Content TEST2.TXT
Here are some examples of how to read parts of text files
Get-Content ".\file_test.txt"
select -First 10
Get-Content ".\file_test.txt"
select -Last 10
Get-Content ".\file_test.txt"
select -First 3
select -Last 1
Get-Content ".\file_test.txt"
select -Skip 10
Power Shell with SQL Server
I found the following link that describes how to get the SQL features of powershell working
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc281962.aspx
Basically you need to run the following script to enable sql commands to work
#
# Add the SQL Server Provider.
#
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
$sqlpsreg="HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.PowerShell.sqlps"
if (Get-ChildItem $sqlpsreg -ErrorAction "SilentlyContinue")
{
throw "SQL Server Provider for Windows PowerShell is not installed."
}
else
{
$item = Get-ItemProperty $sqlpsreg
$sqlpsPath = [System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($item.Path)
}
#
# Set mandatory variables for the SQL Server provider
#
Set-Variable -scope Global -name SqlServerMaximumChildItems -Value 0
Set-Variable -scope Global -name SqlServerConnectionTimeout -Value 30
Set-Variable -scope Global -name SqlServerIncludeSystemObjects -Value $false
Set-Variable -scope Global -name SqlServerMaximumTabCompletion -Value 1000
#
# Load the snapins, type data, format data
#
Push-Location
cd $sqlpsPath
Add-PSSnapin SqlServerCmdletSnapin100
Add-PSSnapin SqlServerProviderSnapin100
Update-TypeData -PrependPath SQLProvider.Types.ps1xml
update-FormatData -prependpath SQLProvider.Format.ps1xml
Pop-LocationAfter executing this scripts you can run commands like:
Invoke-Sqlcmd -Query "SELECT @@VERSION;"
Column1
-------
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (RTM) - 10.0.1600.22 (Intel X86) ...
Here’s a more entertaining script that executes an arbitrary command on a list of SQL servers
$servers=get-content "D:\Nigel\PowerShell\SqlServers.txt"
foreach($server in $servers)
{
# go to each server and execute the command in D:\Nigel\PowerShell\SQLCommand.txt
# Invoke-sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -Database master -InputFile “D:\Nigel\PowerShell\SQLCommand.txt”;
Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -Query "SELECT @@VERSION;"
}
Extending this to include input from a file:
$servers=get-content "D:\Nigel\PowerShell\SqlServers.txt"
foreach($server in $servers)
{
# go to each server and execute the command in D:\Nigel\PowerShell\SQLCommand.txt
# Invoke-sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -Database master
Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $server -InputFile “D:\Nigel\PowerShell\SQLCommand.txt”;
}
SQLCommand.txt
==============
SELECT @@VERSION;
SqlServers.txt
==============
CHMyServer1
CHMyServer2
Here’s a URL that describes how to make your own powershell commandlets
http://www.gangleri.net/2009/04/21/BuildingPowerShellCmdletsWithVisualStudio2008.aspx
Building PowerShell Cmdlets with Visual Studio 2008
1.Download Windows PowerShell Cmdlet templates from CodePlex
2.Run the VSI installer to install the project and item templates
3.Open Visual Studio 2008 and select File->New->Project
4.From the New Project dialog select the ‘PowerShellCmdlet’ template
5.Now right click on the project and select ‘Add New Item’. This will show the ‘Add New Item’ dialog. You can see that there are class templates for PSCmdlets, Cmdlets, SnapIns and XML helper files. For now select the Cmdlet template.
6.The ProcessRecord method performs the actual processing for the Cmdlet, in this example we will just call the WriteObject method to display the ‘Hello World’ message.
using System.Management.Automation;
namespace HelloPowerShell
{
[Cmdlet(VerbsCommon.Get, "HelloCmdlet")]
public class HelloCmdlet : Cmdlet
{
protected override void ProcessRecord()
{
WriteObject("Hello World!");
}
}
}
7.Again right click on the project and select add new item, this time select the ‘PowerShellCmdlet Help XML’. The template will automatically prefix ‘.dll-help.xml’ therefore you should just type ‘Get-Hello’ as the name.
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Management.Automation;
using System.Management.Automation.Runspaces;
namespace HelloPowerShell
{
[RunInstaller(true)]
public class HelloSnapIn : CustomPSSnapIn
{
private Collection _cmdlets;
///
/// Gets description of powershell snap-in.
///
public override string Description
{
get { return "A Description of HelloCmdlet"; }
}
///
/// Gets name of power shell snap-in
///
public override string Name
{
get { return "HelloCmdlet"; }
}
///
/// Gets name of the vendor
///
public override string Vendor
{
get { return ""; }
}
public override Collection Cmdlets
{
get
{
if (null == _cmdlets)
{
_cmdlets = new Collection();
_cmdlets.Add(new CmdletConfigurationEntry
("Get-HelloCmdlet", typeof(HelloCmdlet), "Get-HelloCmdlet.dll-Help.xml"));
}
return _cmdlets;
}
}
}
} 8.Now add another new item and select the ‘PowerShellCmdlet SnapIn’ template. Call this ‘HelloSnapIn.cs’
9.By default the SnapIn template fills out some sample information using MyCmdlet as the name simply change this to refer to Get-HelloCmdlet.
10.You can build the project and get a dll
11.Now start Windows PowerShell and run with administrator privileges as you will be installing a Cmdlet.
12.If you are using a 64-bit version of windows issue the command:
Set-Alias installutil C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\InstallUtil.exe
If you have a 32-bit version of windows issues the command:
Set-Alias installutil C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\InstallUtil.exe
13.Now install your Cmdlet with the command:
installutil HelloPowerShell.dll
14.You can verify that the Cmdlet has been installed with the command:
Get-PSSnapin -Registered
15.Add the snap-in to your shell with:
Add-PSSnapin HelloCmdlet
16.You can run the Cmdlet with the command Get-HelloCmdlet and you should see the message “Hello World!”
By the way in VS2010 the PowerShell templates are there by default
