If you are looking for materials related to Microsoft Course 55039, be advised that Don no longer owns or maintains the course. Please contact the current course owner via Courseware Marketplace.

Change the Way You Code in PowerShell!

Veteran PowerShell experts and authors Don Jones and Jeffery Hicks bring you an all-new, "Agile-published" book on PowerShell Scripting and "Toolmaking." Written in their inimitable, approachable style with plenty of examples, this book focuses on an all-new narrative based on their teaching experiences since 2010. You'll not only learn "how to script" in PowerShell, you'll learn the far more important patterns and practices that will enable you to create reusable tools that look and work like native PowerShell commands. You'll also learn a world of related topics, including how to add database access to your tools, how to publish to public and private repositories, and even an introduction to key topics like Pester testing.

Thousands of IT professionals have, after experiencing Don & Jeff's classes and books, remarked that, "now I need to go home and rewrite everything I've done!" That's what this book will do for you: change the way you think about coding in PowerShell. You'll find yourself producing more efficient, more reusable tools, more easily and more quickly. You'll cement a deep understanding of not only how PowerShell works, but why it works that way, helping you make better script design decisions, and helping you execute better PowerShell tools from now on.

This book is very much "Part 3" in Don and Jeff's approach to teaching PowerShell. Part 1 is their bestselling Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches (Manning), the "pre-scripting" PowerShell book that covers the shell's inner workings, core patterns, and basic usage. Part 2 is PowerShell Scripting in a Month of Lunches, which covers the entry-level aspects of scripting, including the foundational narrative of "the right way" to build functions and tools. This book picks up where they leave off, providing a rapid rundown of that "right way," and quickly moving into more "grown-up" scripting techniques, advanced approaches, data handling, and a lot more. As an Agile-published book, Don and Jeff can continue to update this book, as the more-advanced topics (more so than the entry-level ones) are the ones affected by new version releases.

APPLIES TO MANY VERSIONS OF POWERSHELL! If you're using PowerShell v4, v5, v5.1, or PowerShell 7, you'll find everything in this book is applicable to you in some form or another (although in PowerShell Core or PowerShell 7, any Windows-specific examples may not be functional).

NOW COVERS PESTER! Take your scripting to the next level by incorporating professional unit-testing using the ubiquitous Pester testing framework for PowerShell. A whole new section of this book covers everything you'll need to know to get started.

See the Contents

Use the "Table of Contents" link to see the complete table of contents for the full book. This does change and evolve as we work on the book. Note that the free sample reviews the complete ToC, but isn't necessarily up to date or entirely complete.

Hands-On Labs

You'll even find review questions and hands-on labs, complete with sample solutions, along with a short lab setup guide. These features will help you practice what you're learning, and make the book suitable for use in classroom settings (we recommend contacting the authors for an inexpensive site license, if you're a training center; we also provide slide decks, delivery guides, and other materials as part of a training center or trainer license).

We Publish as We Go

This is an Agile-published book, which means the authors are releasing it as they write it, and will continue to update the book as the underlying technology evolves over time. Assuming you meet the pre-requisites, this is the last book you'll ever need to buy on this topic, because your one-time purchase grants you lifetime access to updates and new content. We'll even email you via LeanPub (if you opt-in) when there's fresh content for you.

About Our Pricing

The price for this book might seem high. But that's because it's the last you'll ever have to buy. We won't be after you for a "second edition" in a couple of years, because you'll get each new update and release for free. So the higher price? This reflects that fact that you're paying up-front for what amounts to a lifetime subscription - we'll never come after you for more money for some future edition, reprinting, or update.

Check Out the Free Sample

The free sample includes sample chapters, but why bother? LeanPub has a no-questions-asked refund policy, so it's completely risk-free to grab the "real" book and see what you think. We trust you to do the right thing!

What Formats are Available?

All LeanPub books are offered in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB, and you get all three with your purchase. Note that the PDF is probably the "highest fidelity" version, especially in terms of code listings.

How Can I Contact the Authors?

We love feedback. Use the "Email the Authors" link, just below, to contact us. For feedback on the book, please provide a chapter, heading, and short snippet of text to let us know where you're looking - page numbers don't do any good, as they don't correspond with our source files.

A Note on Other Booksellers

Note that "Numbered Editions" of this book may also be available on Amazon or through other booksellers (e.g., "First Edition," "Second Edition," etc.) These are "snapshots" of the LeanPub version from a particular project milestone. Purchases made elsewhere are a one-time purchase, and do not include ongoing updates to the content. If you purchased the book elsewhere, we regrettably cannot somehow give you access to the LeanPub version, nor will you receive future updates at no charge.

This book culminates almost 20 years of writing about and teaching PowerShell. In that time, I have come to realize that there is more to PowerShell than stringing some commands together in a pipeline or writing a PowerShell script. For years, I focused on the mechanics, such as how to write a script, use a cmdlet, and use the pipeline. But I have come to realize that there is more to PowerShell than just the mechanics. There is a philosophy behind PowerShell that is just as important as the mechanics. This book is about that philosophy.

These are my ideas based on years of teaching, presenting, and writing about PowerShell. These are ideas that aren't necessarily documented in Microsoft documentation. I like to think of these concepts as PowerShell's "squishy" bits. The parts that are hard to quantify but are just as important as the mechanics.

Learning the mechanics is easy. You can ask ChatGPT or CoPilot to write a command. But generally, you are writing commands for someone to run. Maybe you. Maybe the help desk. What do you need to know to create a PowerShell command that is fluid, easy to use, and easy to understand? What is the context in which someone will run your command? AI-generated code may be a good starting point but should not be the end. How can you create something that is as frictionless as possible for the user?

Is This Book for You?

The book's target audience is the PowerShell scripting IT Pro. A typical reader will have basic PowerShell experience and scripting skills. Ideally, the reader will have created scripts, functions, or modules and wants to know how to make them better and more user-friendly.

What Will You Learn?

While there is a lot of code in the book, that isn't the focus. You will learn how to think about your code from a user's perspective. You will learn how to think about your code from a greater context than simple execution. The code samples are there to illustrate the concepts and provide examples of what you can do to improve the quality of your code. I'll also share suggestions for making PowerShell easier for you to use on a daily basis.

Free Sample Chapter

The free sample includes sample chapters to give you a taste of what to expect. You are encouraged and more than welcome to download them. But why bother? Leanpub has a no-questions-asked refund policy, so it's completely risk-free.

Available Formats

Leanpub offers eBooks in multiple formats, and you get all of them with your purchase. I love the "Send to Kindle" feature. Note that the PDF is probably the "highest fidelity" version, especially in terms of code listings. Buy once, own forever.