Don Jones' PowerShell 4N00bs

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This book is no longer available for sale.

Don Jones' PowerShell 4N00bs

About the Book

Now available in paperback format from Amazon. All sales here on Leanpub support The DevOps Collective's IT scholarship and other nonprofit programs.

This is a "Pay what you think it's worth" book. You set the price based on what you can afford and what you feel the book is worth.

What the heck is PowerShell, and why should you care? Is "PowerShell Core" different from "Windows PowerShell?" What is a CLI, anyway, and why is clicking icons so bad?

Designed for the absolute newcomer, Don Jones' PowerShell 4N00bs is the friendly, concise, easy-to-follow book that gets you on the right track with PowerShell from the word "go." Designed around PowerShell Core, Microsoft's open-source and cross-platform edition of PowerShell, this book makes it easy to follow along on Windows, Mac, or Linux. You'll learn why PowerShell exists, and Don will carefully point out the 6 main speed bumps that most newcomers trip over - and keep YOU from tripping over them! You'll start your PowerShell experience off the right way, instead of the confused way, and you'll gain the confidence to begin participating in the many helpful PowerShell communities, like PowerShell.org.

Don's honest and no-nonsense approach points out the areas where PowerShell "lies," keeping you from being swept up in confusion. Plentiful analogies and stories make PowerShell's more obscure concepts absolutely clear, and abundant examples explain exactly what PowerShell is doing, and why you should care.

If you start your PowerShell career off with only one book, this is the one you'll want it to be!

About the Author

Don Jones
Don Jones

Don Jones has been in the IT industry since the mid 1990s, and has been a recipient of Microsoft's "Most Valuable Professional" Award since 2003. He's a co-founder of PowerShell.org and The DevOps Collective, and a Curriculum Director for online video training company Pluralsight. Don authored some of the first books ever published for Windows PowerShell, and is the co-author of Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches, the bestselling entry-level book for PowerShell. Don's a sought-after speaker at technology conferences like Microsoft Ignite, TechMentor, and many more. In 2014, Don started writing fiction in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, and had produced several notable novels, including The Never: A Tale of Peter and the Fae, The Achillios Chronicles trilogy (Alabaster, Onyx, and Verdant), and Daniel Scratch: A Story of Witchkind. You can find him on Twitter @concentratedDon, or on his website, DonJones.com. 

Table of Contents

  • 1 About this Series
  • 2 A Note on Code
  • 3 What is PowerShell?
    • What Came Before
    • Introducing PowerShell
    • OK - Why Should I Care?
  • 4 Installing PowerShell
    • Windows PowerShell
    • PowerShell Core
    • VS Code
  • 5 Your First Console Experience
    • Launch PowerShell
    • Check Your Version
    • Run a Command
    • Files and Folders
    • Exit
    • A Good First Step
  • 6 Where Do Commands Come From?
    • Built-In Commands
    • Comes with Software
    • The Internet
    • PowerShell Gallery
    • Your Own Gallery
    • Seeing What Modules and Commands You Have
    • What’s in a Module?
    • Explore What’s Out There
  • 7 How Do I Use This Thing?
    • Windows Only: ExecutionPolicy
    • It’s Okay to Ask for Help
    • Reading the Help Files
  • 8 Objects and the Magic of Formatting
    • Formatting Rules
    • Messing with Objects
    • PowerShell Plays Along
    • Objects: the Important Bits
  • 9 Enter the Pipeline
    • Six Pipelines
    • Simple Pipeline Examples
    • Pipeline Input: Plan A
    • Pipeline Input: Plan B
    • Wrapping Up
  • 10 Filtering and Selecting
    • Filtering
    • Being Efficient with Filtering
    • Selecting Properties
    • Advanced Selecting
    • Wrapping Up
  • 11 The Very Basics of Scripting
    • Wrapping Up
  • 12 Going Remote
    • Enabling Remoting
    • Connectivity
    • Sending Remote Commands
    • Remote Jobs
    • Wrapping Up
  • 13 Understanding Your OS
  • 14 The Chapter of Gotchas
    • Format to the Right
    • ForEach vs. ForEach vs. ForEach
    • Collections vs. Objects
  • 15 Where to Next?
  • 16 Welcome to the Community!

Causes Supported

DevOps Collective Scholarships

http://devopscollective.org

Support IT education scholarships by giving to The DevOps Collective, Inc.

The DevOps Collective’s OnRamp scholarships help younger technology professionals, many from underrepresented groups and disadvantaged backgrounds, learn about IT automation, DevOps practices, and more - all at no cost to them or their families. We’re changing one life at a time and helping to ensure the continuation and advancement of our trade!

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