PowerShell by Mistake

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This book is no longer available for sale.

PowerShell by Mistake

About the Book

100% of proceeds from this book support The DevOps Collective's scholarship and other nonprofit programs. The "Free Sample" is the entire book; you can choose to "buy" the book for any amount you like in order to make a donation.

Human brains are funny things. At the end of the day, our brains are still wired the same way they were when we were cavemen trying to survive in the wild. Anything relevant to our immediate survival tended to "stick" in our brains, and anything not relevant tends to slip past. Tell a child, "don't touch that hot pot on the stove!" all you want to, they're still likely to touch it—once. 

This book is the hot pot on the stove. It's a collection of mistakes, and an opportunity to solve them, albeit without burning your fingers.

In this book, I've collected edited versions of PowerShell questions and "broken" code, and in each chapter I'll present one. You'll take the time to read the code, figure out the problem, and try to solve it. Then, I'll present a solution, along with a detailed explanation of not only what was wrong, but why

This book is not a how-to, and I presume that you already have a decent amount of basic PowerShell education under your belt. This book is not about how to make Active Directory work, or Exchange Server, or SharePoint Server, or anything else; this is about PowerShell. So you're going to see problems that relate to the core of how PowerShell works. Many of these problems spring from "gotchas" in PowerShell, while others have their origin in very common misunderstandings about how the shell works.

If you feel that you learn best by getting your hands dirty, making mistakes, and figuring them out, then this book is for you.

And if you've ever wondered, "do I really know what PowerShell is all about?" then you can consider this book to be an ongoing quiz of sorts. Each chapter offers a new opportunity to test your PowerShell mojo, validate what you know, and perhaps pick up a new trick or two along the way.

NOTE: This is a "continually published" book, and it is open-source. All proceeds (whatever you set the price to when you buy the book) are donated to The DevOps Collective's scholarship and other nonprofit programs.

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

  • About This Book
  • Introduction
  • How to Use This Book
  • A Note on Code Samples
  • Contacting Me
  • Problem 1: On Apples and Apples
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 2: On Alternate Credentials
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 3: On Strings ByValue
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 4: On Magic Quote Timing
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 5: On Patterns and Suppression
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 6: On Formatting Numbers in Strings
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 7: On Parsing Strings
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 8: Mix ‘n’ Match
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 9: The Return of…
    • Spolier!!
  • Problem 10: True Equality
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 11: Argumentative
    • Spoiler!
  • Problem 12: Assignment and Output
    • Spoiler!
  • Problem 13: Tricky Parameter Sets
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 14: The Business Case
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 15: Not Your Father’s Programming Language
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 16: Shall I Compare Thee…
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 17: Debug Me
    • Spoiler!!
  • Problem 18: Literally the Registry
    • Spoiler!!

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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