title: How to get started with Powershell
date: 2015-02-22 14:14:00 +0200 +0200
draft: false
author: John Roos
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Do you want to get started with Powershell but you dont know where to start? To get you started I have collected a bunch of links which has helped a lot of people to get going with Powershell. These links range from the most basic introductions to advanced scripting and history lessons. Lets start with the basic stuff to anyone new to Powershell. These links are also good if you have learned by yourself over the years, since it might help you break bad habbits you dont know you have.
Get-Started
Getting Started with PowerShell 3.0 Jump Start
In this nine part video series Jason Helmick and Jeffrey Snover goes through the basics of Powershell starting with how to install it right up to an introduction to advanced scripting and tool making. Each session is somewhere between 40 minutes up to 75 minutes so there are lots of stuff here. If you go though this series I promise you will have enough to get you a long way. And dont worry that its made for version 3 of Powershell. Its still valid for Powershell 4 and 5.
The series is available both on Channel 9 and on Microsoft Virtual Academy.
Two days of Powershell workshops
Now these videos are very long (over four hours each), but if you take it piece by piece they could be really helpful. If you havent heard of Don Jones, you will as soon as you get more into Powershell. Don has his own way of teaching which I think is very good and really keeps the audience interested. The videos can be found on Youtube here.
Powershell unplugged
During Powershell Summit 2013 Jeffrey Snover and Don Jones had an introduction to how you can explore powershell by yourself. Powershell is ment to be explored, which you will quickly learn in this video.
Go-Further
If you feel you need something more advanced than the introductions there are still plenty of resources out threre. Here are a few really good examples.
Advanced Tools & Scripting with PowerShell 3.0
Jason Helmick and Jeffrey Snover are on it again. This time they go through lots of interesting topics about scripting and tool making in this nine part series. Everything from how the language works to error handling and writing your own cmdlets. Did I mention that Jeffrey Snover is also the inventor of Powershell? He have lots of small anecdotes to why certain things work as they do and why Microsoft did certain decisions. Highly recommended!
The series is available both on Channel 9 and on Microsoft Virtual Academy.
PowerShell Best Practices and Patterns
During TechEd last year Don Jones spent an hour talking about best practices for Powershell. This is a good way to learn what you are doing wrong and learn some tricks on the way. You are not just writing code for yourself, right? If you need to share code with other people or even if you want to revisit some scripts in the future it might be a good idea to consider how you write your code so that its easier to understand what they do. Learn about best practices here.
The Powerscripting podcast
Jon Walz and Hal Rottenberg has been running the Powerscripting podcast now for almost eight years. As of this writing the last episode was number 295. The guests of this show is a mix of members of the Powershell team at Microsoft and really smart people within the community. Great podcast to listen to on your way to work.
Monad manifesto revisited
Monad was the internal codename for Powershell at Microsoft before it became Powershell. In this video Jeffrey Snover talks about the history of powershell and revisits his original Monad manifesto which he wrote in 2002 and discusses how far they have come. This shows Microsofts dedication to Powershell and what the future might bring. This video is not that much about learning to code, but rather to get some perspective on things. You can find the video here.
Get-Social
Besides videos there are lots of other resources out there. Powershell.org has some great posts and a friendly forum. They even have a collection of free ebooks written by the community. The scripting guy also have lots of tips and a pretty large gallery of scripts both from Microsoft and the community. Don’t forget to check out their forums as well.
Using twitter? Here are the links to everyone mentioned in this article: Jason Helmick: @thejasonhelmick Jeffrey Snover: @jsnover Don Jones: @concentrateddon Jon Walz: @jonwalz Hal Rottenberg: @halr9000
How to get started with Powershell
Do you want to get started with Powershell but you dont know where to start? To get you started I have collected a bunch of links which has helped a lot of people to get going with Powershell. These links range from the most basic introductions to advanced scripting and history lessons. Lets start with the basic stuff to anyone new to Powershell. These links are also good if you have learned by yourself over the years, since it might help you break bad habbits you dont know you have.
Get-Started
Getting Started with PowerShell 3.0 Jump Start
In this nine part video series Jason Helmick and Jeffrey Snover goes through the basics of Powershell starting with how to install it right up to an introduction to advanced scripting and tool making. Each session is somewhere between 40 minutes up to 75 minutes so there are lots of stuff here. If you go though this series I promise you will have enough to get you a long way. And dont worry that its made for version 3 of Powershell. Its still valid for Powershell 4 and 5.
The series is available both on Channel 9 and on Microsoft Virtual Academy.
Two days of Powershell workshops
Now these videos are very long (over four hours each), but if you take it piece by piece they could be really helpful. If you havent heard of Don Jones, you will as soon as you get more into Powershell. Don has his own way of teaching which I think is very good and really keeps the audience interested. The videos can be found on Youtube here.
Powershell unplugged
During Powershell Summit 2013 Jeffrey Snover and Don Jones had an introduction to how you can explore powershell by yourself. Powershell is ment to be explored, which you will quickly learn in this video.
Go-Further
If you feel you need something more advanced than the introductions there are still plenty of resources out threre. Here are a few really good examples.
Advanced Tools & Scripting with PowerShell 3.0
Jason Helmick and Jeffrey Snover are on it again. This time they go through lots of interesting topics about scripting and tool making in this nine part series. Everything from how the language works to error handling and writing your own cmdlets. Did I mention that Jeffrey Snover is also the inventor of Powershell? He have lots of small anecdotes to why certain things work as they do and why Microsoft did certain decisions. Highly recommended!
The series is available both on Channel 9 and on Microsoft Virtual Academy.
PowerShell Best Practices and Patterns
During TechEd last year Don Jones spent an hour talking about best practices for Powershell. This is a good way to learn what you are doing wrong and learn some tricks on the way. You are not just writing code for yourself, right? If you need to share code with other people or even if you want to revisit some scripts in the future it might be a good idea to consider how you write your code so that its easier to understand what they do. Learn about best practices here.
The Powerscripting podcast
Jon Walz and Hal Rottenberg has been running the Powerscripting podcast now for almost eight years. As of this writing the last episode was number 295. The guests of this show is a mix of members of the Powershell team at Microsoft and really smart people within the community. Great podcast to listen to on your way to work.
Monad manifesto revisited
Monad was the internal codename for Powershell at Microsoft before it became Powershell. In this video Jeffrey Snover talks about the history of powershell and revisits his original Monad manifesto which he wrote in 2002 and discusses how far they have come. This shows Microsofts dedication to Powershell and what the future might bring. This video is not that much about learning to code, but rather to get some perspective on things. You can find the video here.
Get-Social
Besides videos there are lots of other resources out there. Powershell.org has some great posts and a friendly forum. They even have a collection of free ebooks written by the community. The scripting guy also have lots of tips and a pretty large gallery of scripts both from Microsoft and the community. Don’t forget to check out their forums as well.
Using twitter? Here are the links to everyone mentioned in this article: Jason Helmick: @thejasonhelmick Jeffrey Snover: @jsnover Don Jones: @concentrateddon Jon Walz: @jonwalz Hal Rottenberg: @halr9000
- Written by John Roos on February 22, 2015