In This Episode

Today on the PowerScripting Podcast we have a special roundtable with guests Joel Bennett and Mark Schill. We also have the usual cornucopia of of news, tips, and resources. We'll also be announcing the winner of our /n Software contest from show 36.

News

This segment is brought to you by iTripoli!
"Admin Script Editor (which recently received Windows IT Pro's top award) provides a true integrated scripting environment for PowerShell.  The guys at iTripoli haven't done a great job getting the word out about Admin Script Editor so to make up for it they are offering a 50% competitive discount.  Go to adminscripteditor.com to find out if you qualify."

• PowerShell Plus has gone Professional! Check out the 2.0 beta, it's got lots of cool new stuff.

• PowerShell Boot Camp Winter 08/09 | SAPIEN Technologies

Community Roundtable

This segment is brought to you by Quest.
Do you have what it takes to be the ultimate script warrior? Find out with Questâs PowerPack Challenge â08.

Quest Software is sponsoring a PowerShell Scripting contest where you can test your skills and get paid. Just create some cool PowerShell scripts using Questâs PowerGUI and then post them to our site. Youâll get a score and our celebrity judges will weigh in as well.

Do you have the muscle to bring home the prize? Check out the details here.

[This segment mostly revolves around a discussion of PoshCode.org, the script repository for PowerShell which aims to match CPAN or PEAR in scope. After an introduction to PoshCode and an update on the site activity, we launch into a discussion of the future of the tool.]

PoshCode Requirements List

The "use" requirements

1. Host snippets of code
2. Host scripts with multiple functions (including a way to search on verb/noun which will find all the functions in a script)
3. Host script modules -- which maycontain multiple files (need ui for multiple files, and download for "all at once")
5. Easy in, easy out. (low barrier to entry to contribute, multiple ways to download, view, browse, sort, filter)
6. Compiled Modules would require source code to be uploaded and PoshCode online would compile
   • I don't think we want to get into compiling things on the server ... let them compile them themselves (we'd have to require *proj files after all) (Joel)
   • I'm not actually sure we want to do this at all, it's a deep overlap with every other source control service ...
   • This may be v2 stuff (hal)
7. Users would be able to select from a list of approved licenses to be applied to their scripts.
   • License information would be prepended into script upon download
   • licenses:
     • CC-By (Attribution)
     • CC-PD (Public Domain)
     • GPL (sucks [says Hal])
     • MS-PL
8. Repository would have the following fields: Description, Usage, PSVersion,  and Version History
   • Fields would be inserted as comments into the scripts when retrieved.
   • Dependency on other scripts would be controlled by a link to the other script(s).
   • Tags would be used to signify requirements on external dependencies. ex. "VMWare ESX 3.5", "AD 2003", etc.
   • Well we do need a version field for specifing PS version.
     • We should ask that users be explicit about versions by using the #requires -version n.n header in their scripts/modules. (oisin)
   • Comments
9. Published WCF interface for external use.
10. Repository would designed so that users can host their own repositories.
11. RSS fallback

Resources

• Installing DotNetNuke with PowerShell - "I started building a series of PowerShell scripts for simplifying the process. Although there are installers available for DotNetNuke, they are often out of date and are fairly rigid in how they perform the install. Using PowerShell provides a lot of advantages over a traditional installation program. I have complete control over the installation in an interactive environment and can change any one of dozens of parameters that control the installation."
• PowerShell Team Blog : V2 Interview: Universal Code Execution Model - "At TechEd, I did an interview with Kevin Remde where I discussed the V2 Universal Code Execution model in detail. You can see it at: Universal Code Execution Model (UCEM)âa vision of how PowerShell scripts can run anywhere, anytime in just the right semantics."
• Dmitry posted about a SQL Reporting Services PowerPack for PowerGui

Tips

• Nivot Ink - Auto mount/unmount new PSDrives for removable drives and network shares in PowerShell v2 - With this module, anytime you add or remove a removable device like an external harddrive or USB key, or map a new network drive in explorer, PowerShell will now automatically add or remove a corresponding PSDrive for you. Sweet!!
• [IO.File]::ReadAllLines($file).Length is an order of magnitude faster than (get-content $file).length
• PowerShell Email Alerts
• Neat script too allow RDP sessions only from white-listed workstations

Contest

Winners for the /n softwareNetcmdlets contest are:

1. Steve Hiner - Wrote a wrapper for Send-Email script to send email using Gmail's SMTP server
2. Mark Schill - Sent in two entries, the one we've chosen to highlight is his Twitter IM client bot thingy. It uses Send-IM and Get-Http
3. Quintus - A script to download an ESPN podcast using the Get-Rss cmdlet

We will be posting the scripts over the next week, so watch the site for those.

Gotcha

• Downgrading from PS v2 to v1 causes the snapins installed from v2 to quit functioning--even if they are compatible with v1.  A reinstall of the snapin will fix.

We would like to thank Joel and Mark for coming on the show. Weâd also like to thank Ye11owbeard, JPayleck, and BrandonF for helping us test the UStream channel.

Donât forget to follow us on twitter (halr9000, jonwalz), UStream, and Facebook!

In This Episode

Today on the PowerScripting Podcast we will be speaking with Brandon Shell, PowerShell MVP and all around nice guy.  We also have plenty of news, tips, and resources to cover.  And be sure to listen till the end to hear how to win  free commercial licenses for /n Software's Net cmdlets!

News

Today's interview is brought to you by Quest.

Do you have what it takes to be the ultimate script warrior? Find out with Questâs PowerPack Challenge â08.

Quest Software is sponsoring a PowerShell Scripting contest where you can test your skills and get paid. Just create some cool PowerShell scripts using Questâs PowerGUI and then post them to our site. Youâll get a score and our celebrity judges will weigh in as well.

Do you have the muscle to bring home the prize? Check out the details here.

• PrimalScript 2007 Enterprise Edition now comes with PowerShell 101 class-on-disc -if you already own a valid key you can get it by ordering a replacement CD
• Congratulation to PrimalScript for winning two awards: Redmond Magazine's Reader's Choice Award (4th year running) for best scripting tool and Windows ITPro Editorâs Best Award (silver) for scripting tools
• Cool new PoshBoard video (this time in English or French) which shows datagrid tools in PoshBoard
• SQL Server 2008 has been released.  You can download a 180-day trial now or if you have MSDN you can get the full version that way.

Interview

This segment is brought to you by iTripoli!"Admin Script Editor (which recently received Windows IT Pro's top award) provides a true integrated scripting environment for PowerShell.  The guys at iTripoli haven't done a great job getting the word out about Admin Script Editor so to make up for it they are offering a 50% competitive discount.  Go to adminscripteditor.com to find out if you qualify."

Some of the topics covered:

• Performance considerations with regards to Foreach vs. Foreach-Object
• Performance considerations of ADSI v. S.DS.P
• When NOT to use one-liners
• Custom Objects - don't make 380,000 of them
• .NET Reflector
• Citrix stuff incl. their Provisioning Server, Xen Server

In This Episode

We have a great show lined up for you today.  We'll be talking with Brandon Shell (PowerShell MVP) and Steve Murawski (Mind of Root podcast co-host) in a roundtable discussion.  And of course we have news, tips, resources, and more!

News

Thanks to iTripoli for sponsoring this segment.

"Admin Script Editor provides a true integrated scripting environment for PowerShell.  Advanced features include an integrated PowerShell debugger, advanced code generating tools for Active Directory, Databases, XML files and the exclusive PowerShell forms designer.  Come see for yourself-- Admin Script Editor v3.5 is availble for a 45 day trial at AdminScriptEditor.com."

• VMWare is kicking off a PowerShell scripting contest
  • 1st prize: Airfare, hotel and admission to VMWorld 2008 in Las Vegas
  • 2nd prize: Macbook air with VMWare Fusion
  • 3rd prize: XBox 360 Elite
• Marco Shaw is doing NetCmdlets presentation for the UK User group on July 31st
• PowerShell Team Blog : PowerShell Build Environment for Windows SDK - The Windows SDK team would like your feedback on what features you would like most in a future Windows SDK. One of your choices is a PowerShell Build Environment.
• Introducing psake - James Kovacs  - psake is a build automation tool written in PowerShell. It avoids the angle-bracket tax associated with executable XML by leveraging the PowerShell syntax in your build scripts.

Roundtable

Today's roundtable is brought to you by Quest Software.

Do you have what it takes to be the ultimate script warrior? Find out with Questâs PowerPack Challenge â08.

Quest Software is sponsoring a PowerShell Scripting contest where you can test your skills and get paid. Just create some cool PowerShell scripts using Questâs PowerGUI and then post them to our site. Youâll get a score and our celebrity judges will weigh in as well.

Do you have the muscle to bring home the prize? Check out the details here.

We are speaking tonight to to Brandon Shell from bsonposh.com and Steve Murawski from Mind of Root podcast.

Here are a few notes from the panel discussion:

1. "How to help the IT firefighter learn a new scripting language"
   1. how to make time?
   2. WMI classes
      1. win32_operatingsystem
      2. win32_computersystem
      3. win32_process
      4. win32_services
   3. AD
   4. training classes
2. Covering too much V2?  <sepeck> well, more thaqt there is this whole world of people who still are just discovering that there are basics to cover.
3. XML?
4. Polymon

Resources

• Hal brings us a couple of scripts for saving credentials
• Getting Started with PowerShell 2 - Part 3
• Video of Ben Pearce's session from TechEd about PowerShell and WMI has been posted
• Jeffery Hicks has been busy over at the Sapien blog
  • Fun with History
  • Fun with debug messages

Tips

• noble musings: Spreading Exchange 2007 mailboxes between databases with PowerShell
• Precision Computing - PowerShell Execution Policies in Standard Images - Once in awhile, we get questions about the best practice for PowerShell's execution policy when it is included as part of a standard desktop image. This is one of the main reasons that PowerShell ships with a "Restricted" execution policy.
• PowerShellers: The "#requires" statement

In This Episode

We have a great show lined up for you today.  We'll be talking to Carter Shanklin from VMware about their PowerShell Toolkit.  He's got some exciting NEW news to share with us, so that's cool.  We'll also bring you news, resources, tips and whatever else we can scrape up.

News

This segment is brought to you by Quest Software.

Do you have what it takes to be the ultimate script warrior? Find out with Questâs PowerPack Challenge â08.

Quest Software is sponsoring a PowerShell Scripting contest where you can test your skills and get paid. Just create some cool PowerShell scripts using Questâs PowerGUI and then post them to our site. Youâll get a score and our celebrity judges will weigh in as well.

Do you have the muscle to bring home the prize? Check out the details here.

• PowerShellASP (powershelltoys.com) - PowerShellASP is an ASP-like template language for Web Applications; templates contain a mixture of markup (HTML, XML or whatever you want to generate) and inline PowerShell code. At runtime, templates/pages are fully translated to PowerShell code and exe
• Codeplex project PowerShell Pages (codeplex.com/powershellpages)- PowerShell Pages is an ASP like language, based on the PowerShell runtime. Using a simple HTTP Handler, ASP.NET can render pages scripted using PowerShell script (including cmdlets, and CLR/.NET objects) to the web. Simple, fast and intuitive programming
• VMware Toolkit 1.0 is out of beta!  (vmware.com/go/powershell)
  • 125 cmdlets
  • focus on VM lifecycle and ESX server deployment and configuration

Interview

Today's news is brought to you by iTripoli.

"Admin Script Editor provides a true integrated scripting environment for PowerShell.  Advanced features include an integrated PowerShell debugger, advanced code generating tools for Active Directory, Databases, XML files and the exclusive PowerShell forms designer.  Come see for yourself-- Admin Script Editor v3.5 is availble for a 45 day trial at AdminScriptEditor.com."

1. Background
   1. long time developer in Unix-land
   2. VMware for 8 months
2. Current Role
   1. Product Manager
3. Solving Problems
   1. change CD drives on 1500 VMs
4. VMware Toolkit for Windows
   1. Works on VMS 2.0
   2. Lab Manager, VDM -- future potential
   3. 125 cmdlets
   4. focus on ESX & VC
      1. side one: VM lifecycle
      2. side two: VM host deployment
   5. 1.0 released TODAY!
   6. download: http://vmware.com/go/powershell
   7. blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/vipowershell
   8. for help
      1. online docs
      2. community (link from download site)
5. Discussion
   1. VM automation
      1. they are working on it, will use VIX
   2. Developers & PowerShell
      1. key is powershell is application focused
      2. scripts write like you think the task should work
   3. Excel automation
      1. great for general powershell -- not vmware specific
   4. v2 ctp module?

Resources

• There is now an online reference for the Quest AD Cmdlets- Thanks Dmitry
• Video on edge.technet.com about PowerShell and Exchange with Desmond Lee

Tips

• Jeffrey Snover reminds us to update your GAC!  This really speeds up the start time for a powershell console.
• Enabling WinRM with Powershell / Get-Powershell - Don't forget you can use Configure-WSman.ps1 to configure WinRM using PowerShell.
• you can get a much faster file count of a directory by doing a get-item on the parent folder and calling the getFiles() method. Thanks Jaykul!
  • measure-command {
    $folder = get-item '\\server\share'
    Write-Host ($folder.getfiles()).count} # 524 Milliseconds
    Measure-Command {(gci '\\server\share').count} # 1min 18 sec
  • note that getfiles() will not count any directories

Cmdlet-of-the-Week

• out-host has a -Paging parameter

Gotcha

• Vista Event Logs and PowerShell - Ben Pearce points out that you can NOT use Get-EventLog to access all the new logs that are in Vista.

Talk to you next week!  Donât forget to follow Jonathan and Hal on Twitter.

In This Episode

We have a great show lined up for you today.  With us via Skype will be MVPs Kirk Munro and Dmitry Sotnikov both from Quest.  And no show would be complete without News, Resources, and Tips!

News

Today's news is brought to you by iTripoli.
"Admin Script Editor provides a true integrated scripting environment for PowerShell.  Advanced features include an integrated PowerShell debugger, advanced code generating tools for Active Directory, Databases, XML files and the exclusive PowerShell forms designer.  Come see for yourself-- Admin Script Editor v3.5 is availble for a 45 day trial at AdminScriptEditor.com."

• Preview video up of a very interesting new open-source project called PoshBoard.  It's a solid clone of iGoogle, including the AJAX widgets, but the widgets are...PowerShell code!
• And we have more videos.  Marco Shaw has posted the videos from PS VUG meeting #6.
• We're really excited about PoshCode.org.  This is a new domain but an old resource with a bit of a facelift and some new features.  This is the same script repository back end featured at PowerShellCommunity.org and PowerShellCentral.com.  Joel Bennett is adding features to make this a very useful tool.

Panel

This segment is brought to you by Quest!

Do you have what it takes to be the ultimate script warrior? Find out with Questâs PowerPack Challenge â08.

Quest Software is sponsoring a PowerShell Scripting contest where you can test your skills and get paid. Just create some cool PowerShell scripts using Questâs PowerGUI and then post them to our site. Youâll get a score and our celebrity judges will weigh in as well.

Do you have the muscle to bring home the prize? Check out the details here.

We decided to do something different for the interview section.  Instead of an interview, we picked a few topics and went at it round-robin.  Hope you like it!

1. Providers vs cmdlets (e.g. IIS7 providers)
2. Does PowerShell belong on a web server?
3. Aside from remoting--what is version two's most killer feature?

Resources

This section is brought to you by SAPIEN Technologies

• DevInfra-US - Very cool English version of a French PowerShell blog. In his words: "Microsoft Infrastructure Development solutions with PowerShell, C#, ASP.NET and silverlight... Best Effort English translation from Devinfra.blogspot.com :)"
• Antoine from DevInfra has written three articles (one, two, three) on how to call PowerShell script from within an ASP page.  Very cool stuff!
• get-admin - This is a new "Enterprise Administration and Automation" blog by Glenn S. He starts off with a nice screencast showing you how to run a posh script as a scheduled task.
• HyperVoria | Hyper-V PowerShell library - now on Codeplexâ Thanks to Steve Murawski for pointing this one out. The Codeplex project page is here.

Thanks for listening!  Donât forget to follow Jon and Hal on Twitter.

In This Episode

We have a great show lined up for you today.  We're interviewing Peter Schulz with Citrix to talk about their PowerShell product Workflow Studio.  And as always: News, Resources, Tips, and more!

News

Today's news is brought to you by SAPIEN Technologies.

• Windows PowerShell : IIS7 PowerShell Provider Tech Preview 2.  What's new with TP2?
  • IIS7 Powershell provider now supports SSL (installing and acquiring a certificate, creating an ssl site binding)
  • Tech Preview 2 ships with 40 new cmdlets.
• PowerGUI hit a major milestone in surpassing 100,000 downloads!
• From the GPO Guy: New Version of GPMC PowerShell Cmdlets Released!
  • This new version represents a significant updgrade to the existing cmdlets. The biggest change is that we incorporated new functionality that became available in the version of GPMC that shipped with Vista, SP1 and Windows Server 2008.
• Sapien has released build 567 of PrimalScript 2007. New features include:
  • PowerShell Debugger now integrated into Professional and Enterprise Editions
  • PrimalSense for PowerShell operators
  • Parameter prompting for PowerShell scripts
• A new version of the GPMC PowerShell Cmdlets has been released

Interview

This interview is brought to you by iTripoli.
"Admin Script Editor provides a true integrated scripting environment for PowerShell.  Advanced features include an integrated PowerShell debugger, advanced code generating tools for Active Directory, Databases, XML files and the exclusive PowerShell forms designer.  Come see for yourself-- Admin Script Editor v3.5 is availble for a 45 day trial at AdminScriptEditor.com."

Our interview today is with Peter Schulz from Citrix.  Enjoy.  Here's our notes from the conversation:

1. Intro
   1. Peter Schulz has been with Citrix for over 8 years in Consulting, Engineering, Product Marketing, and is now the Technical Product Manager for Citrix Workflow Studio, a new IT Process Automation tool that is currently available as a technology preview.
   2. Background
   3. PowerShell's adoption inside Citrix
2. Workflow Studio
   1. Background / Why the acquisition?
   2. Features
      1. Overview
      2. Built-in tasks
         1. How are these made?
         2. Can a user create new ones?
         3. How often will Citrix be updating them?
         4. Selected Categories / tasks
            1. AD: Create Random Password
            2. input/output: user choice
            3. flow control: split task
      3. Can workflows be executed on remote systems directly?
      4. You can double-click on a task and you drill down into a function?  How does this work?
   3. Will the product remain free?
      1. There will always be a free version similar to what is in the tech preview now.  The commercial version will of course have more stuff in it.
   4. Ship date?
      1. Second half of this year
   5. How are customers using it so far?
   6. Vision / future plans
      1. .net 3.5
3. For more information?
   1. Peter's blog: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/petersc
   2. Workflow Studio download link: http://citrix.com/wfsinsider
   3. Community page: http://community.citrix.com/display/cdn/Citrix+Workflow+Studio

Resources

Do you have what it takes to be the ultimate script warrior? Find out with Questâs PowerPack Challenge â08.

Quest Software is sponsoring a PowerShell Scripting contest where you can test your skills and get paid. Just create some cool PowerShell scripts using Questâs PowerGUI and then post them to our site. Youâll get a score and our celebrity judges will weigh in as well.

Do you have the muscle to bring home the prize? Check out the details here.

• Don Jones gives a great illustration of how the pipeline works in this month's TechNet Magazine
• Jon Noble points us out to Updated PowerShell resources from TechNet Script Center
  • Two of the more comprehensive resources on Script Center have just been updated, the PowerShell Owner's Manual and the Vbscript to PowerShell conversion guide.
• And Jaykul from HuddledMasses.org has posted part two of the powershell profile article we mentioned last week.
• Oisin brings us a script that will resolve all Aliases in a script. Uses CTP2 tokenizer

Tips 

• Variable expansion in strings. We've talked about it before, but I saw someone fighting with it just yesterday.
  • "$object.parameter something else" does not work. Use "$($object.parameter) something else" instead
• From Poshoholic: Essential PowerShell: Name your custom object types
  • One important thing that is often overlooked when people are writing scripts that do this is that they can also give those objects a type name.
• Sepeck on the #PowerShell IRC channel (irc.freenode.net) shared a link with us about his experiences with PowerShell help files.  It's a good before-and-after story with a lesson.  :)  He links to one of Don Jones' articles with further advice on the topic.

One-Liner

• [system.directoryservices.activedirectory.domain]::GetCurrentDomain().DomainControllers | fl Name

A big thanks to Peter Schulz for coming on the show tonight.  We're looking forward to interviewing the Kirk and Dmitry from the PowerGUI team.  Send in your questions!  As always, you can contact the show by email to feedback@powerscripting.net.  You can also leave us reviews on iTunes and comments on the blog.  Don't forget to check out Quest's contest details at quest.com/powerscripting.

Other ways to interact with us: Facebook Group (forums, networking), Twitter (jonwalz& halr9000)

In This Episode

We have a ton of stuff foryou today.  News, Resources, Tips, and even an old favorite, the Cmdlet of the Week.

For the full show notes visit us at Http://PowerScripting.net

We have a ton of stuff for you today.  Our interview is with ThorbjÃrn SjÃvold from Special Operations Software.  Also on tap: news (yes we have some today), resources, tips and even a gotcha.

News

The news is brought to you by Sapien Technologies.

• SDM Software - Group Policy Health cmdlet
• Portable PowerShell? Karl Prosser has a way to do it.
• Citrix has released a tech preview of their new Workflow Studio product.  To download a copy, go to the download page, but realize you have to have a My Citrix account (to which you can sign up for free).
• PowerGUI won the âBreakthrough Product of 2008â award at TechEd.  Congrats, guys!
• Dmitry blogs about a new MS Office Communication Server PowerGUI Powerpack
• We may see a new PowerShell V2 CTP drop in November to be timed with IT Forum Barcelona (the EU version of TechEd).  Jeffrey Snover also hints at a release date on his blog.

Interview

Our interview today is brought to you by Quest Software.

For a limited time, Quest is offering Powerscripting Podcast listeners a free copy of Jeffery Hicks upcoming book, Managing Active Directory with Windows PowerShell: TFM from Sapien Press.

Go to www.quest.com/powerscripting to register for your copy and download their free graphical user interface, script editor and Active Directory commands.

Resources

The resources are brought to you by iTripoli.

âAdmin Script Editor provides a true integrated scripting environment for PowerShell.  Advanced features include an integrated PowerShell debugger, advanced code generating tools for Active Directory, Databases, XML files and more.  Letâs not forget about the exclusive PowerShell forms designer. Whatâs coming up? Soon its innovative and feature-rich ScriptPackger tool will offer support for the dynamic installation of cmdlets! Come see for yourselfâ Admin Script Editor v3.5 is availble for a 45 day trial at AdminScriptEditor.com.â

• Scriptform designer tip for the Admin Script Editor
• This is from a twitter fan stahler and his new blog âFatBeardâs Adventures in PowerShellâ:
  • Change DNS & WINS on multiple machinesâI was recently asked if I could change the DNS & WINS IP address on multiple servers via script. PowerShell to the rescue!â
• Jeffery Snover has a post on getting credentials from the command line -itâs a simple registry change
• Speaking of PowerGUI earlier, be sure to follow PowerGUI.org, and these developer blogs for news and tips about that product:
  • Dmitryâs PowerBlog
  • Kirk Munroâs Poshoholic
• Kirk Munro also brings us a great book review of the Windows PowerShell Pocket Reference (Lee Holmes)
• Also Kirk let us know about an interview that Dmitry did during Teched for ITTV
• Go check out âBenpâs Guide to Stuffâ.  This is from Ben Pearce, a field engineer from Microsoft.  Heâs got a great blog, but I wanted to mention that heâs also a great speaker.  He did a wonderful PowerShell & WMI presentation at TechEd.  Heâs posted several of his demos on his website.

Gotcha

• This is from a longtime Citrix expert Brian Madden (brianmadden.com).  The article is from April, but I just came across it the other day.  The key part of the article is this quote:  âa student in our 5-day Citrix Master class in Ausralia a few weeks ago told of doing the ârightâ thing. He said that he had taken the time to learn PowerShell and rewrote all of his VBS Citrix login scripts in PowerShell. The result? Login times went from about 2.5 seconds to over 15 seconds per user!â
  • Whatâs the lesson here?  Donât use PowerShell for login scripts? I would say it is a non-issue for single-user workstations, but may be something to consider for your Citrix or Termainl Server app servers.  Hopefully weâll see this improve for V2.
  • Thereâs some amusing commentary on the article, you may want to check that out.

Please email us (feedback@powerscripting.net) tips and feedback!  We also love iTunes reviews and blog comments.  Other ways to interact with us: Facebook Group (forums, networking), Twitter (jonwalz& halr9000)