Using Powershell

There are a few ways we can interact with PowerShell directly. There is a command windows which looks the same as the old command prompt.

There is also a full graphical development environment called the Integrated Scripting Environment or ISE. Remember, the objective here is not just to write handy single lines of code. The reasons we script are to permanently record, formalise, document, and institutionalise all those tasks that we must do more than once. Scripts are how we make administration efficient.

From version 7, the ISE is deprecated, and Visual Studio Code is recommended. 

PowerShell 7.x does not come preinstalled; we need to download it. PowerShell 5.1 is built in living at C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell. The original tool for working with PowerShell was the command prompt or an IDE called the ISE. In the search bar, type PowerShell and launch the Windows PowerShell ISE as administrator (right-click to do so). In View, I click to show the script pane.

If I type

$PSVersiontable

into the script window and click Run, I can check the version.