Windows PowerShell 3.0 First Steps

This is a very good book, it starts you out by showing your the basics of the language and then slowly takes you into the deeper sections of windows (AD, registry, etc)I have found this book very helpful but I do have a complaint. The author shows you the commands that work with Windows 8 and Server 2012 now what if you are using Windows 7 some of these commands will not work and it does not tell you that it will only work in Windows 8 / Server 2012, if they would at least have a arrow... only works with Windows 7 I would really appreciate that.I have learned a lot from this book and am sure I will purchase other books in his collection in the future, but if you are about to purchase this book to learn Power Shell 3.0 I would suggest you have Windows 8 and or Server 2012 handy.

It's hard to assign integral star ratings to this book. I think it's in the 2.5-3.25 star category: It isn't really pedagogical, it's more an assorted 'Oh Yeah, and you can do this' jumble of possibilities.As a beginner at PowerShell, but a lifelong programmer -- from APL to the JVM and CLR and everything in between -- this book just wasn't giving me what I wanted, and I ended up ditching it for another text rather early on.It's not valueless: I intend to return to this book after I acquire the skills I think I need first, and then hopefully some of the scattered gems throughout the text will be more clear to me.YMMV, so think hard before you plunk down your cash on this one.

I've been using powershell for a little while, by looking at a powershell cookbook, my colleagues' scripts, and googling a lot. In fact, I've used a fair number of this author's scripts from his Hey Scripting Guy! blog. I've been able to do most of what I want to, but it's been very much trial and error. I was worried that this book might be too easy for me, but it's actually already been highly useful for putting everything I've been doing into context. I haven't even finished Chapter 1 and already feel like I understand much more than I did before starting to read this.Go Scripting Guy!

Book is very good so far, it does assume that you have a complete working knowledge of Windows and the operating system. It is very clear on what to do and the differences between Powershell and VB. Suggest to not read it on an iPhone screen.

Good beginner's book on the PowerShell. I bought this book to update my shell library and didn't find significant changes from earlier versions of the shell (so maybe I didn't really need this?). But it clearly explains the shell and is an easy read.

Since reading this book, I've loaned it out to a few other coworkers who have also had a lot of success from this book. This was one of the few technical manuals that I actually enjoyed reading. From the beginning I felt that I was learning usable concepts rather than drowning in theory.I would recommend this book for a novice but not someone already familiar with PowerShell.

This was purchased for our I.T. Dept. at work and since I haven't heard any complaints, I am assuming it is satisfactory. Probably not a book you want to sit down and relax reading.

The way the book is set out, it takes a very complex tool, Version 3.0 and introduces the reader gently and comprehensively.I love it.

For someone who is wanting to learn the ins and outs of Microsoft's powerful new scripting language, I bought this book to help me understand the basics. The book is written well and is easy to understand however it may not be what you are after.Most people when they want to use a scripting language do not care how they can make it generate random numbers or perform various levels of arithmetic. Instead they want to utilise the language to perform a specific task - in my case MS Exchange 2010 mailbox and Active Directory management. This is great, but this book (nor any other book) will be able to help you with this. You're best saving money and time and simply searching for the command you need to perform.I am not saying this book is useless, far from it - it's an essential tool if you are wanting to actually learn how to use the scripting toolbox provided by Microsoft - however if you're just wanting to export a list of users from a security group then just search for that and save yourself the hassle.

Sadly it doesn't go into much detail about how powershell should be structured. I assume it thinks you already know powershell already. Not for a beginner at all. It's also very short, which leads me to believe it only covers what's new. Also nothing at all about Azure, so anything related to Office 365 is not in this book.

Very much an entry level course, but covers a lot of material. Bought as a refresher to my official syllabus course, this would have been a better purchase than the course.

Nice