REVIEW: Learn Windows Powershell in a Month of Lunches

Today at work a colleague and I were talking about some different items that we were working on. During the course of the conversation, the other party mentioned what a hassle it was to to have to remote into user machines to get hardware information or an inventory of the user's installed software. When I mentioned that you can get the same information much easier using Powershell, and without having to remote into a machine or having to schedule with and interrupt an end user, he just stopped. He looked at me and said, "Yeah, I really need to work on learning Powershell." He is right, he does, and if you are unfamiliar with Powershell then you need to as well. In Windows 10 and the newer versions of Server, just about everything is run by Powershell. You may choose to still use a GUI, but in the background, your clicks are activating Powershell commands. This post isn't about delving into the necessities of learning Powershell and what Powershell can do, however. This post is about my response to him, which was a recommendation for the book in the title of this entry: Learn Powershell in a Month of Lunches I thought about it again this evening, and if I was recommending this book to a colleague, then I see no reason why I shouldn't share my recommendation with anyone reading these posts, hopefully helping more people. So, I have decided to include quick reviews for books and study material that I consume as part of these entries. These are not meant to be full, in-depth reviews, but a quick overview and reasoning as to why I feel the way I do about the item being reviewed. So, here we go! If you are unfamiliar with Powershell, Learn Windows Powershell in a Month of Lunches is a great place to start. The book is very well written and incredibly easy to follow along with for those just being initiated into the world of Powershell. If you have tried to learn a new language or CLI on the internet before, you may have found that it is hard to find where to start. Beyond that, it can also be hard to find the reasoning for typing what it is you are typing. In addition, many languages make use of shortcuts and aliases and examples you find online are not always the most user-friendly. Learn Windows Powershell in a Month of Lunches breaks down the basics into 25 (roughly) 30-60 minute lessons that you can complete, for example, on your lunch break. Each lesson builds on the previous ones, so by the end of the book you not only know how to work with Powershell, but you understand the reasoning behind what you are doing. Even better, the entire concept of the book is to get you working with Powershell as quick as possible. Examples are designed around real-world uses, and after the first couple of lessons you will have some tools that you can begin utilizing in the workplace immediately. This not only makes you more productive and starts immediately giving you a return on your monetary and time investment, but it keeps you motivated as you see you are really learning a new tool while being able to put it to work almost immediately. For those of you who are Mac and Linux users, the past couple of years have brought Powershell to your environments as well. While many of the examples/labs in this book can be used in a Mac/Linux environment, most cannot. They were sure to include "Windows" in the title for a reason, and I would have to recommend looking elsewhere for Powershell for your specific environments. You will still learn a lot, the book just won't be as effective for you as for those users learning and working in a Windows environment. If you want to learn Powershell, I cannot recommend this book enough. They are up to the third edition (make sure you buy the newest for Powershell 5.0 coverage), and if you buy a new physical copy you also get DRM-free eBook copies when you register the physical copy. If you are interested in picking up a copy: Amazon: Learn Windows Powershell in a Month of Lunches