Prof. Powershell

Sharpen Your Pencils! A Powershell Pop Quiz

Prof. Powershell has been giving you the answers; now, a quiz to see how much attention you've been paying.

• By Jeffery Hicks
• 09/24/2008

1. What is PowerShell?

1. A fabulous dessert topping
2. A terrific floor wax
3. The future of Windows automation and administration

2. The basic command element in PowerShell is what?

1. A batch file
2. A cmdlet
3. A prayer

3. PowerShell is often referred to as what?

1. An object oriented shell built on the .NET Framework
2. A clam shell
3. A band shell

4. PowerShell passes objects from one command to another via what?

1. IRC
2. E-mail
3. The pipeline

5. What can you type in PowerShell to find out more information about a particular command?

1. Oh magic genie
2. help
3. please

6. What must you set before you can run a PowerShell script?

1. Your alarm clock
2. Your budget
3. Your execution policy

7. An alternative and usually shorter name for a command is referred to as what?

1. An alias
2. Bob
3. p

8. PowerShell cmdlets follow what naming convention which makes them easy to learn?

1. Boy-Girl
2. Love::Hate
3. Verb-Noun

9. What can you use to discover information about a given object?

1. Get-Member
2. A Ouiji board
3. Magic 8 Ball

10. PowerShell is:

1. An interactive management shell
2. A flexible and simple scripting language
3. Something your job will eventually require
4. All of the above

Bonus Question (5 points): The Microsoft architect of Windows PowerShell, it's public face and probably most vocal proponent is?

1. Roy G. Biv
2. Kevin Bacon
3. Jeffrey Snover

Grading is on a straight scale but I trust everyone aced this quiz. If you need a refresher on any topic, check back over the older Prof. PowerShell columns, pick up a copy of Windows PowerShell: TFM 2nd Edition and stay tuned for more. We'll now take a short break for recess.

Answers: c,b,a,c,b,c,a,c,a,d. Bonus: Jeffrey Snover.