Prof. Powershell
Reading Assignment
My secret for learning Powershell? Check out these blogs.
- By Jeffery Hicks
- 11/19/2008
I'm glad if you've been enjoying the Prof. PowerShell lessons. But I'm sure you realize Prof. PowerShell alone can't teach you PowerShell. If you really want to go to the head of the class, you'll need some additional outside reading.
Blogs are an excellent source of information. Information is timely, posts are usually short and they are delivered right to your desk (or mobile device or wherever you happen to be). Here are some blogs I encourage you to check out.
First, you absolutely must read the PowerShell team blog from Microsoft. This is the best way to learn what is coming from PowerShell, but the team usually posts terrific examples of how to use PowerShell. Follow Jeffrey Snover and the gang here.
If you have Citrix duties and are wondering how PowerShell will fit in, take a look at PowerShell MVP Brandon Shell's blog, BS on Posh. Brandon writes a lot about PowerShell, Citrix and Active Directory.
For Active Directory and PowerShell stuff, your first stop should be to Quest's Dmitry Sotnikov's blog. Here, you will learn a lot about PowerShell and Active Directory, especially the free Quest Active Directory cmdlets.
I also think you'll get a lot out of Richard Siddaway's blog. Richard has been very active lately posting many examples and will cover topics like IIS and SQL.
Even though Brandon, Dmitry and Richard are all PowerShell MVPs, I don't want you to think they are the only ones with excellent PowerShell information. I urge you to visit the PowerScripting Podcast. You don't even have to read! Hal Rottenberg and Jonathon Walz (future MVPs, for sure) put out a high-quality weekly podcast all about PowerShell. They usually include a lively interview (I was a recent guest) and some terrific tips. They also broadcast live on UStream, so you can participate. Great stuff.
Finally, please don't forget blog.sapien.com. I blog there quite a bit about PowerShell and often other scripting languages such as VBScript. This is also the place to go to keep abreast of training classes and conferences where I'll be speaking.
There are many, many other excellent sources of PowerShell information. Today I merely wanted to give you a few to get started. Now go hit the blogs!
About the Author
Jeffery Hicks is an IT veteran with over 25 years of experience, much of it spent as an IT infrastructure consultant specializing in Microsoft server technologies with an emphasis in automation and efficiency. He is a multi-year recipient of the Microsoft MVP Award in Windows PowerShell. He works today as an independent author, trainer and consultant. Jeff has written for numerous online sites and print publications, is a contributing editor at Petri.com, and a frequent speaker at technology conferences and user groups.