This is the slide deck for the session I presented at the 2017 Collab 365 Global conference. In it, I walk through the fundamentals of the PowerShell scripting language.

1. Online Conference
June 17th and 18th 2015
EVENTS.COLLAB365.COMMUNITY
Introduction to PowerShell

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Who is Michael
Blumenthal?
Michael@Blumenthalit.com
Twitter: @MichaelBL
LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/MBB-LI
https://michaelblumenthal.me
TechCommunity.Microsoft.com
Tenant Admin at a leading broadcast media
company
Office 365 MVP
Dev/ITPro Mix
In IT Consulting since 1995
PowerShelling since 2007
Contact

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What is PowerShell?

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Why is PowerShell AWESOME?
Write-Host “SO easy to use!”
No Compiling!

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• It’s Easy to Get Started!1
• Learn the PowerShell Syntax2
• Working with O3653
• Best Practices4
PowerShell puts .NET at your fingertips!

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Chapter 1
It’s Easy to get Started!

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Getting Started with PowerShell
2003
2008,R2
2012, R2
2016
7, 8, 8.1, 10

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The Command Line Window

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Windows Feature
Win
8.x
Win
8-10

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The Integrated Script Editor

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PowerShell V3-5 ISE

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Intellisense!

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Chapter 2
Learn the PowerShell Syntax!

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Symbols, Keywords, and Syntax! Oh My!
• Variables1
• Commands2
• Piping3
• Comparisons4
• Flow Control5
• Filtering6

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Reading Symbols in Code
• (tal Guidance
• Moe, Larry, and }
• The universe started with the
Big !
• !Important
• A # of Bacon and # Browns

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Variables
• Case Insensitive, Dynamic typing
$something
$true, $false, $null, $profile
$myMessage= “Hello, World”
1

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Commands are called cmdlets.
Verb-Noun
Built-in, Extensible
Get-Help
Get-Member
Get-Command
2

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Help!

20. Discoverability

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Get-Command
• Find Cmdlets
• Get details of cmdlets and applications

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Aliases
• Dir
• Sort
• Select
• Foreach, also %
Alias cmdlet
• Get-ChildItem
• Sort-object
• Select-object
• Foreach-object

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The Power of Piping!
Output Of
Command 1
Input of
Command 2
3

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Example

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Dial zero for an…
4
Operator
-eq -le
-ne -like
-gt -notlike
-ge -match
-lt -notmatch

27. Example

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Taking Control of the Flow
• If (Test) {Commands} else {Commands}
• if ($web.Title –ne “”) {Write-Host $web.Title}If
• For (Init;Test;Repeat) {Commands}
• for($i=1; $i -le 10; $i++) {Write-Host $i}For
• Foreach (Item in Collection) {Commands}
• Foreach ($gumball in $CandyBag) {$gumball.color}
• Collection | Foreach {Commands}
ForEach
• While (Condition){Commands}
• while($val -ne 3){$val++; Write-Host $val}While
5

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Example

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Where-Object
•Where {<Test>}Syntax
• V1&2:
Dir | Where {$_.Name –like “B*”}
• V3+:
Dir | where Name –like B*
Example
6

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Executing Scripts
.filename.ps1
Set-ExecutionPolicy
Unrestricted

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Chapter 3
Connecting To O365

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Get the Cmdlets!
Verb-MSOL*AAD
Remote SessionEXO
Verb-PNP*PNP
new-CSOnlineSession; RemoteSK4B
Verb-SPO*SPO

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Chapter 4
Best Practices

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Use Functions
• Function global:Do-Something(){
• }
• Function global:Do-Something($someParameter){
• }
• Function global:Do-Something{
• param ([type]$someParameter=$(“Default Expression”))
• }

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Follow the Naming
Convention!
•Verb-Noun
• 98 Verbs

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Comment your functions
• <#
• .SYNOPSIS –a brief explanation of what the script or function does.
• .DESCRIPTION – a more detailed explanation of what the script or function does.
• .PARAMETER name – an explanation of a specific parameter. Replace name with the parameter
name. You can have one of these sections for each parameter the script or function uses.
• .EXAMPLE – an example of how to use the script or function. You can have multiple .EXAMPLE
sections if you want to provide more than one example.
• .NOTES – any miscellaneous notes on using the script or function.
• .LINK – a cross-reference to another help topic; you can have more than one of these. If you
include a URL beginning with http:// or https://, the shell will open that URL when the Help
command’s –online parameter is used.
• #>

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Search for Commands
Refresh the command list
Actions you can take

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Self Announcing Functions
…

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Source Code Control

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More Good Ideas
• Always read scripts before
running them

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More Good Ideas
• Always read scripts before running
them.
• Make yours safe when others
don’t

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More Good Ideas
• Always read scripts before running
them
• Make yours safe when others don’t
• Check for valid parameter values
• get-help
about_Functions_Advanced_Parameters

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More Good Ideas
• Always read scripts before running them
• Make yours safe when others don’t
• Check for valid parameter values
• get-help about_Functions_Advanced_Parameters
• Do error handling
• get-help about_Try_Catch_Finally
• get-help about_CommonParameters
– -ErrorAction and -ErrorVariable

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http://bit.ly/poshres
Resources

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Script something today!
It’s Easy to Get
Started!
PowerShell
Syntax
Office 365