Microsoft Windows PowerShell Programming for the Absolute Beginner

This is a perfect book for a beginner in the Windows PowerShell. If gives you the absolute basics and lets you learn by example. I liked it. It was the perfect book before I went to the Windows PowerShell in Action to further my knowledge.

It can be a coin toss, "for beginners" books can be real dogs - definitely not the case here. As the book title says, anyone who wants to get on the PowerShell (PS) bandwagon, even with absolutely no prior scripting experience, can start here and take away a solid understanding of the basics of PS general shell usage as well as scripting, and begin implementing what they have learn in a production environment. Even if you're familiar with other scripting languages, this title is still an excellent resource for introducing yourself to PS and making the "this is how you did it in [x]; this is how you do it in PS" connections. This certainly won't be your last purchase for PS skill development; the underlying technology is just too vast to be covered in a book of this nature. But don't let that and the relatively small size of this title deter you from reading. Included is everything needed to learn the basics, from command and function listings, syntax overviews, and examples, to learn-as-you-go PS script creation tasks to help you solidify what you've just read about. After you've learned the basics, you are then given real-life administrative examples and information to get you on your way. Best part is that after you have read the book, it is set up well enough to serve as a reference guide until you have mastered this level.

I like the simple approach and it's very easy to understand. I'm learning a lot on how PowerShell works just by reading few pages of it. I normally don't give review or comment but I'm giving this book - thumbs-up.

This is an excellent beginner's book for someone new to PowerShell. I had been playing with PowerShell for a few months before starting this book. Up to and including chapter 7 was mostly a review for me of things I already knew, but chapters 8, 9, 10 had some additional information and insight into things that I found valuable. I'm glad I purchased this book, and find definitly like the layout of the book for someone new to PowerShell.

I am a server administrator who is responsible for managing a group of servers running a wide range of operating systems including Windows, Linux, and (unfortunately) SCO UNIX. I just received my copy of this new book in the mail yesterday evening and began working with it today on our Windows 2003 development server. In my opinion, the book serves the PowerShell beginner very well by providing many simplified, but logically constructed examples that illustrate how basic cmdlets are used. From the material I have covered thus far, I believe the information is very straightforward in its approach to using the PowerShell. Overall, the book is well organized with each chapter covering a specific logical topic along with examples to that end that are easy for the beginner to understand and apply. The use of developing games to teach the concepts is also a novell idea, although some of the examples are a bit lengthy. In conclusion, while I have not yet completed this book I can already say that I am very satisfied with my purchase and would highly recommend it to any PowerShell beginner out there.