Welcome to PowerShell

What PowerShell is, why people choose it, and how to install and open it.

Updated

Start Here

  1. What You Can Build with PowerShell (Novice): PowerShell does in seconds the computer jobs that take an afternoon of clicking, and this course takes you from your first command to scripts that are small applications of your own.
  2. The Terminal and the Mouse: Two Ways In (Novice): Clicking and typing are two ways into the same computer, each best at different jobs, and learning the terminal gives you a second option without taking the first one away.
  3. How This Course Works (Novice): How PowerShell in Depth works on ask-codey.com, from reading a lesson and playing its terminal game to running exercise checks, mastering a skill and passing a module assessment.

Install and Open

  1. Setup: Windows Terminal and PowerShell 7 (Novice): Install PowerShell 7 with winget, make it the shell Windows Terminal opens every time, make the practice folder this course works in, and learn when a job needs a window run as administrator.
  2. Setup: PowerShell on a Mac or Linux (Novice): PowerShell 7 runs on a Mac and on Linux too, installed with Homebrew or Microsoft's package for Ubuntu and started with pwsh, with a few differences in paths and a few Windows-only lessons.

First Words

  1. PowerShell, Windows PowerShell and the Terminal (Novice): The terminal is the window, the shell is the program that runs your commands, and the prompt is where it waits for you; Windows has two PowerShells, and $PSVersionTable tells you which one you're in.

Exercise: Your Practice Folder

  1. Exercise: Your Practice Folder (Novice): Put your first exercise in your practice folder, ask PowerShell four questions about itself, write the answers in my-setup.txt, and install Pester to run your first check.