PowerShell can save you a lot of time on Windows admin tasks, but to use it effectively you need to understand how it works. Here's a crash course in Windows PowerShell scripting basics to get you ...

More of you are getting used to Windows PowerShell and realizing its advantages. With that in mind, this month's column is going to be a long one. This is a lightning overview of Windows PowerShell ...

When you first start writing scripts, modularity, reusability, and best practices may not be top of mind. As your scripts become more complex, however, creating reusable elements becomes essential. By ...

Back in 2008, I wrote a piece called PowerShell Tips and Tricks, which covered the then-relatively new Windows scripting language and some cool things you could do with it. Although PowerShell has ...

Once you’ve gained a solid understanding of Linux and mastered the various commands available, your next big win comes in the form of shell functions. Code wrapped in a function can be reused by your ...

Dot sourcing can simplify large PowerShell scripts -- but without a clear structure, it can quickly lead to chaos.

This Wiley Publishing tome is big (more than 650 pages), useful and very complete. Be warned, however, that its scope is limited to system administration. The purpose of the book is to solve “real ...

You need to package up a bunch of files, send them somewhere, and do something with them at the destination. It isn’t an uncommon scenario. The obvious answer is to create an archive — a zip or tar ...

It is easy to dismiss bash — the typical Linux shell program — as just a command prompt that allows scripting. Bash, however, is a full-blown programming language. I wouldn’t presume to tell you that ...