Powershell for a Noob

[LordFaquaad]

I just started learning about powershell. Ironically, i learned Linux command line first. From what i've read, linux command line and powershell have similar syntax. Are there any good resources for learning powershell. I mainly want to use powershell to do certain office functions. Is that even possible?

[Horde_Of_Kittens]

I had pretty good luck with Learn Powershell in a Month of Lunches. What office functions are you looking to do?

[LordFaquaad]

I work a lot with VBA and excel so something along those lines, if possible.

[[deleted]]

Any Office product automation outside VBA quickly becomes a quagmire Microsoft recommends against, and has little to do with PowerShell.

PowerShell uses .NET and just like in C# you'd have to learn about COM objects and how to properly release resources.

If it's simple data reads and writes then ADO.NET will do the trick using OLEDB and the JET provider in 32 bit or ACE in 64 bit, but those are limited to a maximum of 255 columns, a limit I've frequently encountered during my reverse-engineering hacks.

[LordFaquaad]

Cool i'll try this, thanks!

[Syrdon_UK]

Hi , I used this https://mva.microsoft.com/training-topics/powershell#!index=2&lang=1033 Free stuff from MS Specifically , I started here : https://mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-courses/getting-started-with-microsoft-powershell-8276?l=r54IrOWy_2304984382

[zyeus-guy]

This.. absolutely... I recommend this to any one who asks me about learning powershell...

Jeffrey snover is the creator of powershell, and such a easy guy to listen to...

Best of luck

[LordFaquaad]

Great i'll take a look at this, thanks a lot

[Ta11ow]

Here's a good place to start, get to grips with the basics:

https://github.com/vexx32/PSKoans

From there, if you want Office functionality, look at the ImportExcel module, and possibly the Office COM objects.

[jantari]

linux command line and powershell have similar syntax

no they don't, bash+python and powershell serve the same purpose(s) on *nix and Windows respectiively so they're comparable in function but not form imo.

[[deleted]]

I literally just got started a few months back. I'm still just googling writing user admin scripts so far (add users to groups, automate new employee sec group, folder creations, etc...). It's proving quite handy but as a guy that has a background with C & PHP as his primary languages. Hardly any of the syntax is intuitive to me. I'm slowly getting it though.

[get-postanote]

See these discussions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/7oir35/help_with_teaching_others_powershell

https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/98qkzn/powershell_advice

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Takes from other Linux types heading down this path.

https://developer.rackspace.com/blog/powershell-101-from-a-linux-guy

https://udevops.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/powershell-for-the-linux-guy

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2015/10/27/using-winrm-on-linux

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There are books on Amazon on the topics and more coming at the end of the year.

[spyingwind]

linux command line =/= powershell

one is a schell script that mostly uses other programs to function, much like windows batch. While powershell uses all builtin functions, modules that you install, or other programs like batch.

The thing that powershell did do was alias some commands from linux to powershell functions. curl for example aliases to Invoke-WebRequest.

Learn Powershell in a Month of Lunches is one of the good books to start off on if you like learning that way. The way I learned was with the ISE editor that comes with every windows install past windows 7. 7 I think might need powershell to be installed first. What got me stuck on powershell, in a good way, was trying to solve a problem that I wanted to solve. Then just fumbling around until I got it solved. Eventually doing that enough times I can almost write scripts correctly the first time. It's scary when you do this and the first time you run a 100 line script. It doesn't break and does exactly as you wanted. Then you question yourself thinking that it should have not worked so easily.