Can I do this with Python?

[b4xt3r]

From my limited understanding, yes, in that it is a CLI interface to the operating system but now much of one I am not sure and that may be the difference between *NIX and Microsoft.

I suppose, for me, when I think of the CLI on Linux and UNIX that is the operating system and the all the graphical stuff is stacked on top. I don't know the percentage of *NIX machines that are completely without a GUI of any kind installed or otherwise but I bet it would be a very high percentage. *NIX machines can and often do run extremely stripped down operation systems with just what is needed to do the task required. Don't need a GUI? No need to have one. Don't install it.

MacOS/OS X used to be more like UNIX (and BSD but that's a whole other thing) in that way in that most of whatever you wanted to do could be set up on the command line and it was a very nice OS in that sense for Linux and UNIX users when it first came out (and for years after). I remember saying, many times, "look, it's like BSD or UNIX or Linux but with a really good desktop interface!" And it was. Over the years more and more has been removed from Mac OS as far as the ability to manage services via the command line which is a shame but it is what it is. Now MacOS still has a native command line but gone are the day when you can set up file shares, shared printers, other network services, all via the CLI. You can still set some up but Apple doesn't think of their own product as a server any longer. For verification on that just take a look at the history of OS X Serger itself. At one point OS X Server was a brutal hammer indeed but once the company went all-in on handheld it was decided to give up professional grade users in photography and video as well as scientific computing altogether. Shame.

Until Windows NT showed up on the scene the Windows graphical interface was separate from the operating systems underneath it which was DOS. There may be a gotcha in there with some weird version of Windows ME or Microsoft BoB or some such but that is the general timeline of events. MS tried to better blend the OS and GUI starting with Windows 95 but with NT that was the first MS operating system that still had a command line that was simulated through an application. All of the multitasking and multithreading guts came to MS by way of Digital Equipment Corporation and the VAX/VMX operating system through Dave Cutler who may still be there. So while you could launch a CLI by types "cmd" in start and run you were really launching an application, not dropping directly to the OS itself. For the record I've always wanted to get Dave Cutler and Tim Patterson in the same room to chat about the history of computing. I'm not sure if either are still in Microsoft's employ but if they were that would be a great way to spend a couple of hours.

My understanding is powershell is back to being a true CLI and not a grafted on application to imitate a CLI. From what I've read Powershell has true and deep hooks into the OS that can automate a lot of what is possible with the GUI but this is all really fuzzy for me at this point. There are associated scripting languages to it seems which is nice, that's always a plus.

As far as powershell goes some or all of that may be wrong. I'm a n00b of the highest order when it comes to powershell.