Windows PowerShell Basics

 

Applies To: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager

System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1 introduced native PowerShell support. Windows PowerShell is Microsoft’s new approach to automation and is being implemented across all System Center products. This topic will introduce you to some of the basics of using Windows PowerShell with Configuration Manager.

First, you need to make sure that Windows PowerShell 3.0 or later is installed.   If Windows PowerShell 3.0 or later is not installed, you can download as part of the Windows Management Framework 3.0. Like many applications, Windows PowerShell comes in a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version.  Configuration Manager requires the 32-bit version. 

To get started:

1. Hit your Windows key and type “PowerShell”.

2. From the results, right-click Windows PowerShell (x86) and choose “Run as administrator”.

3. You should now see a Windows PowerShell command prompt.

   

Tip

The Windows PowerShell command prompt is a fully functional command prompt. As you get started with Windows PowerShell, get used to opening up the Windows PowerShell command prompt even for non-Windows PowerShell specific tasks, such as ‘ping’ or ‘ipconfig’. You may find that this helps integrate Windows PowerShell into your normal workflow, and that the tips and tricks you pick up along your Windows PowerShell journey will be more readily at hand.

Concepts

Below are a few basic Windows PowerShell concepts to get you started on your journey:

• The Cmdlet

• The Variable

• The Module

The Cmdlet

“Cmdlet” is also sometimes referred to as “Command-let”.  The cmdlet is a basic instruction that you give Windows PowerShell.  All cmdlets are made up of two parts: a verb and a noun.  They are separated by a hyphen ‘-‘ character.  Cmdlets are the building blocks of PowerShell and are what do all the work for you.  Some cmdlets come with Windows, and others are installed with programs like Configuration Manager. An example of a Windows cmdlet that restarts a print job is: Restart-PrintJob. An example of a Configuration Manager cmdlet that retrieves a Configuration Manager site is: Get-CMSite.  

Before we jump into our second concept, let’s try a few cmdlets that retrieve (Get) data. 

Go to your Windows PowerShell window, and type in Get-Service, Get-UICulture and Get-Date: 

PS C:\> Get-Service
Note: This cmdlet returns the current list of services (not listed here).

PS C:\> Get-UICulture
LCID             Name             DisplayName
----             ----             -----------
1033             en-US            English (United States)

PS C:\> Get-Date
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 8:21:33 AM

Besides retrieving information, Windows PowerShell can perform actions.

Warning

For this next part, there are different commands to try depending on the version of Windows you’re using.

For all versions of Windows and Windows Server

Go to your Windows PowerShell window, and type in Get-Location, and Get-History: 

PS C:\> Get-Location
Path
----
C:\ 
PS C:\> Get-History
Id CommandLine
-- -----------
1 get-service
2 get-uiculture
3 get-date
4 get-location

The output of Get-History returns a list of commands that you’ve previously typed.

Now, instead of retrieving information (Get), let’s take action and clear the history using Clear-History.

PS C:\> Clear-History
PS C:\>

Now, if you type Get-History to retrieve the list of previously entered commands, you should see only Clear-History:

PS C:\> Get-History 
Id CommandLine
-- -----------
 5 clear-history

For Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Users

Another example of retrieving information (Get) using a cmdlet, taking action (Enable/Disable), and verifying state by retrieving information (Get) is listed below. This example uses various Windows Error Reporting cmdlets – notice how the basic noun (WindowsErrorReporting) remains the same, while the verb (Get/Enable/Disable) changes.

Go to your Windows PowerShell window, and type in Get-WindowsErrorReporting: 

PS C:\> Get-WindowsErrorReporting
Enabled

Get-WindowsErrorReporting returns the current state, which in this case is Enabled. There are specific cmdlets to enable or disable Windows Error Reporting. As an example of taking action using a cmdlet, use the Disable-WindowsErrorReporting cmdlet to disable Windows Error Reporting.

Note

If you are not running Windows PowerShell as an administrator, you may not be able to change the value. In this case, the the Disable-WindowsErrorReporting cmdlet will return False, instead of True after running the cmdlet.

Go to your Windows PowerShell window, and type in Disable-WindowsErrorReporting: 

PS C:\> Disable-WindowsErrorReporting
True
PS C:\>

To check the state of Windows Error Reporting, retrieve (Get) the current state by using the Get-WindowsErrorReporting cmdlet:

PS C:\> Get-WindowsErrorReporting
Disabled

To re-enable Windows Error Reporting, go to your Windows PowerShell window, and type in Enable-WindowsErrorReporting:  

PS C:\> Enable-WindowsErrorReporting
True

You’ve now successfully run several Windows PowerShell cmdlets, retrieving information and taking action. 

The Variable

In Windows PowerShell, variables are quite powerful. You can store all kinds of data in a PowerShell variable, not just text and numbers, but also objects.

For Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 Users

In a previous example, you saw how Get-Location returned the current path.  That path can be stored in a Windows PowerShell variable for later use.

To store the result of a cmdlet, we need a variable.  Variables all start with a $.  To define a variable, simple identify it with a $ at the front, for example $MyPath. 

Go to your Windows PowerShell window, and type in Get-Location, and $MyPath: 

PS C:\> Get-Location
Path
----
C:\
PS C:\> $MyPath
PS C:\>

To save the results from our Get-Location cmdlet into a variable, just assign the results of the cmdlet to the variable.

PS C:\> $MyPath = Get-Location
PS C:\>

The result of Get-Location are now stored in $MyPath. To see the value of the $MyPath variable, type the variable name and press Enter.

PS C:\> $MyPath
Path
----
C:\
PS C:\ 

For Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Users

In a previous example, you saw that the Get-WindowsErrorReporting cmdlet returned a value of Enabled (or Disabled).  Windows PowerShell can store the results of the cmdlet in a variable.  To store the result of a cmdlet, we need a variable.  Variables all start with a $.  To define a variable, simple identify it with a $ at the front, for example $WERState.  it

Go to your Windows PowerShell window, and type in $WERState: 

PS C:\> $WERState
PS C:\>

To save the results from our Get-WindowsErrorReporting cmdlet into a variable, just assign the results of the cmdlet to the variable. 

PS C:\> $WERState = Get-WindowsErrorReporting
PS C:\>

The result of Get-WindowsErrorReporting are now stored in $WERState. To see the value of the $WERState variable, type the variable name and press Enter.

PS C:\> $WERState
PS C:\> Enabled

There are lots more things you can do with variables – but we’ve covered the most important concepts you’ll need in the beginning.

The Module

The last concept we'll cover here is the Module.  All Windows PowerShell cmdlets are coded and stored in a module.  The modules for Windows are available by default in your Windows PowerShell window. You can add modules to your Windows PowerShell session by importing them using the Import-Module cmdlet.  An example of importing a module is contained in the topic Connecting to Configuration Manager with Windows PowerShell.

Further Exploring

Now that we've covered these three basic concepts, try using the Show-Command cmdlet to browse Windows PowerShell cmdlets from all the modules currently installed.

PS C:\> Show-Command

If you want to learn more Windows PowerShell basics, jump over to the Windows PowerShell User’s Guide.

See Also

Getting Started with Configuration Manager and Windows PowerShell