How to learn PowerShell

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Added by Jason Helmick December 12, 2012

Once you have made the decision to learn PowerShell, once you believe there is benefit to adding this tool to your toolbox, once you decide that it will impact your career, where do you go to learn PowerShell?

Keep in mind that learning PowerShell requires a commitment on your part of time and effort. PowerShell has a learning curve and it requires that you nurture and spend time working with PowerShell everyday. If you’re part of our UNIX brethren, you will have the easiest time learning PowerShell. You already have many of the concepts and command-line capabilities from years of managing UNIX. If you’re an old-skool Microsoft command-line jockey with some scripting skills, you too will have an easier time. If you are part of the majority and have been a GUI manager through most of your career, you will experience the brunt of the learning curve. Regardless of your experience, you will be successful if commit to learning the tool. Just like learning any other technology you won’t be an expert overnight, but if you treat it as necessary part of your job and career, you will succeed. I also think you will be happier and much more productive in your job, but then again I’m one of the fanatics.

Having said all that the question I get most often is: how do I go about learning PowerShell? Everyone has their own best method to learn new technologies, some people do best in a classroom with an Instructor, some learn well from video’s, and other learn quickly from books. I have the best answers for each of these. Take a look.

Classroom

Shameless promotion at this point, but I believe the best classroom training for PowerShell is here at Interface Technical Training. Not only do you get the best books (as you will see later) but two of the best instructors: the amazing Don Jones, PowerShell MVP and myself. We offer two types of courses, the normal classes PowerShell v2 and PowerShell v3 classes and the accelerated Master class taught by Don Jones. If you have experience scripting and with the command-line, then take the accelerated Master class, if you have spent most of your career using the GUI, then take the slightly slower paced versions that I teach.

Videos

If you learn and can apply your knowledge by watching videos then you should check out the videos here PS300: PowerShell for Administrators Online Video Training by Don Jones. The complete courses that I teach, Don has made into a video series.

Books

Many people learn best by reading books. This is the list of the best books to learn PowerShell from. I have sequenced them in the order you would want to use them.

1. Learn Windows PowerShell 3 in a Month of Lunches by Don Jones

2. Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches by Don Jones and Jeffery Hicks

Then, to increase your technical depth of PowerShell, check out:

3. PowerShell in Depth by Don Jones, Jeffery Hicks, Richard Siddaway

And if you become a PowerShell fanatic, there is always the Bible:

* Windows PowerShell in Action, Second Edition by Bruce Payette

If you want to get deep into scripting and some amazing real world solutions, then you can’t miss…

* Windows PowerShell Cookbook, 3^rd Edition by Lee Holmes

There are some great product specific PowerShell books, such as my IIS book, but I will leave those for another blog.

In the end, there are plenty of amazing resources, classroom, video and books, that can help you learn PowerShell. Get started!