Introduction to PowerShell for SharePoint

Last week, someone asked me about learning PowerShell and how would it relate to their current occupation. 

PowerShell is  a powerful scripting tool that can greatly expedite your admin tasks. If you haven't had a chance to learn how to use it, you might want to make time for it now. Here are some reasons why the effort will pay off (Ten Reasons Why you should learn PowerShell).

Then I began to wonder... I use PowerShell sparingly due to the fact, that I need to learn more about it.  I am good at looking at a cmdlet and knowing what should happen, but when I need to do it on my own, I struggle.  Below is some samples that I like to run through that can help learning with SharePoint. 

1. Open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell..

2. Type Get-Command, and then press ENTER.
• large number of available cmdlets.

3. Type get-command, but do not press ENTER.
• Cmdlets are not case sensitive.
• Cmdlets always follow the Verb-Noun, also called the Action-Object format.
• For example, the cmdlet to list all processes running on a machine is Get-Process.

4. Type Get-Process, and press ENTER.
• Get-Process returns the processes running on a machine.

5. Press the UP ARROW so that Get-Process appears, but do not press ENTER.
• Windows PowerShell uses command history (the UP ARROW) just like Command Prompt.
• The Noun is always singular: Process, not Processes.
• There are a limited number of verbs, which can be listed with the Get-Verb cmdlet.

6. Type Get-Verb, and then press ENTER
• Scroll through the short list of verbs

7. Type Get-Command -noun SP* | more, and then press ENTER.
• Press SPACEBAR to page through the commands.

There is a ton more, but perhaps this could help you get the ball moving!