Loading ...Windows PowerShell for UNIX shell addicted person
Any seasoned admin will agree that command line is the faster as compare to GUI under Windows and UNIX.
As a part of my job some time I am forced to work in a Windows only environment and I do miss my bash shell very badly 
Recently Microsoft announced Windows PowerShell. This new shell and scripting language helps IT Professionals achieve greater productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT Professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation 
=> Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2
=> Download and more information about Windows PowerShell at msdn blog.
=> Complete information and documentation for Windows PowerShell
Want to stay up to date with the latest Linux tips, news and announcements? Subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter or RSS feed to get all updates.
You can Email this page to a friend.
You may also be interested in other helpful articles:
- How to send anonymous email from shell prompt using mixmaster
- UNIX/Linux Shell shortcuts to save typing, toil, and time
- Tutorial: Working with UNIX and Linux Shell
- How to use bash without installing bash (get a free shell account)
- Humor: What does your favorite text editor say about you?
Discussion on This Article:
Leave a Reply
We encourage your comments, and suggestions. But please stay on topic, be polite, and avoid spam. Thank you very much for stopping by our site!
There are two *way* better commandline options for Windows than the “Power Shell”:
1] JPSofts 4NT or TakeCommand. They’re pretty expensive @ US$75 each, but I’ve been using 4NT for a dozen years or more and would be lost without its power. http://www.jpsoft.com
2] Lately though I’ve become a real Cygwin addict. It’s a bit tricky to set up, but it is a very active group and they do a bang-up job of keeping the environment Linux compatible, right down to the latest controversial change where Bash doesn’t like CR/LF, just like on Linux:-) http://www.cygwin.com
Jonathan,
4NT or TakeCommand is new information for me. I was only aware of Cygwin which a quite good choice…
I am downloading 4NT/Take Command 30 days trial. We might end up purchasing few copies
Appreciate your post!
I’ve never heard of those two either, however, from the little I’ve used Powershell, I’ve enjoyed it.
There’s also IronPython which was just released not too long ago. With it, you can access all of .NET, WMI, and even interface with PowerShell through a Python environment.
Hey guys, I’ve been a UNIX developer for a long time, mainly working on FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Linux platforms.
I am now working at Microsoft, and I do a lot of stuff with powershell. As far as Cygwin or JPSoft stuff being “way better” I’ll have to disagree:
* Powershell is much more powerfull: it doesn’t work on text streams, like unix shells. It (only) works on objects. So input/output pipelines are all .NET objects.
* Powershell, as language is much more expressive then any UNIX shell, period. The closest thing that can match it is Perl 6 or Ruby.
* For Windows scripting, it is the best choice because its specifically made for it. Its tied into Windows (registry, etc).
* It has built-in aliases for most common UNIX commands (ls, cat, ps … etc), so you don’t have to get used to Windows cmd.exe command alternatives. If you just open powershell terminal you should feel right at home!
Check out PowerTab sometime …
-Dmitry
A big limitation with PowerShell, though, is job control. The pipes don’t work in a concurrent style. For the kind of scripts I write on my machines (all are at least 2-core, my main desktop 4-core), a careful bit of:
(
echo "Foos and bars:"
(
foo | foo2 | foo3 > foo.out &
bar | bar2 > bar.out &
wait
)
sort foo.out bar.out
) | baz2 | ... &
… etc. works wonders for running times.