IT Background

Hi,

I’ve been in IT some 20 years now, give or take. When I started out, NT 3.51 was just gaining momentum. I remember the joy and satisfaction of creating my first security group and user account. But guess what? After creating my umpteenth account, I started thinking, “Hmm there should be a way to do this automatically…”

Fast forward to 2000, when I got my first taste of what it meant to script. For those of us who’ve been around for quite some time, KiXtart was mainstream back then. Then came vbs. I remember picking up the book “Window/NT/2000 ADSI scripting for System Administration” by Thomas Eck. Let’s just say, I never looked back. That was my first book of many more to follow. Then I found the “Hey, Scripting guy” website. I still visit them on the regular. The scriptcenter.chm was a must for all those who took their scripting seriously.

Just as I got comfortable with vbs, there came a new kid on the block. His name? PowerShell! I’ll admit, I wasn’t too giddy about learning PowerShell. After years of investing in a library of scripts, to start all over was kind of daunting. I thought it was just a phase. Guess I was wrong! I noticed the scripting guys started promoting PowerShell. I also saw that Exchange commands had a PowerShell equivalent script. Message received: I needed to look into PowerShell. My first PowerShell book was “PowerShell in Action” by Bruce Payette. In hindsight too advanced at that time for me.

Today I can’t imagine scripting without PowerShell. PowerShell is so versatile and becomes better with every version. Mind you, once you get accustomed to the new version, you’ll start wondering “How could I have ever lived without this?”

There are so many websites out there with great quality PowerShell information. My top three favorite sites are:
• http://www.powershell.com/ (Tobias Weltner)
• http://www.powershell.org/ (Don Jones)
• http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/ (Ed Wilson)

For anyone wanting to get started with PowerShell, I can definitely recommend these sites. Give the power tips a try! The best way to learn PowerShell is by doing. Having a vbs scripting background was kind of a handicap when I started. I wanted to do things the vbs way. Fun fact, I recently needed a vbs script and I had to really make an effort to get back into the vbs groove. When I looked at the finished code, I thought to myself, “Man this is way easier in PowerShell.”

This is just my way of giving back to the PowerShell community

Happy reading!

Regards,

Irwin