&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"><channel><title>Articles from 2014 on PowerShell.org - Welcome Automaters!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014/</link><description>Recent content in Articles from 2014 on PowerShell.org - Welcome Automaters!</description><generator>Hugo</generator><language>en-us</language><atom:link href="https://powershell.org/articles/2014/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title>NJ PowerShell Users Group Meeting: Presenter Doug Finke – Microsoft MVP</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-12-29-nj-powershell-users-group-meeting-presenter-doug-finke-microsoft-mvp/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-12-29-nj-powershell-users-group-meeting-presenter-doug-finke-microsoft-mvp/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Dec 2014 04:25:33 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The NJ PowerShell User Group is having a meetup on Thursday, January 8th from 6:00 - 8:00 PM. If interested, please register through the &lt;a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/nj-powershell-users-group-meeting-presenter-doug-finke-microsoft-mvp-tickets-15066672824"&gt;Eventbrite website&lt;/a&gt; to track attendance for ordering pizza.  For those attending online (Webex) we will send a follow-up email with the meeting link based on Eventbrite online registrants.
&lt;strong&gt;Agenda&lt;/strong&gt;:
6:00 – 6:30: Pizza and socializing
6:30 – 7:30: Presentation
7:30 - 8:00: Q &amp;amp; A&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; Please note that the Webex meeting will start at 6:00 PM, but the actual presentation won't start until 6:30
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In-Person attendees must register, print out their EventBrite ticket, and present it at the door. Walk-ins will not be permitted.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The NJ PowerShell User Group is having a meetup on Thursday, January 8th from 6:00 - 8:00 PM. If interested, please register through the <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/nj-powershell-users-group-meeting-presenter-doug-finke-microsoft-mvp-tickets-15066672824">Eventbrite website</a> to track attendance for ordering pizza.  For those attending online (Webex) we will send a follow-up email with the meeting link based on Eventbrite online registrants.<strong>Agenda</strong>:
6:00 – 6:30: Pizza and socializing
6:30 – 7:30: Presentation
7:30 - 8:00: Q &amp; A</p><pre><code> Please note that the Webex meeting will start at 6:00 PM, but the actual presentation won't start until 6:30</code></pre><p>In-Person attendees must register, print out their EventBrite ticket, and present it at the door. Walk-ins will not be permitted.</p><pre><code> **Presenter**: Doug Finke</code></pre><p>**Bio: **Doug Finke, author of “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Windows-PowerShell-Developers-Douglas-Finke/dp/1449322700/">PowerShell for Developers</a>”, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for PowerShell and works at Start-Automating, a company specializing in all aspects of PowerShell development, including consulting, training and tool building. Doug has been a developer and author working with numerous technologies. You can catch up with Doug at his blog Development in a Blink at<a href="http://dougfinke.com/blog">http://dougfinke.com/blog</a>.
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Doug Finke takes us through PowerShell from a developer’s point of view. Doug shows techniques for integrating/debugging PowerShell from
and to C# code as well as using PowerShell with a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application. He also addresses using reflection at the command line, object pipelining, and
PowerShell’s REPL. Plus, time permitting, Doug will highlight some of the new features in the PowerShell v5 November Preview.<strong>Twitter</strong>:<a href="https://twitter.com/dfinke">@DFinke</a><a href="http://dougfinke.com/blog"><img src="https://cdn.evbuc.com/eventlogos/111855199/dougfinkebio.png" alt="Doug Finke">    <img src="https://cdn.evbuc.com/eventlogos/111855199/powershellfordevelopers-1.jpg" alt="Windows PowerShell for Developers"/></p><p>NJ PowerShell Meetup Coffee Bar and Conference room at Mathematica Policy Research</p><p><img src="https://cdn.evbuc.com/eventlogos/111855199/eventbriteconferenceroom.png" alt="Conference Room"/><pre><code> ![Coffee Bar](https://cdn.evbuc.com/eventlogos/111855199/eventbritecoffeebar.png)</code></pre>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit N.A. 2015 Status Update &amp; Info</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-12-15-powershell-summit-n-a-2015-status-update-info/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-12-15-powershell-summit-n-a-2015-status-update-info/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Dec 2014 20:01:34 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;As of this post, PowerShell Summit North America 2015 is full, and registration has been cut off. We&amp;rsquo;re taking some time to confirm our numbers and venue capacity; if we&amp;rsquo;re able to open additional seats, that will happen in January 2015. We will allow any additional capacity to be registered until one month prior to the Summit, or until it sells out, whichever comes first. We do not maintain a waiting list; please check here and on the @PSHSummit Twitter feed for any announcements.&lt;br&gt;
For those already registered, we _do not have any official hotel recommendations. _You&amp;rsquo;re welcome to use the &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/forums/forum/powershell-summit/"&gt;Summit Forum&lt;/a&gt; to see where others are staying, or to arrange for carpooling or other stuff. We certainly encourage all attendees to check the Forum for Q&amp;amp;A and other discussion - it&amp;rsquo;s never too early to start getting involved. On the hotel front, just look for hotels in downtown Charlotte, or near Microsoft Charlotte, based on your preferences. The reason there&amp;rsquo;s no official hotel is that there are numerous business-class hotels nearby, and after a close call last year we didn&amp;rsquo;t want to take the financial risk of booking out a room block.&lt;br&gt;
Our intent at this time is to book the venue to fire code capacity, which is why we may be able to open additional slots after we confirm everything. That means _both venue rooms will be full at all times. _You will not be permitted to stand or sit in the aisles, back of the room, or block the doorways. If the session you hoped to attend is full, you&amp;rsquo;ll need to go to the other one. Keep in mind we&amp;rsquo;re recording everything, so you won&amp;rsquo;t miss out entirely.&lt;br&gt;
The last sessions on all three days will only have a single session. We&amp;rsquo;ll position the speaker in one of the two rooms, and we&amp;rsquo;ll live-stream to the other room. This is where we plan to put Jeffrey Snover&amp;rsquo;s talks, both to accommodate what has historically been high interest in his sessions, and to accommodate his total inability to do a session in only 45 minutes :). If you don&amp;rsquo;t get a chair in the &amp;ldquo;live&amp;rdquo; room, you&amp;rsquo;ll need to join from the &amp;ldquo;overflow&amp;rdquo; room.&lt;br&gt;
The two rooms are actually in different buildings, separated from each other by a driveway/courtyard arrangement. We&amp;rsquo;re suggesting that you &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; bring your ginormous 21&amp;quot; laptop, since it&amp;rsquo;ll just drag you down moving between sessions. Maybe stick with a Surface if you want to take notes and stuff. Although we&amp;rsquo;re recording everything, so&amp;hellip; you know. Maybe just enjoy the session.&lt;br&gt;
Lunches will be taken &lt;em&gt;in the session rooms&lt;/em&gt;, with buffet setups in the hallways just outside each room.&lt;br&gt;
Stay tuned for further details, and please use the Summit forum to ask questions.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>As of this post, PowerShell Summit North America 2015 is full, and registration has been cut off. We&rsquo;re taking some time to confirm our numbers and venue capacity; if we&rsquo;re able to open additional seats, that will happen in January 2015. We will allow any additional capacity to be registered until one month prior to the Summit, or until it sells out, whichever comes first. We do not maintain a waiting list; please check here and on the @PSHSummit Twitter feed for any announcements.<br>
For those already registered, we _do not have any official hotel recommendations. _You&rsquo;re welcome to use the<a href="https://powershell.org/forums/forum/powershell-summit/">Summit Forum</a> to see where others are staying, or to arrange for carpooling or other stuff. We certainly encourage all attendees to check the Forum for Q&amp;A and other discussion - it&rsquo;s never too early to start getting involved. On the hotel front, just look for hotels in downtown Charlotte, or near Microsoft Charlotte, based on your preferences. The reason there&rsquo;s no official hotel is that there are numerous business-class hotels nearby, and after a close call last year we didn&rsquo;t want to take the financial risk of booking out a room block.<br>
Our intent at this time is to book the venue to fire code capacity, which is why we may be able to open additional slots after we confirm everything. That means _both venue rooms will be full at all times. _You will not be permitted to stand or sit in the aisles, back of the room, or block the doorways. If the session you hoped to attend is full, you&rsquo;ll need to go to the other one. Keep in mind we&rsquo;re recording everything, so you won&rsquo;t miss out entirely.<br>
The last sessions on all three days will only have a single session. We&rsquo;ll position the speaker in one of the two rooms, and we&rsquo;ll live-stream to the other room. This is where we plan to put Jeffrey Snover&rsquo;s talks, both to accommodate what has historically been high interest in his sessions, and to accommodate his total inability to do a session in only 45 minutes :). If you don&rsquo;t get a chair in the &ldquo;live&rdquo; room, you&rsquo;ll need to join from the &ldquo;overflow&rdquo; room.<br>
The two rooms are actually in different buildings, separated from each other by a driveway/courtyard arrangement. We&rsquo;re suggesting that you <em>not</em> bring your ginormous 21" laptop, since it&rsquo;ll just drag you down moving between sessions. Maybe stick with a Surface if you want to take notes and stuff. Although we&rsquo;re recording everything, so&hellip; you know. Maybe just enjoy the session.<br>
Lunches will be taken <em>in the session rooms</em>, with buffet setups in the hallways just outside each room.<br>
Stay tuned for further details, and please use the Summit forum to ask questions.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>JOB POSTING: Help us Run PowerShell.org</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-12-08-job-posting-help-us-run-powershell-org/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-12-08-job-posting-help-us-run-powershell-org/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:00:38 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;[UPDATE: We&amp;rsquo;ve gotten an outpouring of responses - I&amp;rsquo;m literally a bit teary-eyed right now - so I&amp;rsquo;ll work with the existing set of volunteers and post again should everyone realize what we&amp;rsquo;re asking and go running for the hills!]&lt;br&gt;
We&amp;rsquo;re looking for a volunteer to take over regular maintenance of the PowerShell.org website. We may even have a small budget to make this a paid-contractor gig. Trick being, it&amp;rsquo;s gotta be done _regularly. _&lt;br&gt;
The specifics:&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>[UPDATE: We&rsquo;ve gotten an outpouring of responses - I&rsquo;m literally a bit teary-eyed right now - so I&rsquo;ll work with the existing set of volunteers and post again should everyone realize what we&rsquo;re asking and go running for the hills!]<br>
We&rsquo;re looking for a volunteer to take over regular maintenance of the PowerShell.org website. We may even have a small budget to make this a paid-contractor gig. Trick being, it&rsquo;s gotta be done _regularly. _<br>
The specifics:</p><ul><li>Set up new user groups with pages (as needed)</li><li>Approve/Delete forums posts that are held for moderation (daily - this doesn&rsquo;t happen often, though)</li><li>Moderate blog comments (daily)</li><li>Approve community-submitted calendar events (weekly)</li><li>Assist TechLetter team with setting up Forums topics for discussing upcoming TechLetter articles (monthly)</li><li>Identify Forums posts that have gone unanswered; raise awareness and recruit answers (often via Twitter) (at least weekly)</li></ul><p>We&rsquo;re not looking for this person to do actual WordPress maintenance at this stage. However, if you&rsquo;re interested and do have WordPress experience, we could potentially tack that on. It wouldn&rsquo;t be much more than approving WordPress and plugin updates on a scheduled basis, although we do have one PHP code hack that has to be maintained after core WordPress updates.<br>
If you&rsquo;re interested, please e-mail Admin right here at PowerShell.org. We&rsquo;re hoping to have someone start in January. We&rsquo;d obviously love a volunteer to step in and be our hero; if it goes well, we can divert some budget to making it a permanent gig. We know that sometimes the family finds it easier to have you donate your time if you&rsquo;re getting a bit back in return. We&rsquo;re planning to make a similar offer to other key positions, including our TechLetter Editors and TechSession Manager, in 2015 if we can.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>A Crowdsourced PowerShell Proficiency Exam</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-12-04-a-crowdsourced-powershell-proficiency-exam/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-12-04-a-crowdsourced-powershell-proficiency-exam/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:25:34 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I wanted to call your attention to Smarterer, a company recently acquired by my employer, Pluralsight. Smarterer&amp;rsquo;s schtick (apart from vexing my auto-correct) is that the host crowdsourced technology assessments. In other words, the &lt;em&gt;community&lt;/em&gt; decides what questions to ask someone in the test.&lt;br&gt;
The magic is that their back-end engine, over time, figures out which questions are awesome and which ones suck, and adjusts the assessment accordingly. So as more people (especially qualified ones) take the test, the better it gets at identifying skilled people. It gives it a sort of built-in immunity against bad community-contributed questions, because those eventually filter out of the assessment that&amp;rsquo;s delivered to people. It&amp;rsquo;s pretty engaging, actually. I&amp;rsquo;ve had some fun taking some web development-oriented assessments, and surprised myself in a few places.&lt;br&gt;
They&amp;rsquo;ve &lt;a href="http://smarterer.com/tests/powershell"&gt;got a PowerShell assessment&lt;/a&gt;. Why not jump in, take it, and then add some questions of your own? Next time you need to interview someone for PowerShell chops, send &amp;rsquo;em to Smarterer.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I wanted to call your attention to Smarterer, a company recently acquired by my employer, Pluralsight. Smarterer&rsquo;s schtick (apart from vexing my auto-correct) is that the host crowdsourced technology assessments. In other words, the <em>community</em> decides what questions to ask someone in the test.<br>
The magic is that their back-end engine, over time, figures out which questions are awesome and which ones suck, and adjusts the assessment accordingly. So as more people (especially qualified ones) take the test, the better it gets at identifying skilled people. It gives it a sort of built-in immunity against bad community-contributed questions, because those eventually filter out of the assessment that&rsquo;s delivered to people. It&rsquo;s pretty engaging, actually. I&rsquo;ve had some fun taking some web development-oriented assessments, and surprised myself in a few places.<br>
They&rsquo;ve<a href="http://smarterer.com/tests/powershell">got a PowerShell assessment</a>. Why not jump in, take it, and then add some questions of your own? Next time you need to interview someone for PowerShell chops, send &rsquo;em to Smarterer.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Call for Presentations for PowerShell Summit Europe 2015</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-11-24-call-for-presentations-for-powershell-summit-europe-2015/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-11-24-call-for-presentations-for-powershell-summit-europe-2015/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 24 Nov 2014 20:02:17 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The PowerShell Summit is the number one conference where PowerShell enthusiasts gather and learn from each other in fast-paced, knowledge packed presentations. PowerShell experts from all over the world including MVP’s, Guru’s, community leaders and PowerShell team members, will once again join together for a few days in Stockholm, Sweden to discuss and learn about maximizing PowerShell in the workplace. If you want to share your PowerShell expertise or story, then this is your official call to submit presentations for selection!&lt;br&gt;
PowerShell Summit Europe 2015 will be held 14-16 September 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The PowerShell Summit is the number one conference where PowerShell enthusiasts gather and learn from each other in fast-paced, knowledge packed presentations. PowerShell experts from all over the world including MVP’s, Guru’s, community leaders and PowerShell team members, will once again join together for a few days in Stockholm, Sweden to discuss and learn about maximizing PowerShell in the workplace. If you want to share your PowerShell expertise or story, then this is your official call to submit presentations for selection!<br>
PowerShell Summit Europe 2015 will be held 14-16 September 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden.</p><h2 id="topic-areas--what-we-are-looking-for" class="ps-heading">Topic Areas – What we are looking for<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#topic-areas--what-we-are-looking-for" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>We are looking for 45-minute presentations covering a wide aspect of PowerShell expertise. We have two main topic areas that may assist you in building an abstract.<br>
PowerShell Internals – A deep look into the inside workings of PowerShell and practical solutions that are built from them. These presentations are typically more directed to the PowerShell development community that is building extensions and solutions relating to PowerShell.<br>
PowerShell Features Deep Dive – These presentations are a deep look into configuring and working with PowerShell features and capabilities such as Remoting, Desired State Configuration and more. These presentations tend to be more IT Pro focused.<br>
We are open to presentations across the entire ecosystem that has been built around PowerShell; so don’t hesitate to send an abstract for your particular area of expertise. This includes Microsoft platforms and products that have PowerShell-based management tools as well as 3rd parties such as VMware. New topics will be preferred over recycling of older topics – look to see what’s new in PowerShell 5.0 and use the questions on PowerShell.org to spot areas of confusion that could supply a good session for the Summit.</p><h2 id="what-kind-of-sessions-get-selected" class="ps-heading"> What kind of sessions get selected?<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#what-kind-of-sessions-get-selected" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>We’re looking for sessions that go beyond – often way beyond – “beginner.” If you want to see examples of the depth we’re looking for use the recordings on the PowerShell.org Youtube channel from the PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 as a guide. We look for an abstract that’s compelling and makes us salivate to see your session – so spend time writing a punchy abstract! We want sessions that offer real-world usability combined with “wow, nobody talks about THAT” awesomeness. If in doubt aim high. Remember, Summit sessions are recorded, so if you’ve previously presented a topic at a Summit, we’re less likely to choose it for another Summit. We want sessions that are challenging, and that ideally present things that simply aren’t explained or documented elsewhere. New modules, new techniques, and crazy approaches are all welcome. Discussion-format sessions are great, too, especially if you plan to turn them into a community deliverable (like a “best practices for writing DSC Resources” session that gets turned into a free e-guide later). Think community, deep dive, engaging, and amazing as keywords. We want attendees to finish each day with information leaking… just a little bit… out their eyeballs. Help us make it happen.<br>
We do have some goals for speaker selection, too. We obviously have, and appreciate, the great involvement we get from the product team. We aim to have a certain number of sessions from well-known members of the community, simply because they’re well-known for a reason – they do a great job! But we also set aside slots for newcomers who’ve never presented before, or who’ve maybe only presented once or twice before – the audience will judge you on content not style. We want to create opportunities for more folks to become engaged and active in our community, and the Summit is a great way to do that.<br>
We aren’t looking for soft-skills sessions, like “how to get a new user group running,” although contact us via email (summit@) if you’d like to do something like that as an extra evening thing after the main content wraps for the day.<br>
Please note all sessions are to be delivered in English. Presenter will provide all equipment needed to deliver session(s), including a laptop or other computer. Presenter must be able to provide video by means of HDMI, DVI-D, or DisplayPort connectors – VGA is NOT supported. Presenter must be able to manually select an appropriate screen resolution for video output. Typically, 1024x768 or 1280x720 are preferred.</p><h2 id="how-to-submit-abstracts-of-presentations" class="ps-heading">How to submit abstracts of presentations<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#how-to-submit-abstracts-of-presentations" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Presentations will be 45-minutes in length and the submission should include the following:<br>
Presentation Title<br>
Presentation abstract – a description of the presentation and the topics covered. 250 words or less and suitable for marketing.<br>
Go to<a href="http://eventmgr.azurewebsites.net/event/register/PSEU15/Europe%202015%20Member?preregister=1">http://eventmgr.azurewebsites.net/event/register/PSEU15/Europe%202015%20Member?preregister=1</a>. This is the only valid URL for pre-registration. Provide your e-mail address, password, and full name. You’re creating a new account, even if you’ve attended past Summit events.<br><strong>Do NOT attempt to register for the Summit as an attendee at this stage – we will be opening registration in late February 2015.</strong><br>
Click Abstracts<br>
Click Submit Abstract<br>
Provide a title and description; descriptions must be 50-250 words. Set the Status to “Ready to Review” when you are ready to send your session to us for consideration.<br>
To return to the site at a later time, go to<a href="http://eventmgr.azurewebsites.net/event/login/PSEU15">http://eventmgr.azurewebsites.net/event/login/PSEU15</a>. Click Log In. You can then re-visit Abstracts.<br>
Note that you must set your abstract status to<strong>Ready for Review</strong> or we won’t see it. If you leave it in<strong>Pending,</strong> it won’t be considered.<br>
You can submit multiple presentations in the same topic area or for different ones. Be aware that even though the session length is 45 minutes we prefer to have at least 10 minutes set aside for questions. Summit presentations are intense and intimate often with plenty of audience interaction. You must expect questions and discussions. This is not a “lecture to the audience” event. Also because of the session length, generally co-presenters are unnecessary, but that is not a requirement.</p><h2 id="presentation-submission-deadline--when-you-should-send-it-by" class="ps-heading">Presentation submission deadline – When you should send it by<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#presentation-submission-deadline--when-you-should-send-it-by" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Start sending your presentation submissions immediately! The selection committee will start selecting presentations as soon as they arrive so you don’t want to miss out. The last day we will accept presentation submissions will be<strong>Sunday 11 January 2015</strong>. This is a hard deadline.</p><h2 id="when-you-will-know-youve-been-selected" class="ps-heading">When you will know you’ve been selected<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#when-you-will-know-youve-been-selected" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>The selection committee will start reviewing submissions immediately and begin the selection process. You will be informed if one or more of your presentations have been selected and sent a contract on or before Sunday 18 January 2015. You will need to return the signed contract by Wednesday 28 January 2015 otherwise another speaker may be offered the opportunity.<br>
Speakers, with accepted sessions, will be given free admission to the event, including attendance at all official Summit activities. However, AWPP membership is not included. Speakers may not bring guests to the day sessions or evening events. We have a limited budget, and the number of speakers selected will be partially governed by that budget. Speakers are responsible for their own travel expenses, including hotel, airfare, and ground transportation.<br>
The final agenda will be announced and posted on PowerShell.Org on, or about, Monday 2 February 2015.<br>
We look forward to your submissions and your help in making PowerShell Summit Europe 2015 the most valuable IT/Dev conference of the year building on and surpassing the Europe 2014 Summit!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Charlotte PowerShell User Group meeting on 11/6</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-11-03-charlotte-powershell-user-group-meeting-on-116/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-11-03-charlotte-powershell-user-group-meeting-on-116/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2014 19:06:00 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Shell and Tell is back.. bring your scripts you&amp;rsquo;ve been working on and show your PowerShell pride by displaying your scripting prowess.  We&amp;rsquo;ll have food and drinks, so come join the fun!&lt;br&gt;
Everyone is welcome. Please RSVP on the &lt;a href="http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-PowerShell-Users-Group/events/216116072/"&gt;MeetUp&lt;/a&gt; event page so we can plan food accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Shell and Tell is back.. bring your scripts you&rsquo;ve been working on and show your PowerShell pride by displaying your scripting prowess.  We&rsquo;ll have food and drinks, so come join the fun!<br>
Everyone is welcome. Please RSVP on the<a href="http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-PowerShell-Users-Group/events/216116072/">MeetUp</a> event page so we can plan food accordingly.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Our NaNoWriMo Challenge: Write a PowerShell Article</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-25-our-nanowrimo-challenge-write-a-powershell-article/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-25-our-nanowrimo-challenge-write-a-powershell-article/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 25 Oct 2014 16:28:27 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;In honor of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I wanted to offer a smaller, and more unique, challenge.&lt;br&gt;
Send me a PowerShell article.&lt;br&gt;
Seriously. My name is &lt;strong&gt;Don J&lt;/strong&gt;ones, and this is &lt;strong&gt;PowerShell.org&lt;/strong&gt;, so you can probably figure out how to contact me. Send me an article between 800 and 3,000 words (including code) in Microsoft Word format. Don&amp;rsquo;t attach any scripts. Please keep the formatting super-simple: paste code from the PowerShell ISE, and use Word&amp;rsquo;s default styles otherwise. If you must include screen shots, please embed them in the doc, but also include them as a a separate PNG in your e-mail.&lt;br&gt;
You can write about &lt;em&gt;anything,&lt;/em&gt; provided it&amp;rsquo;s PowerShell-related._ _What&amp;rsquo;s best? Some challenge that stumped you - and that you eventually solved (and please, tell us how). Something that you think folks could benefit from, or could learn to do better. Even an article that lays out both sides of a particular question, and outlines the pros and cons of each argument. Doesn&amp;rsquo;t matter. What matters is that you &lt;em&gt;write. _&lt;br&gt;
I will
personally
commit to reading every single one, and providing you with feedback on your article. When suitable, I&amp;rsquo;ll make some specific suggestions for improving the article. If you then fix it up accordingly, I&amp;rsquo;ll run it by a professional editor&lt;/em&gt; - and I&amp;rsquo;ll have it published. _In some cases, we&amp;rsquo;ll publish it right here on PowerShell.org. In other cases, I&amp;rsquo;ll submit it to my friends at 1105 Media for their consideration in one of their IT magazines, like &lt;em&gt;Redmond Magazine&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;em&gt;MCPMag.com&lt;/em&gt;. Still others will go into the PowerShell.org TechLetter, which would be a huge help to our editors, who are always hungry for content.&lt;br&gt;
Being able to communicate well is important in all walks of life, but being &lt;em&gt;willing to share&lt;/em&gt; is even more important. Think you&amp;rsquo;ve got nothing to share? _Wrong. _You have unique experiences that everyone can learn from. You do &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; need to be an expert in order to have something valuable to share. We would all benefit a lot more if &lt;em&gt;more&lt;/em&gt; people shared their experiences and successes - so now it&amp;rsquo;s your turn.&lt;br&gt;
The deadline is November 30th, of course, and I&amp;rsquo;ll work my way through them all as quickly as possible. You&amp;rsquo;re not going to be judged on your grammar or spelling (although do use Word&amp;rsquo;s tools to help those as much as it can). Don&amp;rsquo;t try to write fancy, or overly formal. In fact, just write like you&amp;rsquo;d talk. Read your piece back to yourself _aloud, _and if it sounds weird, fix it so it doesn&amp;rsquo;t. If it &lt;em&gt;sounds&lt;/em&gt; good, it&amp;rsquo;ll &lt;em&gt;read&lt;/em&gt; well.&lt;br&gt;
C&amp;rsquo;mon. Take up the challenge. And tweet folks over to this article, too. Let&amp;rsquo;s make it a thing. My goal is to help at least a few folks because regular bloggers, either here or elsewhere, and my dream is to find maybe a couple of folks who can pick up a full-time column with a magazine or other publication. That&amp;rsquo;d be awesome. I know you&amp;rsquo;re out there - let&amp;rsquo;s get the party started.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>In honor of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I wanted to offer a smaller, and more unique, challenge.<br>
Send me a PowerShell article.<br>
Seriously. My name is <strong>Don J</strong>ones, and this is <strong>PowerShell.org</strong>, so you can probably figure out how to contact me. Send me an article between 800 and 3,000 words (including code) in Microsoft Word format. Don&rsquo;t attach any scripts. Please keep the formatting super-simple: paste code from the PowerShell ISE, and use Word&rsquo;s default styles otherwise. If you must include screen shots, please embed them in the doc, but also include them as a a separate PNG in your e-mail.<br>
You can write about <em>anything,</em> provided it&rsquo;s PowerShell-related._ _What&rsquo;s best? Some challenge that stumped you - and that you eventually solved (and please, tell us how). Something that you think folks could benefit from, or could learn to do better. Even an article that lays out both sides of a particular question, and outlines the pros and cons of each argument. Doesn&rsquo;t matter. What matters is that you <em>write. _<br>
I will
personally
commit to reading every single one, and providing you with feedback on your article. When suitable, I&rsquo;ll make some specific suggestions for improving the article. If you then fix it up accordingly, I&rsquo;ll run it by a professional editor</em> - and I&rsquo;ll have it published. _In some cases, we&rsquo;ll publish it right here on PowerShell.org. In other cases, I&rsquo;ll submit it to my friends at 1105 Media for their consideration in one of their IT magazines, like <em>Redmond Magazine</em> or <em>MCPMag.com</em>. Still others will go into the PowerShell.org TechLetter, which would be a huge help to our editors, who are always hungry for content.<br>
Being able to communicate well is important in all walks of life, but being <em>willing to share</em> is even more important. Think you&rsquo;ve got nothing to share? _Wrong. _You have unique experiences that everyone can learn from. You do <em>not</em> need to be an expert in order to have something valuable to share. We would all benefit a lot more if <em>more</em> people shared their experiences and successes - so now it&rsquo;s your turn.<br>
The deadline is November 30th, of course, and I&rsquo;ll work my way through them all as quickly as possible. You&rsquo;re not going to be judged on your grammar or spelling (although do use Word&rsquo;s tools to help those as much as it can). Don&rsquo;t try to write fancy, or overly formal. In fact, just write like you&rsquo;d talk. Read your piece back to yourself _aloud, _and if it sounds weird, fix it so it doesn&rsquo;t. If it <em>sounds</em> good, it&rsquo;ll <em>read</em> well.<br>
C&rsquo;mon. Take up the challenge. And tweet folks over to this article, too. Let&rsquo;s make it a thing. My goal is to help at least a few folks because regular bloggers, either here or elsewhere, and my dream is to find maybe a couple of folks who can pick up a full-time column with a magazine or other publication. That&rsquo;d be awesome. I know you&rsquo;re out there - let&rsquo;s get the party started.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>How to Have the PowerShell Summit Come to You</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-16-how-to-have-the-powershell-summit-come-to-you/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-16-how-to-have-the-powershell-summit-come-to-you/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2014 18:24:25 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;We&amp;rsquo;re &lt;strong&gt;often&lt;/strong&gt; asked if we&amp;rsquo;re planning to have a PowerShell Summit in (insert name of town/country/city). The answer is, &amp;ldquo;no,&amp;rdquo; because we&amp;rsquo;re usually not planning much in advance of whatever&amp;rsquo;s currently on the table. Keep in mind - **we&amp;rsquo;re all volunteers. **We don&amp;rsquo;t have a ton of free time to plan 3 years out! As you&amp;rsquo;ll see in a minute, it&amp;rsquo;s a lot of work.&lt;br&gt;
That said, &lt;strong&gt;you&lt;/strong&gt; can play a big role in bringing the Summit to &lt;strong&gt;your&lt;/strong&gt; town. How? Simply write a proposal and submit it to us. Use the &amp;ldquo;Admin&amp;rdquo; e-mail alias at PowerShell.org. Here&amp;rsquo;s what to include:&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>We&rsquo;re <strong>often</strong> asked if we&rsquo;re planning to have a PowerShell Summit in (insert name of town/country/city). The answer is, &ldquo;no,&rdquo; because we&rsquo;re usually not planning much in advance of whatever&rsquo;s currently on the table. Keep in mind - **we&rsquo;re all volunteers. **We don&rsquo;t have a ton of free time to plan 3 years out! As you&rsquo;ll see in a minute, it&rsquo;s a lot of work.<br>
That said, <strong>you</strong> can play a big role in bringing the Summit to <strong>your</strong> town. How? Simply write a proposal and submit it to us. Use the &ldquo;Admin&rdquo; e-mail alias at PowerShell.org. Here&rsquo;s what to include:</p><ul><li>When you&rsquo;re proposing for. We typically need a proposal roughly 18 months out. The North America event is in April, and the Europe event in September, so you need to plan about a year and a half ahead of those dates.</li><li>A description of the local PowerShell audience. Helping us understand the local business environment, how many Microsoft IT pros are employes, and whether or not there&rsquo;s a local user group, all helps. The more you can do to help us reach out to the locals, the more confident we&rsquo;ll be in planning an event in your area.</li><li>A venue. This is the tough part, because we have a number of pretty strict requirements. Many commercial venues won&rsquo;t talk to a smaller organization more than 6-9 months out, so in talking to a venue you&rsquo;ll have to ask them to estimate pricing based on their current situation; we&rsquo;ll nail down particulars closer-in if we select the venue. We don&rsquo;t need you to guarantee dates; we just need an estimate of how much the venue wants to charge us.</li></ul><p>Our venue requirements are <strong>detailed</strong> and pretty much <strong>non-negotiable</strong>.</p><ul><li>The venue must be near an international airport - no more than a 30-minute drive. This must be accessible by a major air carrier, such that a flight from Seattle-Tacoma could make it to the venue&rsquo;s airport with no more than one connection. We have to be considerate of the product team&rsquo;s time!</li><li>The venue must be near a sufficient number of affordable, business-class hotels. We <strong>do not</strong> reserve room blocks or guarantee rooms, so if you&rsquo;re talking to a hotel, they may not want to deal with you because of this.</li><li>The venue must offer parking - although we are okay if there are parking fees.</li><li>We must have 2 rooms capable of seating at least 50 people each. That seating can be &ldquo;theater-style&hellip;&rdquo;</li><li>&hellip;but we must also have a place for at least 100 people to eat lunch. Sometimes, that means a separate room. Other times, it may mean setting the session rooms &ldquo;classroom style&rdquo; so people can eat in the session rooms. Switching to &ldquo;classroom style&rdquo; still needs to afford seating for 50 people per room, minimum.</li><li>We prefer to buy &ldquo;all-day&rdquo; catering packages that include unlimited coffee, a continental breakfast (pastries), buffet lunch, and an afternoon snack. Pricing cannot exceed about $110 per person per day - and that must include taxes, service fees, gratuities, and so on.</li><li>We prefer <strong>not</strong> to guarantee a specific number of people until very close-in. However, most commercial venues require a commitment up front. In that case, we prefer to commit to no more than 50 people - even though we want the flexibility to have more than that.</li><li>If we&rsquo;re paying top dollar for catering, we should get the venue itself for free. That&rsquo;s traditional at most commercial venues. If we&rsquo;re paying for the venue, then our per-person/per-day catering cost should be substantially under our limit.</li><li>We prefer to minimize A/V expenses, but do require an HD projector, screen, and wireless lav mic in each of the two rooms. We&rsquo;d need pricing on that equipment if it isn&rsquo;t included in the venue pricing.</li><li>The venue needs to have decent Internet. That doesn&rsquo;t necessarily need to be included for free, but it needs to be available. We may purchase 2-4 connections for speakers to use when presenting, so knowing the pricing would be helpful.</li><li>The venue needs to be available for at least one evening event, where we&rsquo;ll likely want a cash bar and some light snacks - we expect to pay extra for the evening food, but not for the venue itself.</li></ul><p>As you can see, it&rsquo;s a tough list, and it&rsquo;s a lot of work for us to find venues. That&rsquo;s one reason we tend to lean toward Microsoft facilities, when they&rsquo;re available, because we get the venue cheaper, the food cheaper, and so on.<br>
You&rsquo;ll also see that our pricing doesn&rsquo;t leave a ton of room for error. At $110/person/day, each attendee costs us $330. With 50 attendees, there&rsquo;s another $130 per person in overhead to pay for speakers&rsquo; meals. We have about another $130 per person in hard costs like insurance, equipment shipping, and logistics planning. We carve off another $150 per person to help fund PowerShell.org itself, including this website. That&rsquo;s $740 per person in costs - real close to the $800 we charge, which also has to cover VERIFIED EFFECTIVE exam costs and so on. We plan our numbers around a 50-person break-even point because we&rsquo;re incredibly risk-averse - we don&rsquo;t want to have to make up the difference on our personal credit cards, which has almost happened in the past. As you can see, we try to keep our numbers pretty tight - which means a lot of careful planning.<br>
So&hellip; if you want to volunteer (it&rsquo;s much appreciated!) and do some local legwork, you&rsquo;re more than welcome to propose your favorite town. We understand that, working 18+ months out, some of the numbers will be estimates - that&rsquo;s fine. Knowing that something is roughly in the right price range is a big start.<br>
We <strong>do</strong> have other operational criteria that can come into play, so just because you propose someplace doesn&rsquo;t mean we&rsquo;re guaranteeing we&rsquo;ll go there - but we&rsquo;ll keep it in mind, even for future years.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 – All videos available</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-14-powershell-summit-europe-2014-all-videos-available/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-14-powershell-summit-europe-2014-all-videos-available/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2014 07:08:48 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;All of the recordings from the recent PowerShell Summit in Amsterdam are now available through the PowerShell.org channel on youtube. The playlist for the Summit is &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfeA8kIs7Coehjg9cB6foPjBojLHYQGb"&gt;https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfeA8kIs7Coehjg9cB6foPjBojLHYQGb&lt;/a&gt;_&lt;br&gt;
Thank you again to the speakers, and attendees, who made for a wonderful first Summit in Europe and more thanks to the people who donated to our appeal to raise funds for the recording equipment.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>All of the recordings from the recent PowerShell Summit in Amsterdam are now available through the PowerShell.org channel on youtube. The playlist for the Summit is<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfeA8kIs7Coehjg9cB6foPjBojLHYQGb">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfeA8kIs7Coehjg9cB6foPjBojLHYQGb</a>_<br>
Thank you again to the speakers, and attendees, who made for a wonderful first Summit in Europe and more thanks to the people who donated to our appeal to raise funds for the recording equipment.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 10/02/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-13-phillyposh-10022014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-13-phillyposh-10022014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 14 Oct 2014 01:35:26 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://mellositmusings.com/about/"&gt;John Mello&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled &amp;ldquo;Custom Object Creation&amp;rdquo;. A copy of his demo scripts and presentation are available &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-10/tree/master/Creating%20Custom%20Objects"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; at our &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/"&gt;GitHub site&lt;/a&gt;.
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://techguytj.com/bio/"&gt;TJ Turner&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled &amp;ldquo;Runspace Pools&amp;rdquo;. A copy of his demo scripts and presentation are available &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-10/tree/master/Run%20Space%20Pools"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; at our &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/"&gt;GitHub site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A
recording of this meeting&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;has been posted to our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;
YouTube channel
&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<ul><li><a href="http://mellositmusings.com/about/">John Mello</a> gave a presentation entitled &ldquo;Custom Object Creation&rdquo;. A copy of his demo scripts and presentation are available<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-10/tree/master/Creating%20Custom%20Objects">here</a> at our<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/">GitHub site</a>.<ul><li><a href="http://techguytj.com/bio/">TJ Turner</a> gave a presentation entitled &ldquo;Runspace Pools&rdquo;. A copy of his demo scripts and presentation are available<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-10/tree/master/Run%20Space%20Pools">here</a> at our <a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/">GitHub site</a>.</li><li>A
recording of this meeting</li></ul></li></ul><p>has been posted to our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">
YouTube channel</a></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 – – videos from day 1</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-08-powershell-summit-europe-2014-videos-from-day-1/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-08-powershell-summit-europe-2014-videos-from-day-1/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2014 07:23:31 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The videos from day 1 of the Powershell Summit Europe 2014 are now available on the PowerShell.org youtube channel. The European Summit playlist can be found at&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Uploading of day 2 is in progress and I&amp;rsquo;ll supply notification when complete&lt;br&gt;
Enjoy.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The videos from day 1 of the Powershell Summit Europe 2014 are now available on the PowerShell.org youtube channel. The European Summit playlist can be found at</p><p>Uploading of day 2 is in progress and I&rsquo;ll supply notification when complete<br>
Enjoy.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 – – slides and code</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-07-powershell-summit-europe-2014-slides-and-code/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-07-powershell-summit-europe-2014-slides-and-code/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2014 17:49:55 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;All of the slides and demo code the speakers wanted to share are available for your enjoyment at &lt;a href="http://1drv.ms/1vMWmtm"&gt;http://1drv.ms/1vMWmtm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
I&amp;rsquo;m currently uploading the videos which is a slow process. I&amp;rsquo;ll post when hat activity is completed.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>All of the slides and demo code the speakers wanted to share are available for your enjoyment at<a href="http://1drv.ms/1vMWmtm">http://1drv.ms/1vMWmtm</a><br>
I&rsquo;m currently uploading the videos which is a slow process. I&rsquo;ll post when hat activity is completed.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The current and future state of the Windows Management Framework</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-06-the-current-and-future-state-of-the-windows-management-framework/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-06-the-current-and-future-state-of-the-windows-management-framework/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 06 Oct 2014 11:04:50 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;At the 2nd of October, &lt;a href="http://www.leeholmes.com/"&gt;Lee Holmes&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation about the current and future state of the Windows Management Framework (WMF) during the &lt;a href="http://www.dupsug.com/?page_id=914"&gt;Dutch PowerShell User Group (DuPSUG)&lt;/a&gt; at the Microsoft headquarters in The Netherlands.&lt;br&gt;
The slide decks and recorded videos will be made available soon, but this is what was discussed:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The release cycle of the Windows Management Framework (WMF)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Faster incremental releases of preview versions are being released. This rapid development means that companies that need specific new functionalities to tackle current problems they&amp;rsquo;re having, don&amp;rsquo;t have to wait as long as they had to in the past.&lt;br&gt;
Everyone should keep in mind that documentation for preview versions can be more limited, but should still read the &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44070"&gt;release notes &lt;/a&gt;carefully. They contain descriptions of some of the improvements that are discussed in this blog post, but also cover other things that aren&amp;rsquo;t discussed here. Also be sure to take a look at &lt;a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh857339.aspx"&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s New in Windows PowerShell&lt;/a&gt; at TechNet.&lt;br&gt;
A request from the audience was to include more helpful real-life examples until documentation is fully up-to-date.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>At the 2nd of October,<a href="http://www.leeholmes.com/">Lee Holmes</a> gave a presentation about the current and future state of the Windows Management Framework (WMF) during the<a href="http://www.dupsug.com/?page_id=914">Dutch PowerShell User Group (DuPSUG)</a> at the Microsoft headquarters in The Netherlands.<br>
The slide decks and recorded videos will be made available soon, but this is what was discussed:</p><p><strong>The release cycle of the Windows Management Framework (WMF)</strong></p><p>Faster incremental releases of preview versions are being released. This rapid development means that companies that need specific new functionalities to tackle current problems they&rsquo;re having, don&rsquo;t have to wait as long as they had to in the past.<br>
Everyone should keep in mind that documentation for preview versions can be more limited, but should still read the<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44070">release notes</a>carefully. They contain descriptions of some of the improvements that are discussed in this blog post, but also cover other things that aren&rsquo;t discussed here. Also be sure to take a look at<a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh857339.aspx">What&rsquo;s New in Windows PowerShell</a> at TechNet.<br>
A request from the audience was to include more helpful real-life examples until documentation is fully up-to-date.</p><p><strong>Desired State Configuration (DSC) partial/split configurations</strong></p><p>With DSC partial/split configuration it is possible to combine multiple separate DSC configurations to a single desired state. This could be useful when a company has different people or departments that are responsible for a specific part of the configuration (by example Windows, database, applications).</p><p><strong>OneGet</strong></p><p>OneGet is a Package Manager Manager (it manages package managers). It enables companies to find, get, install and uninstall packages from both internal and public sources. Public repositories can contain harmful files and should be treated accordingly.<br>
Besides the OneGet module included in the Windows Management Framework Preview, updated versions are continuously being uploaded to<a href="https://github.com/OneGet/oneget">https://github.com/OneGet/oneget</a> by Microsoft. These can include bug fixes and new functionality like support for more provider types.<br>
While in the past it seemed that Nuget was required, during the<a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/">PowerShell Summit</a> it was demonstrated that a file share can be used as well.<br>
From the audience a question was raised whether BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) could be used. This is currently not the case and there were also no plans yet to implement it.</p><p><strong>PowerShellGet</strong></p><p>PowerShellGet is a module manager which should make it easier to find the many great modules that are already available, but are not very discoverable because they&rsquo;re fragmented on numerous websites across the Internet.<br>
Microsoft is currently hosting a gallery of modules. The modules that are available in there are currently being controlled by Microsoft, but this might change in the future.<br>
It is possible to create an internal module source and the save location for modules can be specified as well.</p><p><strong>PSReadLine</strong></p><p>PSReadLine is a bash inspired readline implementation for PowerShell to improve the command line editing experience in the PowerShell.exe console. It includes syntax coloring and CTRL+C and CTRL+V support, for more information about other improvements, view their<a href="https://github.com/lzybkr/PSReadLine">website</a>.<br>
PSReadLine is one of the modules that can be installed using PowerShellGet:</p><p>Find-Module</p><p>PsReadLine</p><p>|</p><p>Install-Module</p><p><strong>Security</strong></p><ul><li>Always be careful when running scripts that include Invoke-Expression or its alias iex because it might run harmful code.<ul><li>For a non harmful example, take a look at this<a href="http://www.leeholmes.com/blog/2011/04/01/powershell-and-html5/">blog post</a> by Lee Holmes.</li></ul></li><li>Many people in the security community are adopting PowerShell.</li><li>PowerShell is done in memory and is therefore volatile. To improve security the following enhancements were introduced:<ul><li>Transcript improvements<ul><li>Transcript support was added to the engine so it can used everywhere, also in the Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE).</li><li>A transcript file name automatically includes the computer name.</li><li>Transcript logging can be enforced to be redirected to another system.</li><li>Transcription can be enforced by default.</li></ul></li></ul></li><li>Group Policy<ul><li>An ADMX file is currently not available to configure it on all platforms, but it can be found in the technical preview versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server under: Administrative Templates -&gt; Windows Components -&gt; Windows PowerShell</li></ul></li><li>More advanced Scriptblock logging<ul><li>Enable ScriptBlockLogging through GPO (in later Windows versions) or by registry by setting EnableScriptBlockLogging to 1 (REG_DWORD) in: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\ScriptBlockLogging</li><li>The additional logging will show you what code was run and can be found in event viewer under Applications and Services Logs\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\Operational.</li><li>Scriptblocks can be split across multiple event log entries due to size limitations.</li><li>Using Get-WinEvent -FilterHashTable it is possible to get related events, extract the information and combine it.</li><li>Since attackers would want to remove these registry settings and clear event logs, consider using Windows Event Forwarding/SCOM ACS to store this information on another server. Also consider enabling cmdlet logging.</li></ul></li><li>Just Enough Admin (JEA)<ul><li>JEA enables organizations to provide operators with only the amount of access required to perform their tasks.</li></ul></li></ul><p><strong>New and improved functionality and cmdlets</strong></p><p><strong>Manage .zip files using Expand-Archive and Compress-Archive</strong><br>
.zip files can be managed using Compress-Archive and Expand-Archive. Other archive types like .rar are not currently supported, but this might be added in future versions.</p><p><strong>New-Item</strong><br>
It is now not necessary anymore to specify the item type. To create a new item, simply run</p><p>New-Item</p><p>foo.txt</p><p><strong>Get-ItemPropertyValue</strong><br>
This makes it easier to get the value of a file or registry:</p><ul><li/></ul><p>Get-ItemPropertyValue</p><p>$Env:windir</p><p>\system32\calc.exe</p><p>-name</p><p>versioninfo</p><ul><li/></ul><p>Get-ItemPropertyValue</p><p>-Path</p><p>HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\ScriptedDiagnostics</p><p>-Name</p><p>ExecutionPolicy</p><p><strong>Symbolic links support for New-Item, Remove-Item and Get-ChildItem</strong><br>
Symbolic link files and directories can now be created using:</p><ul><li/></ul><p>New-Item</p><p>-ItemType</p><p>SymbolicLink</p><p>-Path</p><p>C:\Temp\MySymLinkFile.txt</p><p>-Value</p><p>$pshome</p><p>\profile.ps1</p><ul><li/></ul><p>New-Item</p><p>-ItemType</p><p>SymbolicLink</p><p>-Path</p><p>C:\Temp\MySymLinkDir</p><p>-Value</p><p>$pshome</p><p>Junctions cannot currently be created, but this might also be added in a later version.</p><p><strong>Debugging using Enter-PSHostProcess and Exit-PSHostProcess</strong><br>
Let you debug Windows PowerShell scripts in processes separate from the current process that is running in the Windows PowerShell console (by example long running or looping code). Run Enter-PSHostProcess to enter, or attach to, a specific process ID, and then run Get-Runspace to return the active runspaces within the process. Run Exit-PSHostProcess to detach from the process when you are finished debugging the script within the process.</p><p><strong>Use Psedit to edit files in a remote session directly in ISE</strong><br>
Simply open a new PSSession to a remote computer and type PSEdit
.</p><p><strong>Classes and other user-defined types</strong></p><ul><li>The goal is to enable a wider range of use cases, simplify development of Windows PowerShell artifacts (such as DSC resources), and accelerate coverage of management surfaces.</li><li>Classes are useful for structured data. Think by example about custom objects that you need to change afterwards.</li><li>Name of the class and the constructor must be the same.</li><li>Code is case insensitive.</li><li>In classes, variables are lexically scoped (matching braces) instead of dynamically scoped.</li><li>Every return must be explicit.</li><li>Sample code:</li></ul><p>Class</p><p> MyClass</p><p>{</p><p>MyClass</p><p>(</p><p>$int1</p><p>,</p><p>$int2</p><p>)</p><p>   {</p><p>&ldquo;In the constructor&rdquo;</p><p>   }</p><p>[int]</p><p>$Property1</p><p>[DateTime]</p><p>$Property2</p><p>[int]</p><p>MyHelper</p><p>(</p><p>$param1</p><p>)</p><p>   {</p><p>return</p><p>42</p><p>   } </p><p>}</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 – – Thank you</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-04-powershell-summit-europe-2014-thank-you/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-10-04-powershell-summit-europe-2014-thank-you/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 04 Oct 2014 11:17:10 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I would like to express a huge thank you to the speakers and attendees at our recent Summit.&lt;br&gt;
The speakers delivered an excellent set of sessions that dived into PowerShell features new and old.&lt;br&gt;
The attendees asked lots of questions, both during and after sessions, which is what we want. This is a Summit not a conference where a speaker rushes in, delivers a talk and rushes out. We wanted a healthy level of discussion and that&amp;rsquo;s what we got.&lt;br&gt;
The feed back we&amp;rsquo;ve had has been very positive from both the attendees and speakers. We managed to record practically all of the sessions and those videos as well as the slides and code will be available for download soon.&lt;br&gt;
This year&amp;rsquo;s event in Amsterdam has laid a very solid foundation for the future of the European Summit and our plans are to run a European Summit in 2015. Exact location and dates haven&amp;rsquo;t been decided yet but we will communicate them as soon as we know.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I would like to express a huge thank you to the speakers and attendees at our recent Summit.<br>
The speakers delivered an excellent set of sessions that dived into PowerShell features new and old.<br>
The attendees asked lots of questions, both during and after sessions, which is what we want. This is a Summit not a conference where a speaker rushes in, delivers a talk and rushes out. We wanted a healthy level of discussion and that&rsquo;s what we got.<br>
The feed back we&rsquo;ve had has been very positive from both the attendees and speakers. We managed to record practically all of the sessions and those videos as well as the slides and code will be available for download soon.<br>
This year&rsquo;s event in Amsterdam has laid a very solid foundation for the future of the European Summit and our plans are to run a European Summit in 2015. Exact location and dates haven&rsquo;t been decided yet but we will communicate them as soon as we know.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>When Will There be a PowerShell Summit in ____?</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-30-when-will-there-be-a-powershell-summit-in-____/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-30-when-will-there-be-a-powershell-summit-in-____/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 11:18:11 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;As we move into the middle of PowerShell Summit Europe 2014, we have a lot of folks asking, &amp;ldquo;when will you hold a Summit in ____&amp;rdquo; (insert the name of your favorite country).&lt;br&gt;
Right now, PowerShell.org is committed to organizing both North American and European events, one per year, while there is audience demand for them. Both events will shift locations from year to year, and the location choice is driven by a number of criteria - mainly financial ones.&lt;br&gt;
But we&amp;rsquo;re all volunteers here. Each event requires upwards of 240 man-hours to put together, and an up-front financial commitment of up to $25,000. We&amp;rsquo;re getting to the point where the organization can front that money, but it&amp;rsquo;s been on personal credit cards to this point, paid back only once the event is complete. So&amp;hellip; it&amp;rsquo;s a big deal. Strictly from a time perspective, we just don&amp;rsquo;t have enough to organize more events elsewhere in the world.&lt;br&gt;
However, we continue to encourage folks to organize their own events. We&amp;rsquo;ve even come up with a brand name to get you started: PowerShell Forum. The idea is for those to be smaller 2-3 day, regional-level events that we help promote. We&amp;rsquo;ll provide all the advice we can to help get you going, too. We&amp;rsquo;ll put you in touch with the right folks so that if product team participation is an option, you can find out. We hope that a PowerShell Forum &amp;ldquo;grows up&amp;rdquo; to one day host a PowerShell Summit - because the organizers and volunteers are in place to let us hold a full Summit without taking on the entire time commitment ourselves.&lt;br&gt;
In any community, if you want something good to come your way, the best way is to do it yourself - rather than asking someone else to bring the good to you. We feel that&amp;rsquo;s particularly true with live events, because &lt;em&gt;you&lt;/em&gt; know the local market, the venues, the audience, the customs, the laws, and so on.&lt;br&gt;
So, &amp;ldquo;when will there be a PowerShell Summit in _____?&amp;rdquo; The answer is, &amp;ldquo;when you make it happen.&amp;rdquo; We&amp;rsquo;d love to help - but you&amp;rsquo;ll have to take the first step.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>As we move into the middle of PowerShell Summit Europe 2014, we have a lot of folks asking, &ldquo;when will you hold a Summit in ____&rdquo; (insert the name of your favorite country).<br>
Right now, PowerShell.org is committed to organizing both North American and European events, one per year, while there is audience demand for them. Both events will shift locations from year to year, and the location choice is driven by a number of criteria - mainly financial ones.<br>
But we&rsquo;re all volunteers here. Each event requires upwards of 240 man-hours to put together, and an up-front financial commitment of up to $25,000. We&rsquo;re getting to the point where the organization can front that money, but it&rsquo;s been on personal credit cards to this point, paid back only once the event is complete. So&hellip; it&rsquo;s a big deal. Strictly from a time perspective, we just don&rsquo;t have enough to organize more events elsewhere in the world.<br>
However, we continue to encourage folks to organize their own events. We&rsquo;ve even come up with a brand name to get you started: PowerShell Forum. The idea is for those to be smaller 2-3 day, regional-level events that we help promote. We&rsquo;ll provide all the advice we can to help get you going, too. We&rsquo;ll put you in touch with the right folks so that if product team participation is an option, you can find out. We hope that a PowerShell Forum &ldquo;grows up&rdquo; to one day host a PowerShell Summit - because the organizers and volunteers are in place to let us hold a full Summit without taking on the entire time commitment ourselves.<br>
In any community, if you want something good to come your way, the best way is to do it yourself - rather than asking someone else to bring the good to you. We feel that&rsquo;s particularly true with live events, because <em>you</em> know the local market, the venues, the audience, the customs, the laws, and so on.<br>
So, &ldquo;when will there be a PowerShell Summit in _____?&rdquo; The answer is, &ldquo;when you make it happen.&rdquo; We&rsquo;d love to help - but you&rsquo;ll have to take the first step.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Join the DSC Hackathon at PowerShell Summit 2014 Europe</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-28-join-the-dsc-hackathon-at-powershell-summit-2014-europe/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-28-join-the-dsc-hackathon-at-powershell-summit-2014-europe/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 28 Sep 2014 14:08:36 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;On Monday night (Amsterdam time, September 29th), we&amp;rsquo;ll be holding the first DSC Hackathon at PowerShell Summit Europe 2014. Attached are the scenarios we&amp;rsquo;ll be asking participants to select from. We&amp;rsquo;ll ask everyone to work in small groups, pick one scenario, and try to produce a custom DSC resource that solves the problem.&lt;br&gt;
Many of these are from Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s own internal &amp;ldquo;wish list&amp;rdquo; of resources that they don&amp;rsquo;t yet have anyone assigned to.&lt;br&gt;
You&amp;rsquo;re welcome to participate, even if you&amp;rsquo;re not present at the Summit. You _will _need to operate in Amsterdam time; we&amp;rsquo;re only accepting submissions during that time (from about 6pm local time). If you&amp;rsquo;d like to participate, you&amp;rsquo;ll need a Twitter account to begin with. When the Hackathon starts, drop a tweet that includes the hash tag #DSCHackathon, as well as the scenario you&amp;rsquo;d like to work on. We&amp;rsquo;ll respond and connect you with a group that&amp;rsquo;s working on that scenario. From there, the group will let you know how they&amp;rsquo;d like to communicate - possibly a Skype chat window, possibly an IRC chat, it&amp;rsquo;ll be up to them.&lt;br&gt;
In the event that Internet connectivity sucks, we&amp;rsquo;ll simply do our best, and may direct remote users to work on their own. But, if you monitor the #DSCHackathon tag, you may be able to find other remote users to team up with.&lt;br&gt;
There are no prizes - we&amp;rsquo;re doing this for the good of the community. However, every team who hands in a working resource will get public recognition in the PowerShell team blog, on PowerShell.org, and wherever else we can manage to mention you :).&lt;br&gt;
As a reminder, you should plan to have Windows PowerShell v4 or later on your laptop in order to participate. We don&amp;rsquo;t anticipate going longer than 2-3 hours, and if you&amp;rsquo;re on-site plan to use battery power for the entire period. Ideally, you&amp;rsquo;ll want a server VM or two so that you can test the scenarios&amp;hellip; which are attached herewith. And it&amp;rsquo;s fine to get an early start on these, if you like.&lt;br&gt;
Download: &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DSC-Hackathon.docx"&gt;DSC Hackathon&lt;/a&gt; Scenarios&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>On Monday night (Amsterdam time, September 29th), we&rsquo;ll be holding the first DSC Hackathon at PowerShell Summit Europe 2014. Attached are the scenarios we&rsquo;ll be asking participants to select from. We&rsquo;ll ask everyone to work in small groups, pick one scenario, and try to produce a custom DSC resource that solves the problem.<br>
Many of these are from Microsoft&rsquo;s own internal &ldquo;wish list&rdquo; of resources that they don&rsquo;t yet have anyone assigned to.<br>
You&rsquo;re welcome to participate, even if you&rsquo;re not present at the Summit. You _will _need to operate in Amsterdam time; we&rsquo;re only accepting submissions during that time (from about 6pm local time). If you&rsquo;d like to participate, you&rsquo;ll need a Twitter account to begin with. When the Hackathon starts, drop a tweet that includes the hash tag #DSCHackathon, as well as the scenario you&rsquo;d like to work on. We&rsquo;ll respond and connect you with a group that&rsquo;s working on that scenario. From there, the group will let you know how they&rsquo;d like to communicate - possibly a Skype chat window, possibly an IRC chat, it&rsquo;ll be up to them.<br>
In the event that Internet connectivity sucks, we&rsquo;ll simply do our best, and may direct remote users to work on their own. But, if you monitor the #DSCHackathon tag, you may be able to find other remote users to team up with.<br>
There are no prizes - we&rsquo;re doing this for the good of the community. However, every team who hands in a working resource will get public recognition in the PowerShell team blog, on PowerShell.org, and wherever else we can manage to mention you :).<br>
As a reminder, you should plan to have Windows PowerShell v4 or later on your laptop in order to participate. We don&rsquo;t anticipate going longer than 2-3 hours, and if you&rsquo;re on-site plan to use battery power for the entire period. Ideally, you&rsquo;ll want a server VM or two so that you can test the scenarios&hellip; which are attached herewith. And it&rsquo;s fine to get an early start on these, if you like.<br>
Download: <a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DSC-Hackathon.docx">DSC Hackathon</a> Scenarios</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 – final agenda</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-23-powershell-summit-europe-2014-final-agenda/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-23-powershell-summit-europe-2014-final-agenda/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2014 20:12:43 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The final agenda for the PowerShell Summit is available at &lt;a href="http://eventmgr.azurewebsites.net/event/home/PSEU14"&gt;http://eventmgr.azurewebsites.net/event/home/PSEU14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Circumstances beyond the control of PowerShell.org have meant we’ve had to make a few changes to the agenda from that previously published.&lt;br&gt;
Look forward to seeing you all in Amsterdam.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The final agenda for the PowerShell Summit is available at<a href="http://eventmgr.azurewebsites.net/event/home/PSEU14">http://eventmgr.azurewebsites.net/event/home/PSEU14</a><br>
Circumstances beyond the control of PowerShell.org have meant we’ve had to make a few changes to the agenda from that previously published.<br>
Look forward to seeing you all in Amsterdam.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Instructions for PowerShell Summit North America 2015 Registration</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-23-instructions-for-powershell-summit-north-america-2015-registration/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-23-instructions-for-powershell-summit-north-america-2015-registration/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:28:11 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re planning to attend PowerShell Summit North America 2015, to be held at the end of April 2015 in Charlotte, North Carolina, you should read the following important information:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The registration site will be open from 30 October 2014 to 30 March 2015. There is about a 30-day window from the end of registration to the event itself. There are no exceptions to this cutoff.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;You should read the &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/"&gt;extremely important information&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; about registering. It also contains links to the agenda and to the registration site.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The agenda will be available in mid-October 2014.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We will only have about 90 seats available due to the size of the venue. You will probably need to plan to register early, because we don&amp;rsquo;t have a magical way of making the building bigger to accommodate &amp;ldquo;just one more person.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We will not be holding seats for later registrations. Everything becomes available on 30 October 2014. We&amp;rsquo;ve done the &amp;ldquo;phased release&amp;rdquo; before and it was a major PITA.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Yes, we will be recording all sessions and posting them on the PowerShell.org YouTube channel. We will not be live-streaming because the facilities don&amp;rsquo;t exist to do so. Recordings will include slides/demos and a room microphone; this will not be Channel 9-quality, but it should get the job done. Or you could, you know, show up at the live event.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you are planning to have someone in your organization register and pay on your behalf, it is crucial that they do so 
using your e-mail address
, not theirs.&lt;/strong&gt; Otherwise, we may not be able to admit you to the event. **
This is a big deal.
 **Please don&amp;rsquo;t mess it up.&lt;br&gt;
**
Please help us get the word out.
** This is entirely a community event, run entirely by volunteers who are paying their own way to the event also. We have zero marketing and advertising budget, because we try to keep the overall costs as low as humanly possible. Set reminders to tweet, Facebook, etc. once a month and help us let the world know about the event.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>If you&rsquo;re planning to attend PowerShell Summit North America 2015, to be held at the end of April 2015 in Charlotte, North Carolina, you should read the following important information:</p><ul><li>The registration site will be open from 30 October 2014 to 30 March 2015. There is about a 30-day window from the end of registration to the event itself. There are no exceptions to this cutoff.</li><li>You should read the <strong><a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/">extremely important information</a></strong> about registering. It also contains links to the agenda and to the registration site.</li><li>The agenda will be available in mid-October 2014.</li><li>We will only have about 90 seats available due to the size of the venue. You will probably need to plan to register early, because we don&rsquo;t have a magical way of making the building bigger to accommodate &ldquo;just one more person.&rdquo;</li><li>We will not be holding seats for later registrations. Everything becomes available on 30 October 2014. We&rsquo;ve done the &ldquo;phased release&rdquo; before and it was a major PITA.</li><li>Yes, we will be recording all sessions and posting them on the PowerShell.org YouTube channel. We will not be live-streaming because the facilities don&rsquo;t exist to do so. Recordings will include slides/demos and a room microphone; this will not be Channel 9-quality, but it should get the job done. Or you could, you know, show up at the live event.</li></ul><p><strong>If you are planning to have someone in your organization register and pay on your behalf, it is crucial that they do so 
using your e-mail address
, not theirs.</strong> Otherwise, we may not be able to admit you to the event. **
This is a big deal.
 **Please don&rsquo;t mess it up.<br>
**
Please help us get the word out.
** This is entirely a community event, run entirely by volunteers who are paying their own way to the event also. We have zero marketing and advertising budget, because we try to keep the overall costs as low as humanly possible. Set reminders to tweet, Facebook, etc. once a month and help us let the world know about the event.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Philadelphia Meeting – October 2nd 2014</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-14-philadelphia-meeting-october-2nd-2014/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-14-philadelphia-meeting-october-2nd-2014/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:59:08 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Join us Thursday, October 2nd where
[&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;John Mello&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;](&lt;a href="http://mellositmusings.com/"&gt;http://mellositmusings.com/&lt;/a&gt;)
will be presenting a talk on &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The different custom object creation methods and their performance tradeoffs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Followed by
[&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;TJ Turner&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;](&lt;a href="http://techguytj.com/bio/"&gt;http://techguytj.com/bio/&lt;/a&gt;)
will give a talk entitled&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Intro to basic run space pools&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Please &lt;a href="http://phillyposh.eventbrite.com/" title="phillyposh on eventbrite"&gt;
register
&lt;/a&gt; if you plan to attend in person or online. The meeting URL to join us remotely will be included in your Eventbrite registration confirmation.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/phillyposh-october-2th-2014-tickets-13119002289?ref=ebtnebregn"&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.eventbrite.com/custombutton?eid=13119002289" alt="Eventbrite - PhillyPoSH October 2th 2014"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
We are also giving &lt;a href="http://meetu.ps/2xTtT0"&gt;Meetup&lt;/a&gt; a try for the next 6th month so feel free to register there as well.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Join us Thursday, October 2nd where
[</p><p>John Mello</p><p>](<a href="http://mellositmusings.com/">http://mellositmusings.com/</a>)
will be presenting a talk on </p><p>The different custom object creation methods and their performance tradeoffs.</p><p>Followed by
[</p><p>TJ Turner</p><p>](<a href="http://techguytj.com/bio/">http://techguytj.com/bio/</a>)
will give a talk entitled</p><p>Intro to basic run space pools</p><p>. </p><p>Please <a href="http://phillyposh.eventbrite.com/" title="phillyposh on eventbrite">
register</a> if you plan to attend in person or online. The meeting URL to join us remotely will be included in your Eventbrite registration confirmation.<br><a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/phillyposh-october-2th-2014-tickets-13119002289?ref=ebtnebregn"><img src="https://www.eventbrite.com/custombutton?eid=13119002289" alt="Eventbrite - PhillyPoSH October 2th 2014"/><br>
We are also giving<a href="http://meetu.ps/2xTtT0">Meetup</a> a try for the next 6th month so feel free to register there as well.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell v5: Misc Goodness (including Auditing)</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-10-powershell-v5-misc-goodness-including-auditing/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-10-powershell-v5-misc-goodness-including-auditing/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 10 Sep 2014 14:49:04 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Aside from classes and new DSC features, which I&amp;rsquo;ve already written about, there are a number of less-headline, but still-very-awesome, new capabilities.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;em&gt;This article is based on the September 2014 preview release of WMF 5.0. Information is highly subject to change.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
First up is the **ability to automatically create PowerShell cmdlets from an OData endpoint. **Huh? OData is a kind of web service (basically); PowerShell gains the ability to look at the endpoint and construct a set of proxy cmdlets that let you interact with the endpoint more naturally. This is spiritually similar to what PowerShell can already do for a SOAP web service endpoint.&lt;br&gt;
Next are some 7-years-overdue cmdlets for &lt;strong&gt;managing ZIP files&lt;/strong&gt;: Compress-Archive and Expand-Archive. Finally. These use underlying .NET Framework ZIP functionality (I think), which has had &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; compatibility problems in the past, so we&amp;rsquo;ll see how these hold up. But they should be the missing link to letting you do everything DSC-related right in PowerShell, since you can now ZIP up your custom resources for deployment via pull server.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Auditing gets a huge win&lt;/strong&gt;, and this is really more of a headline feature than people think. For one, the ISE now supports transcript creation. Yay! You can also &amp;ldquo;nest&amp;rdquo; transcripts, meaning you can have one running, and then start a second one to cover only a portion of time. Closing the second one lets the first remain running. You can also specify a central transcript directory, which is useful when you want to collect these things into a central folder for reporting. For example, you should now be able to set up Remoting endpoints that automatically kick off a transcript when someone connects, and saves them to that central location.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;More auditing&lt;/strong&gt; comes in the form of Group Policy settings. You&amp;rsquo;ve always been able to log the fact that certain commands were run (did you know that?), but now you can enable detailed script tracing that logs a crapload of detail to the PowerShell operational log (which can, like any other event log, be forwarded to another server). You get the complete details of every script block executed, even if it creates another script block. Again, this is set up in Group Policy - check out the WMF 5.0 release notes for the location.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Ed Snowden gets a face slap&lt;/strong&gt; with new Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) cmdlets, including Get-CmsMessage, Protect-CmsMessage, and Unprotect-CmsMessage. These use PKI to encrypt data. By the way, **if your organization doesn&amp;rsquo;t already have an internal PKI, WTF are you waiting for, you&amp;rsquo;re ten years behind the curve, man. **PKI becomes more important to Windows environments every single day, and you need to get with the program.&lt;br&gt;
There&amp;rsquo;s also a new **fun feature for extracting content from strings. &lt;strong&gt;This system uses some Microsoft Research functionality called FlashExtract. Essentially, you give it examples of what your data looks like, and then point it to a big string (like a text file) full of data. It can extract all the data pieces based on your example. It&amp;rsquo;s early days for this technology, but it&amp;rsquo;s kind of &lt;em&gt;awesome&lt;/em&gt; to see the PowerShell team giving us an easy way to play with it.&lt;br&gt;
Because WMF 5.0 &lt;strong&gt;introduces PowerShellGet&lt;/strong&gt;,&lt;/strong&gt; **it now includes commands to add PowerShellGet repositories. That means you can stand up your own repo, host your modules there, and install modules by simply running Install-Module (or find them using Find-Module). Tres awesome! We don&amp;rsquo;t yet have technical details on what the heck a PowerShellGet repository actually looks like, but I&amp;rsquo;m sure that&amp;rsquo;ll crop up.&lt;br&gt;
ARE YOU PLAYING WITH WMF 5.0 ON A NON-PRODUCTION VM YET? YOU SHOULD BE. Times are changing and you gotta keep up!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Aside from classes and new DSC features, which I&rsquo;ve already written about, there are a number of less-headline, but still-very-awesome, new capabilities.<br><em>This article is based on the September 2014 preview release of WMF 5.0. Information is highly subject to change.</em><br>
First up is the **ability to automatically create PowerShell cmdlets from an OData endpoint. **Huh? OData is a kind of web service (basically); PowerShell gains the ability to look at the endpoint and construct a set of proxy cmdlets that let you interact with the endpoint more naturally. This is spiritually similar to what PowerShell can already do for a SOAP web service endpoint.<br>
Next are some 7-years-overdue cmdlets for<strong>managing ZIP files</strong>: Compress-Archive and Expand-Archive. Finally. These use underlying .NET Framework ZIP functionality (I think), which has had <em>some</em> compatibility problems in the past, so we&rsquo;ll see how these hold up. But they should be the missing link to letting you do everything DSC-related right in PowerShell, since you can now ZIP up your custom resources for deployment via pull server.<br><strong>Auditing gets a huge win</strong>, and this is really more of a headline feature than people think. For one, the ISE now supports transcript creation. Yay! You can also &ldquo;nest&rdquo; transcripts, meaning you can have one running, and then start a second one to cover only a portion of time. Closing the second one lets the first remain running. You can also specify a central transcript directory, which is useful when you want to collect these things into a central folder for reporting. For example, you should now be able to set up Remoting endpoints that automatically kick off a transcript when someone connects, and saves them to that central location.<br><strong>More auditing</strong> comes in the form of Group Policy settings. You&rsquo;ve always been able to log the fact that certain commands were run (did you know that?), but now you can enable detailed script tracing that logs a crapload of detail to the PowerShell operational log (which can, like any other event log, be forwarded to another server). You get the complete details of every script block executed, even if it creates another script block. Again, this is set up in Group Policy - check out the WMF 5.0 release notes for the location.<br><strong>Ed Snowden gets a face slap</strong> with new Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) cmdlets, including Get-CmsMessage, Protect-CmsMessage, and Unprotect-CmsMessage. These use PKI to encrypt data. By the way, **if your organization doesn&rsquo;t already have an internal PKI, WTF are you waiting for, you&rsquo;re ten years behind the curve, man. **PKI becomes more important to Windows environments every single day, and you need to get with the program.<br>
There&rsquo;s also a new **fun feature for extracting content from strings. <strong>This system uses some Microsoft Research functionality called FlashExtract. Essentially, you give it examples of what your data looks like, and then point it to a big string (like a text file) full of data. It can extract all the data pieces based on your example. It&rsquo;s early days for this technology, but it&rsquo;s kind of <em>awesome</em> to see the PowerShell team giving us an easy way to play with it.<br>
Because WMF 5.0 <strong>introduces PowerShellGet</strong>,</strong> **it now includes commands to add PowerShellGet repositories. That means you can stand up your own repo, host your modules there, and install modules by simply running Install-Module (or find them using Find-Module). Tres awesome! We don&rsquo;t yet have technical details on what the heck a PowerShellGet repository actually looks like, but I&rsquo;m sure that&rsquo;ll crop up.<br>
ARE YOU PLAYING WITH WMF 5.0 ON A NON-PRODUCTION VM YET? YOU SHOULD BE. Times are changing and you gotta keep up!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>September Omaha PowerShell User Group Registration is Live!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-09-september-omaha-powershell-user-group-registration-is-live/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-09-september-omaha-powershell-user-group-registration-is-live/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:52:57 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;This month PowerShell MVP Trevor Sullivan will be presenting on using Windows Azure with PowerShell. Additionally you will want to bring your laptops (or favorite device to use PowerShell on) as we will have a little scripting challenge involving PowerShell, Credentials and Security. Also, my girlfriend has promised to make cookies for everyone!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Trevor Sullivan is an IT professional and a Microsoft Windows PowerShell MVP who has been in the field since early 2004. His focus has been on using various enterprise tools within the Microsoft platform to provide business value through positive end user impact.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>This month PowerShell MVP Trevor Sullivan will be presenting on using Windows Azure with PowerShell. Additionally you will want to bring your laptops (or favorite device to use PowerShell on) as we will have a little scripting challenge involving PowerShell, Credentials and Security. Also, my girlfriend has promised to make cookies for everyone!</p><p>Trevor Sullivan is an IT professional and a Microsoft Windows PowerShell MVP who has been in the field since early 2004. His focus has been on using various enterprise tools within the Microsoft platform to provide business value through positive end user impact.</p><p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/omaha-powershell-user-group-september-meeting-tickets-13033167555">You can register here</a></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Omaha PowerShell User Group August Meeting Materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-09-omaha-powershell-user-group-august-meeting-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-09-omaha-powershell-user-group-august-meeting-materials/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:25:33 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;In August Bartek Bielawski presented on OMI, PowerShell, Linux using PowerShell and the power of Sparkle Ponies.  His presentation notes and code can be found here:  https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=4BFE4A6675A48C91&amp;amp;id=4BFE4A6675A48C91%21115&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>In August Bartek Bielawski presented on OMI, PowerShell, Linux using PowerShell and the power of Sparkle Ponies.  His presentation notes and code can be found here:  https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=4BFE4A6675A48C91&amp;id=4BFE4A6675A48C91%21115</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell v5: What's New in DSC</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-09-powershell-v5-whats-new-in-dsc/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-09-powershell-v5-whats-new-in-dsc/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:11:57 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;When Desired State Configuration (DSC) came out - gosh, just about a year ago - I kept telling people that there was more to come. And a lot of it is now just around the corner in PowerShell v5.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;em&gt;This article is written to the September 2014 preview release - things may change for the final release.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
A major set of changes in DSC is a much more detailed and granular configuration of the Local Configuration Manager (LCM), the local &amp;ldquo;agent&amp;rdquo; that makes DSC work on the target node. This new level of configuration really shows you where Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s thinking is.&lt;br&gt;
For example, a single target node can be configured _to pull configurations from multiple pull servers. _That doesn&amp;rsquo;t necessarily mean separate _machines, _as a single IIS instance can host multiple websites, but it means you&amp;rsquo;re no longer limited to one MOF per computer.&lt;br&gt;
Yes, I said that. The LCM can now &lt;em&gt;pull&lt;/em&gt; (but not have pushed to it) _partial configurations. _Each partial configuration is a MOF, but the understanding is that there can be more than one. There&amp;rsquo;s still no dynamic evaluation of &lt;em&gt;which&lt;/em&gt; MOFs will be pulled; you have to specify them all in the LCM configuration, but now you can break a machine&amp;rsquo;s total configuration into multiple bits. Each partial configuration is given a &lt;em&gt;source&lt;/em&gt;, which is a pull server.&lt;br&gt;
Each partial configuration can be given exclusivity over certain resources. This helps avoid overlap. For example, you might decided that Partial Config A has exclusive control over all xIPAddress settings, meaning those settings from &lt;em&gt;any other&lt;/em&gt; partial config wouldn&amp;rsquo;t work. Partial configurations can also depend on each other, so that (for example), Partial Config B won&amp;rsquo;t even run until Partial Config A is complete.&lt;br&gt;
The LCM can also have a separate server configured for web- or file-based resource repositories, meaning those can be separated from the pull server endpoint.&lt;br&gt;
What used to be called the &amp;ldquo;compliance server&amp;rdquo; is now simply the &lt;em&gt;reporting server&lt;/em&gt; - we mentioned in &amp;ldquo;The DSC Book&amp;rdquo; that the name of this would likely change. It&amp;rsquo;s now a distinct configuration item, meaning &lt;em&gt;even a node in Push mode can report its status to the reporting server!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
New global synchronization capabilities also exist. A node&amp;rsquo;s configuration can be made dependent on _a configuration item from another node. _Meaning, Node &amp;ldquo;A&amp;rdquo; won&amp;rsquo;t try to configure until Node &amp;ldquo;B&amp;rdquo; completes certain items first. Communications is all via WS-MAN and CIM.&lt;br&gt;
A new &lt;strong&gt;Get-DscConfigurationStatus&lt;/strong&gt; returns a high-level status for a node - similar to what the reporting server would collect - and an amazing new &lt;strong&gt;Compare-DscConfiguration&lt;/strong&gt; can now accept a configuration and tell you _where a given node differs. _This is a big deal, and something a lot of folks wanted in PowerShell v4. There&amp;rsquo;s also an **Update-DscConfiguration, **which forces a node to evaluate its DSC stuff right away.&lt;br&gt;
DSC is quickly coming of age. In less than a year, we&amp;rsquo;ve seen (so far) 6 releases of additional resources, and now with PowerShell v5 we&amp;rsquo;re seeing a number of important enhancements and evolutions in the core technology. Many of the things that frustrated folks initially are now taken care of.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>When Desired State Configuration (DSC) came out - gosh, just about a year ago - I kept telling people that there was more to come. And a lot of it is now just around the corner in PowerShell v5.<br><em>This article is written to the September 2014 preview release - things may change for the final release.</em><br>
A major set of changes in DSC is a much more detailed and granular configuration of the Local Configuration Manager (LCM), the local &ldquo;agent&rdquo; that makes DSC work on the target node. This new level of configuration really shows you where Microsoft&rsquo;s thinking is.<br>
For example, a single target node can be configured _to pull configurations from multiple pull servers. _That doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean separate _machines, _as a single IIS instance can host multiple websites, but it means you&rsquo;re no longer limited to one MOF per computer.<br>
Yes, I said that. The LCM can now <em>pull</em> (but not have pushed to it) _partial configurations. _Each partial configuration is a MOF, but the understanding is that there can be more than one. There&rsquo;s still no dynamic evaluation of <em>which</em> MOFs will be pulled; you have to specify them all in the LCM configuration, but now you can break a machine&rsquo;s total configuration into multiple bits. Each partial configuration is given a <em>source</em>, which is a pull server.<br>
Each partial configuration can be given exclusivity over certain resources. This helps avoid overlap. For example, you might decided that Partial Config A has exclusive control over all xIPAddress settings, meaning those settings from <em>any other</em> partial config wouldn&rsquo;t work. Partial configurations can also depend on each other, so that (for example), Partial Config B won&rsquo;t even run until Partial Config A is complete.<br>
The LCM can also have a separate server configured for web- or file-based resource repositories, meaning those can be separated from the pull server endpoint.<br>
What used to be called the &ldquo;compliance server&rdquo; is now simply the <em>reporting server</em> - we mentioned in &ldquo;The DSC Book&rdquo; that the name of this would likely change. It&rsquo;s now a distinct configuration item, meaning <em>even a node in Push mode can report its status to the reporting server!</em><br>
New global synchronization capabilities also exist. A node&rsquo;s configuration can be made dependent on _a configuration item from another node. _Meaning, Node &ldquo;A&rdquo; won&rsquo;t try to configure until Node &ldquo;B&rdquo; completes certain items first. Communications is all via WS-MAN and CIM.<br>
A new <strong>Get-DscConfigurationStatus</strong> returns a high-level status for a node - similar to what the reporting server would collect - and an amazing new <strong>Compare-DscConfiguration</strong> can now accept a configuration and tell you _where a given node differs. _This is a big deal, and something a lot of folks wanted in PowerShell v4. There&rsquo;s also an **Update-DscConfiguration, **which forces a node to evaluate its DSC stuff right away.<br>
DSC is quickly coming of age. In less than a year, we&rsquo;ve seen (so far) 6 releases of additional resources, and now with PowerShell v5 we&rsquo;re seeing a number of important enhancements and evolutions in the core technology. Many of the things that frustrated folks initially are now taken care of.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell v5: Class Support</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-08-powershell-v5-class-support/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-08-powershell-v5-class-support/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2014 14:14:38 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This post is based on the September 2014 preview release of WMF 5.0. This is pre-release software, so this information may change.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
One of the banner new features in PowerShell v5 is support for real live .NET Framework class creation in Windows PowerShell. The WMF 5.0 download&amp;rsquo;s release notes has some good examples of what classes look  like, but I wanted to briefly set some expectations for the feature, based on my own early experiences.&lt;br&gt;
The primary use case for classes, at this point, is for DSC resources. Rather than creating a special PowerShell module that has specially named functions, live in a specially named folder, and work in a special way - that&amp;rsquo;s a lot of special, which means a lot of room for error - classes provide a more declarative way of creating DSC resources.&lt;br&gt;
But we&amp;rsquo;re a bit ahead of ourselves. What&amp;rsquo;s a &lt;em&gt;class&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;br&gt;
In object-oriented programming, a &lt;em&gt;class&lt;/em&gt; is a hunk of code that provides a specific interface. Everything in the .NET Framework is a class. When you run Get-Process in PowerShell, for example, you are returning objects of the type System.Diagnostics.Process - or, in other languages, objects &lt;em&gt;of the class&lt;/em&gt; System.Diagnostics.Process. Each process is an &lt;em&gt;instance&lt;/em&gt; of the class. The class describes all the standardized things that a process can show you (like its name or ID), or that it can do (like terminate). Programmers build the functionality into the class itself.&lt;br&gt;
Classes can have &lt;em&gt;static&lt;/em&gt; properties and methods - these are hunks of code that don&amp;rsquo;t require an actual instance of a process. For example, you can start a process without having a process in the first place. The System.Math class in .NET has lots of static members - the static property Pi, for example, contains the numeric value of pi to a certain number of decimal places. The static Abs() method returns the absolute value of a number.&lt;br&gt;
PowerShell classes are designed to provide similar functionality. The trick with PowerShell classes, at least at this stage of their development, is that they don&amp;rsquo;t add their type name to any kind of global namespace. That is, let&amp;rsquo;s say you write a class named My.Cool.Thing, and you save it into a script module named MyCoolThing.psm1. You can&amp;rsquo;t just go into the shell and run &lt;strong&gt;New-Object -TypeName My.Cool.Thing&lt;/strong&gt; to create an instance of the class, because there&amp;rsquo;s nothing in PowerShell (yet) that knows to go look for your script module to find the class. That&amp;rsquo;ll likely change in a future release, but for right now it means classes are kind of limited.&lt;br&gt;
The basic rule is that you can only use a class _within the same module that contains the class. _That is, the class can only be &amp;ldquo;seen&amp;rdquo; from within the module. So, your MyCoolThing.psm1 module might define a class, and then might also define several commands (functions) that use the class - that&amp;rsquo;s legal, and it will work. You still can&amp;rsquo;t use New-Object; instead, you&amp;rsquo;d instantiate your class by using something like &lt;strong&gt;ClassName::new()&lt;/strong&gt;, calling the static New() method of the class to instantiate it. I expect New-Object will get &amp;ldquo;hooked up&amp;rdquo; at some point, but it might not be until some future version of PowerShell.&lt;br&gt;
Anyway, back to DSC.&lt;br&gt;
DSC is a bit unique, because normally &lt;em&gt;you&lt;/em&gt; don&amp;rsquo;t load resource modules; the Local Configuration Manager loads them. When you build a DSC resource class, you&amp;rsquo;re forced to provide three methods: Get(), Set(), and Test(). The LCM loads your module, instantiates the class, and then calls the three methods as needed. DSC resources built in this fashion can live in a plain old module .PSM1 file - there&amp;rsquo;s no need to create a DSCResources subfolder, no need to have an empty &amp;ldquo;root&amp;rdquo; module, or any of that. So it&amp;rsquo;s a more elegant solution all around. Aside from some structural differences, you code them the same as you always have. v5 still supports the old-style resources, for backward compatibility, but class-based resources are the &amp;ldquo;way forward.&amp;rdquo; I expect Microsoft will eventually refactor the DSC Resource Kit to be class-based resources, as soon as they get a minute and as soon as v5 is widely adopted.&lt;br&gt;
So most of the &amp;ldquo;wiring&amp;rdquo; behind classes has, to this point, been designed to support that DSC use case. In other words, of all the things a PowerShell class will need to do, the team has &lt;em&gt;so far&lt;/em&gt; focused mainly on those things that impact DSC. The rest will come later - the release notes use the phrase, &amp;ldquo;&amp;hellip;in this release&amp;rdquo; a lot, meaning the team understands where the current weaknesses are. &amp;ldquo;This release&amp;rdquo; in some cases may simply mean _this current preview release, _meaning they&amp;rsquo;re targeting more features for v5&amp;rsquo;s final release; in other cases, more features will have to wait for v6 (or whatever) or a later version of PowerShell.&lt;br&gt;
So there&amp;rsquo;s a little rambling on classes and what&amp;rsquo;s presently in PowerShell v5. If you haven&amp;rsquo;t already downloaded the preview and started playing with it, you should; _not in production, though. _Keep it in a test VM for the time being.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><em>This post is based on the September 2014 preview release of WMF 5.0. This is pre-release software, so this information may change.</em><br>
One of the banner new features in PowerShell v5 is support for real live .NET Framework class creation in Windows PowerShell. The WMF 5.0 download&rsquo;s release notes has some good examples of what classes look  like, but I wanted to briefly set some expectations for the feature, based on my own early experiences.<br>
The primary use case for classes, at this point, is for DSC resources. Rather than creating a special PowerShell module that has specially named functions, live in a specially named folder, and work in a special way - that&rsquo;s a lot of special, which means a lot of room for error - classes provide a more declarative way of creating DSC resources.<br>
But we&rsquo;re a bit ahead of ourselves. What&rsquo;s a <em>class</em>?<br>
In object-oriented programming, a <em>class</em> is a hunk of code that provides a specific interface. Everything in the .NET Framework is a class. When you run Get-Process in PowerShell, for example, you are returning objects of the type System.Diagnostics.Process - or, in other languages, objects <em>of the class</em> System.Diagnostics.Process. Each process is an <em>instance</em> of the class. The class describes all the standardized things that a process can show you (like its name or ID), or that it can do (like terminate). Programmers build the functionality into the class itself.<br>
Classes can have <em>static</em> properties and methods - these are hunks of code that don&rsquo;t require an actual instance of a process. For example, you can start a process without having a process in the first place. The System.Math class in .NET has lots of static members - the static property Pi, for example, contains the numeric value of pi to a certain number of decimal places. The static Abs() method returns the absolute value of a number.<br>
PowerShell classes are designed to provide similar functionality. The trick with PowerShell classes, at least at this stage of their development, is that they don&rsquo;t add their type name to any kind of global namespace. That is, let&rsquo;s say you write a class named My.Cool.Thing, and you save it into a script module named MyCoolThing.psm1. You can&rsquo;t just go into the shell and run <strong>New-Object -TypeName My.Cool.Thing</strong> to create an instance of the class, because there&rsquo;s nothing in PowerShell (yet) that knows to go look for your script module to find the class. That&rsquo;ll likely change in a future release, but for right now it means classes are kind of limited.<br>
The basic rule is that you can only use a class _within the same module that contains the class. _That is, the class can only be &ldquo;seen&rdquo; from within the module. So, your MyCoolThing.psm1 module might define a class, and then might also define several commands (functions) that use the class - that&rsquo;s legal, and it will work. You still can&rsquo;t use New-Object; instead, you&rsquo;d instantiate your class by using something like <strong>ClassName::new()</strong>, calling the static New() method of the class to instantiate it. I expect New-Object will get &ldquo;hooked up&rdquo; at some point, but it might not be until some future version of PowerShell.<br>
Anyway, back to DSC.<br>
DSC is a bit unique, because normally <em>you</em> don&rsquo;t load resource modules; the Local Configuration Manager loads them. When you build a DSC resource class, you&rsquo;re forced to provide three methods: Get(), Set(), and Test(). The LCM loads your module, instantiates the class, and then calls the three methods as needed. DSC resources built in this fashion can live in a plain old module .PSM1 file - there&rsquo;s no need to create a DSCResources subfolder, no need to have an empty &ldquo;root&rdquo; module, or any of that. So it&rsquo;s a more elegant solution all around. Aside from some structural differences, you code them the same as you always have. v5 still supports the old-style resources, for backward compatibility, but class-based resources are the &ldquo;way forward.&rdquo; I expect Microsoft will eventually refactor the DSC Resource Kit to be class-based resources, as soon as they get a minute and as soon as v5 is widely adopted.<br>
So most of the &ldquo;wiring&rdquo; behind classes has, to this point, been designed to support that DSC use case. In other words, of all the things a PowerShell class will need to do, the team has <em>so far</em> focused mainly on those things that impact DSC. The rest will come later - the release notes use the phrase, &ldquo;&hellip;in this release&rdquo; a lot, meaning the team understands where the current weaknesses are. &ldquo;This release&rdquo; in some cases may simply mean _this current preview release, _meaning they&rsquo;re targeting more features for v5&rsquo;s final release; in other cases, more features will have to wait for v6 (or whatever) or a later version of PowerShell.<br>
So there&rsquo;s a little rambling on classes and what&rsquo;s presently in PowerShell v5. If you haven&rsquo;t already downloaded the preview and started playing with it, you should; _not in production, though. _Keep it in a test VM for the time being.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 09/04/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-07-phillyposh-09042014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-07-phillyposh-09042014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 08 Sep 2014 02:39:58 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://blog.powershell.no/"&gt;
Jan Egil Ring
&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled “Get Started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration”. During his talked Jan went over a series of demos explaining how to use the configuration keyword to define configurations for different resources along with the different configuration modes. A copy of his demo scripts and presentation are available &lt;a href="https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=4e672563938ed1e2&amp;amp;id=4E672563938ED1E2%2132074&amp;amp;ithint=folder,&amp;amp;authkey=!AAKDqB2auYF3L9w"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeStZxknsCM&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be"&gt;
recording of this meeting
 &lt;/a&gt;has been posted to our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;
YouTube channel
&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<ul><li><a href="http://blog.powershell.no/">
Jan Egil Ring</a> gave a presentation entitled “Get Started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration”. During his talked Jan went over a series of demos explaining how to use the configuration keyword to define configurations for different resources along with the different configuration modes. A copy of his demo scripts and presentation are available<a href="https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=4e672563938ed1e2&amp;id=4E672563938ED1E2%2132074&amp;ithint=folder,&amp;authkey=!AAKDqB2auYF3L9w">here</a>.<ul><li>A<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeStZxknsCM&amp;feature=youtu.be">
recording of this meeting
 </a>has been posted to our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">
YouTube channel</a></li></ul></li></ul>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>LAST CALL for the European PowerShell Summit 2014</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-06-last-call-for-the-european-powershell-summit-2014/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-06-last-call-for-the-european-powershell-summit-2014/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 06 Sep 2014 08:50:32 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;This is the &lt;strong&gt;last call&lt;/strong&gt; for attendee registration for the European PowerShell Summit 2014.&lt;br&gt;
The Summit is in Amsterdam - 29 September to 1 October 2014. Details from the events page &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/"&gt;https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
Due to a change in circumstances beyond our control &lt;strong&gt;we have to close public registration on 10 September 2014&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
If you contact us by 10 September and ask to be able to perform a funds transfer rather than paying on line you have until 15 September 2014 to complete that transaction. No monies or registrations will be accepted after 15 September. We will not accept any new request for paying by money transfer after 10 September.&lt;br&gt;
Apologies for the change in dates (the web site states registration is open until 15 September) but our hands have been forced on this.&lt;br&gt;
There are still a number of places available so please register quickly if you want to attend. The more attendees we have the better chance we have of staging a European PowerShell Summit in 2015.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>This is the<strong>last call</strong> for attendee registration for the European PowerShell Summit 2014.<br>
The Summit is in Amsterdam - 29 September to 1 October 2014. Details from the events page<a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/">https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/</a>.<br>
Due to a change in circumstances beyond our control<strong>we have to close public registration on 10 September 2014</strong>.<br>
If you contact us by 10 September and ask to be able to perform a funds transfer rather than paying on line you have until 15 September 2014 to complete that transaction. No monies or registrations will be accepted after 15 September. We will not accept any new request for paying by money transfer after 10 September.<br>
Apologies for the change in dates (the web site states registration is open until 15 September) but our hands have been forced on this.<br>
There are still a number of places available so please register quickly if you want to attend. The more attendees we have the better chance we have of staging a European PowerShell Summit in 2015.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit Europe 2014: Prepare for the DSC Hackathon</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-02-powershell-summit-europe-2014-prepare-for-the-dsc-hackathon/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-09-02-powershell-summit-europe-2014-prepare-for-the-dsc-hackathon/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2014 22:54:16 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;We&amp;rsquo;re hoping that everyone attending the PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 will join our Monday evening **DSC Hackathon, **where we&amp;rsquo;ll become &amp;ldquo;product team members for a night&amp;rdquo; and try to code up some DSC Resources from the team&amp;rsquo;s own internal wish list!&lt;br&gt;
We&amp;rsquo;ll provide a cash bar as well as finger food for our on-site attendees&amp;hellip; but you&amp;rsquo;re welcome to participate remotely, too! Sometime on September 29th, watch PowerShell.org for a posting that includes the challenges. Choose your challenge, and follow the blog post instructions to submit them. We&amp;rsquo;ll also include details for participating live via IRC and other chat mechanisms, and we may be able to do a live room-cast via Lync or something.&lt;br&gt;
There are no winners and no losers - only the _entire community _wins, because completed entries will be added to the PowerShell.org GitHub repo and made available to the world, for free. But, coders who complete a resource &lt;em&gt;will&lt;/em&gt; receive public recognition, both here on PowerShell.org and in some other very visible venues!&lt;br&gt;
Here&amp;rsquo;s what you&amp;rsquo;ll need to participate:&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>We&rsquo;re hoping that everyone attending the PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 will join our Monday evening **DSC Hackathon, **where we&rsquo;ll become &ldquo;product team members for a night&rdquo; and try to code up some DSC Resources from the team&rsquo;s own internal wish list!<br>
We&rsquo;ll provide a cash bar as well as finger food for our on-site attendees&hellip; but you&rsquo;re welcome to participate remotely, too! Sometime on September 29th, watch PowerShell.org for a posting that includes the challenges. Choose your challenge, and follow the blog post instructions to submit them. We&rsquo;ll also include details for participating live via IRC and other chat mechanisms, and we may be able to do a live room-cast via Lync or something.<br>
There are no winners and no losers - only the _entire community _wins, because completed entries will be added to the PowerShell.org GitHub repo and made available to the world, for free. But, coders who complete a resource <em>will</em> receive public recognition, both here on PowerShell.org and in some other very visible venues!<br>
Here&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;ll need to participate:</p><ul><li>A laptop with a charged battery and PowerShell 4.0 installed. We won&rsquo;t be able to provide power, so make sure you can run 1-2 hours unplugged.</li><li>Ideally, a virtual machine running Win2012R2 that is configured as a domain controller. If your laptop has limited resources, install the full server GUI on that and code right on it - it&rsquo;s the domain controller functionality you&rsquo;ll want.</li><li>Whatever editing tools you like apart from the ISE.</li><li>Beforehand, familiarize yourself with &ldquo;The DSC Book.&rdquo;</li><li>Have the<a href="http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/DSC-Resource-Kit-All-c449312d">full DSC Resource Kit installed</a>. In many cases, you&rsquo;ll want to refer to existing resources to see how they do things. At a minimum, the xActiveDirectory module is a good one to have.</li></ul><p>Apart from that - stay tuned!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>European Summit deadline approaching</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-28-european-summit-deadline-approaching/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-28-european-summit-deadline-approaching/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2014 17:23:53 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;There are just over two weeks left for you to register for the European PowerShell Summit. At the moment we are still short of the number that would enable us to repeat a European Summit in 2015. We had a lot of comments from people stating they wanted a Summit in Europe. Now is the time to step up and support that idea.&lt;br&gt;
Hope to see you there&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>There are just over two weeks left for you to register for the European PowerShell Summit. At the moment we are still short of the number that would enable us to repeat a European Summit in 2015. We had a lot of comments from people stating they wanted a Summit in Europe. Now is the time to step up and support that idea.<br>
Hope to see you there</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>DenverPSUG – Keith Hill Presenting</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-26-denverpsug-keith-hill-presenting/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-26-denverpsug-keith-hill-presenting/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2014 15:32:29 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Hello everyone,&lt;br&gt;
The Denver PowerShell User Group will be meeting again on September 4th and we will have &lt;a href="http://rkeithhill.wordpress.com/"&gt;Keith Hill&lt;/a&gt; presenting. Keith has published an ebook, is a repeat Microsoft MVP, and has been heavily involved in writing and maintaining the PowerShell Community Extensions.&lt;br&gt;
You can find more information on the event as well as RSVP here:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 id="" class="ps-heading"&gt;&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt; Keith Hill - Effective PowerShell
Thursday, Sep 4, 2014, 7:00 PM
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;p&gt;899 Logan st&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Hello everyone,<br>
The Denver PowerShell User Group will be meeting again on September 4th and we will have<a href="http://rkeithhill.wordpress.com/">Keith Hill</a> presenting. Keith has published an ebook, is a repeat Microsoft MVP, and has been heavily involved in writing and maintaining the PowerShell Community Extensions.<br>
You can find more information on the event as well as RSVP here:</p><h3 id="" class="ps-heading"><a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h3><pre><code> Keith Hill - Effective PowerShell
Thursday, Sep 4, 2014, 7:00 PM</code></pre><p>899 Logan st</p><p>Suite 210 Denver, CO</p><p>8 PowerShell People Went</p><pre><code> ![](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/6/8/3/2/thumb_269906674.jpeg)
![](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/b/a/4/d/thumb_11027693.jpeg)
![](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/c/0/9/6/thumb_219409302.jpeg)
![](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/3/6/3/0/thumb_71293872.jpeg)
![](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/6/6/b/e/thumb_206426302.jpeg)
![](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/b/c/3/6/thumb_222648182.jpeg)
![](https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/6/f/4/thumb_8401780.jpeg)
PowerShell MVP Keith Hill, http://rkeithhill.wordpress.com/, will be giving a talk on effective PowerShell.  It's an excellent session for anyone but it should work really well for those just getting started with PowerShell.  Also a great talk for more intermediate and advanced users.
[**Check out this Meetup &amp;rarr;**](https://www.meetup.com/Denver-PowerShell-User-Group/events/199909982/)</code></pre>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Philadelphia Meeting – September 4th 2014</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-20-philadelphia-meeting-september-4th-2014/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-20-philadelphia-meeting-september-4th-2014/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 21 Aug 2014 03:59:22 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Join us Thursday, September 4th where &lt;a href="http://blog.powershell.no/"&gt;Jan Egil RIng&lt;/a&gt; will be presenting a talk on &lt;strong&gt;Get Started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Jan will explain how to use Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC), which was introduced in Windows PowerShell 4.0, to configure your environment. The purpose of DSC is to provide Deployment, Configuration and Compliance capabilities for Windows resources such as a files, services, roles and features, users, groups and anything that can be managed from PowerShell by using custom resources such as a script. During his talk you will&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Join us Thursday, September 4th where <a href="http://blog.powershell.no/">Jan Egil RIng</a> will be presenting a talk on <strong>Get Started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration</strong><br>
Jan will explain how to use Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC), which was introduced in Windows PowerShell 4.0, to configure your environment. The purpose of DSC is to provide Deployment, Configuration and Compliance capabilities for Windows resources such as a files, services, roles and features, users, groups and anything that can be managed from PowerShell by using custom resources such as a script. During his talk you will</p><ul><li>Learn how to use the configuration keyword to define configurations for different resources.</li><li>Learn the two different configuration modes - Pull and Push - and how to configure them.</li><li>See several demos on how DSC can be leveraged in the real world</li></ul><p><strong>More about Jan:</strong><br>
Jan Egil Ring works as a Lead Architect on the Infrastructure Team at Crayon, Norway. He mainly works with Microsoft server-products, and has a strong passion for Windows PowerShell. In addition to being a consultant, he is a Microsoft Certified Trainer. He has obtained several certifications such as MCSE: Server Infrastructure and MCSE: Private Cloud. He has a strong passion for Windows PowerShell, and regularly writes articles for PowerShell Magazine, the Crayon Services blog and the Norwegian TechNet blog. He is also a multiple-year recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions in the Windows PowerShell technical community.<br>
You can follow Jan on <a href="http://twitter.com/janegilring">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/290/a26">LinkedIn</a>, or subscribe to his <a href="http://blog.powershell.no/">blog</a>.<br>
Please <a href="http://phillyposh.eventbrite.com/">register</a> if you plan to attend in person or online. The meeting URL to join us remotely will be included in your Eventbrite registration confirmation.<br><a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/phillyposh-september-4th-2014-tickets-12733862325?ref=ebtnebregn"><img src="https://www.eventbrite.com/custombutton?eid=12733862325" alt="Eventbrite - PhillyPoSH September 4th 2014"/></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Registration for August Omaha PowerShell User Group Meeting is Live!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-19-registration-for-august-omaha-powershell-user-group-meeting-is-live/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-19-registration-for-august-omaha-powershell-user-group-meeting-is-live/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:22:47 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/omaha-powershell-users-group-august-meeting-tickets-12703856577"&gt;https://www.eventbrite.com/e/omaha-powershell-users-group-august-meeting-tickets-12703856577&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the second ever meeting of the Omaha PowerShell User Group we will have PowerShell MVP Bartek Bielawski talking about OMI: PowerShell Everywhere:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;CIM cmdlets and CDXML commands are advertised as technology that will enable PowerShell users to manage anything in datacenter. It wouldn’t be possible though without something that we can talk to on the remote end, and that’s were OMI kicks in. In this presentation I will show you how you can manage processes on Linux using OMI and CIM, and how easy it is to create CDXML based commands on top of it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This meeting (and all future meetings) are for anyone who uses or is interested in PowerShell.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/omaha-powershell-users-group-august-meeting-tickets-12703856577">https://www.eventbrite.com/e/omaha-powershell-users-group-august-meeting-tickets-12703856577</a></p><p>In the second ever meeting of the Omaha PowerShell User Group we will have PowerShell MVP Bartek Bielawski talking about OMI: PowerShell Everywhere:</p><ul><li>CIM cmdlets and CDXML commands are advertised as technology that will enable PowerShell users to manage anything in datacenter. It wouldn’t be possible though without something that we can talk to on the remote end, and that’s were OMI kicks in. In this presentation I will show you how you can manage processes on Linux using OMI and CIM, and how easy it is to create CDXML based commands on top of it.</li></ul><p>This meeting (and all future meetings) are for anyone who uses or is interested in PowerShell.</p><p>This meeting is not limited to people who reside in Omaha.  If you are in the area and want to come, you are more than welcome!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Omaha PowerShell User Group Meeting – 8/26</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-18-omaha-powershell-user-group-meeting-826/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-08-18-omaha-powershell-user-group-meeting-826/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 18 Aug 2014 12:36:09 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The next (and second ever) meeting of the Omaha PowerShell Users Group is taking place next Tuesday, August 26th.  MVP Bartek Bielawski will be talking about OMI on Windows and Linux.&lt;br&gt;
I am having some issues with Lync in our Office 365 account so as soon as that gets straightened out I will be creating the invite for you to sign up, so watch for that!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The next (and second ever) meeting of the Omaha PowerShell Users Group is taking place next Tuesday, August 26th.  MVP Bartek Bielawski will be talking about OMI on Windows and Linux.<br>
I am having some issues with Lync in our Office 365 account so as soon as that gets straightened out I will be creating the invite for you to sign up, so watch for that!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Omaha PowerShell User Group Meeting Notes/Video</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-07-30-omaha-powershell-user-group-meeting-notesvideo/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-07-30-omaha-powershell-user-group-meeting-notesvideo/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:31:57 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The first Omaha PowerShell User Group Meeting is in the books!  We had a great turnout with 26 people showing up last night.&lt;br&gt;
The video Don Jones made for us is available on YouTube &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtAcl64oHH4&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
Our next meeting will take place on August 26th with PowerShell MVP Bartek Bielawski doing the presentation on either Pre-Param Scriptology or PowerShell and OMI.  We will also have a short Scripting Game/Contest of some kind.  Stay tuned for the event sign up which should be going out soon.&lt;br&gt;
If you would like to speak about PowerShell here is a list of some topics people have expressed interest in learning more about:&lt;br&gt;
PowerShell Security/InfoSec&lt;br&gt;
Desired State Configuration&lt;br&gt;
OMI Interface w/PowerShell&lt;br&gt;
Workflows/SMA&lt;br&gt;
PowerCLI/VMWare&lt;br&gt;
.NET Methods/Classes/Underneath/Exploration&lt;br&gt;
OneGet/Chocolaty/Nuget&lt;br&gt;
TFS/PowerShell Integration&lt;br&gt;
PowerShell Formatting/Export Options&lt;br&gt;
PowerShell Basics/PowerShell 101/Why PowerShell&lt;br&gt;
Finally, if you have any ideas for things we could do for the Scripting Games/Contest please send them to &lt;a href="mailto:omahapsug@gmail.com"&gt;omahapsug@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The first Omaha PowerShell User Group Meeting is in the books!  We had a great turnout with 26 people showing up last night.<br>
The video Don Jones made for us is available on YouTube<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtAcl64oHH4&amp;feature=youtu.be">here</a>.<br>
Our next meeting will take place on August 26th with PowerShell MVP Bartek Bielawski doing the presentation on either Pre-Param Scriptology or PowerShell and OMI.  We will also have a short Scripting Game/Contest of some kind.  Stay tuned for the event sign up which should be going out soon.<br>
If you would like to speak about PowerShell here is a list of some topics people have expressed interest in learning more about:<br>
PowerShell Security/InfoSec<br>
Desired State Configuration<br>
OMI Interface w/PowerShell<br>
Workflows/SMA<br>
PowerCLI/VMWare<br>
.NET Methods/Classes/Underneath/Exploration<br>
OneGet/Chocolaty/Nuget<br>
TFS/PowerShell Integration<br>
PowerShell Formatting/Export Options<br>
PowerShell Basics/PowerShell 101/Why PowerShell<br>
Finally, if you have any ideas for things we could do for the Scripting Games/Contest please send them to<a href="mailto:omahapsug@gmail.com">omahapsug@gmail.com</a></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Registration for European Summit 2014 is open</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-07-15-registration-for-european-summit-2014-is-open/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-07-15-registration-for-european-summit-2014-is-open/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2014 08:15:52 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Registration for the PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 is now open. Follow the links under Events&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Registration for the PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 is now open. Follow the links under Events</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 07/03/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-07-05-phillyposh-07032014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-07-05-phillyposh-07032014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 05 Jul 2014 18:46:17 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ferdinandrios.com/"&gt;Ferdinand G. Rios&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled “Building PowerShell GUI Tool Solutions&amp;quot; During his talked Ferdinand demonstrated how to use &lt;a href="http://www.sapien.com/software/powershell_studio"&gt;Sapien PowerShell Studio 2014&lt;/a&gt; to easily build GUI applications on top of PowerShell,
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1daOFL4lp5E&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be"&gt;
recording of this meeting
&lt;/a&gt; has been posted to our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;
YouTube channel
&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<ul><li><a href="http://www.ferdinandrios.com/">Ferdinand G. Rios</a> gave a presentation entitled “Building PowerShell GUI Tool Solutions" During his talked Ferdinand demonstrated how to use<a href="http://www.sapien.com/software/powershell_studio">Sapien PowerShell Studio 2014</a> to easily build GUI applications on top of PowerShell,<ul><li>A<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1daOFL4lp5E&amp;feature=youtu.be">
recording of this meeting</a> has been posted to our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">
YouTube channel</a></li></ul></li></ul>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>European PowerShell Summit</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-19-european-powershell-summit/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-19-european-powershell-summit/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 Jun 2014 07:35:51 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;There seems to have been a bit of confusion regarding the European PowerShell Summit as the site will tell you that registration is currently unavailable.&lt;br&gt;
There isn&amp;rsquo;t a problem and the Summit &lt;strong&gt;HAS NOT&lt;/strong&gt; sold out at this time. WE just haven&amp;rsquo;t opened registration yet.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Registration will open on 15 July 2014&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>There seems to have been a bit of confusion regarding the European PowerShell Summit as the site will tell you that registration is currently unavailable.<br>
There isn&rsquo;t a problem and the Summit<strong>HAS NOT</strong> sold out at this time. WE just haven&rsquo;t opened registration yet.<br><strong>Registration will open on 15 July 2014</strong><br>
.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Omaha PowerShell User Group is Filling Up Fast!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-19-omaha-powershell-user-group-is-filling-up-fast/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-19-omaha-powershell-user-group-is-filling-up-fast/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2014 18:55:25 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The first meeting of the Omaha PowerShell User Group is filling up fast!  There are only 16 available seats so make sure you get your spot!&lt;br&gt;
Meeting details and sign up information can be found at omahapsug.eventbrite.com&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The first meeting of the Omaha PowerShell User Group is filling up fast!  There are only 16 available seats so make sure you get your spot!<br>
Meeting details and sign up information can be found at omahapsug.eventbrite.com</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Charlotte PowerShell User Group No meeting in July, enjoy your holiday!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-16-charlotte-powershell-user-group-no-meeting-in-july-enjoy-your-holiday/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-16-charlotte-powershell-user-group-no-meeting-in-july-enjoy-your-holiday/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2014 22:00:59 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;There will not be a meeting in July in Charlotte, please enjoy the 4th of July holiday. We will be back on schedule in August.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>There will not be a meeting in July in Charlotte, please enjoy the 4th of July holiday. We will be back on schedule in August.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Free Online Access to TechLetter Back Issues</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-13-free-online-access-to-techletter-back-issues/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-13-free-online-access-to-techletter-back-issues/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 Jun 2014 18:38:08 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Did you know that PowerShell.org has, for more than a year now, offered a mostly-monthly TechLetter e-mail newsletter? It&amp;rsquo;s stuffed with community news, announcements (like our free &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/techsession-webinars/" title="TechSession Webinars"&gt;webinar&lt;/a&gt; schedule), feature articles on PowerShell, and much more. It&amp;rsquo;s a great way to learn a little bit at a time, and it&amp;rsquo;s truly awesome content.&lt;br&gt;
And we keep back issues for your perusal!&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/techletter/"&gt;You can find the back issues online&lt;/a&gt;. We post all but the most recent 2-3 issues, but of course you can &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/newsletter/" title="Newsletter"&gt;subscribe and have them delivered right to your inbox&lt;/a&gt; around the middle of most months.&lt;br&gt;
We&amp;rsquo;re always on the lookout for new content, too - and if you&amp;rsquo;re thinking, &amp;ldquo;oh, I have nothing really to share,&amp;rdquo; you&amp;rsquo;re wrong! It can be as simple as an article about something you figured out. With more than 5,000 subscribers, someone&amp;rsquo;s sure to appreciate your perspective! Contact our Editors at PowerShell.org via e-mail to submit your article, or to suggest an article idea.&lt;br&gt;
And please - tell a friend!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Did you know that PowerShell.org has, for more than a year now, offered a mostly-monthly TechLetter e-mail newsletter? It&rsquo;s stuffed with community news, announcements (like our free<a href="https://powershell.org/techsession-webinars/" title="TechSession Webinars">webinar</a> schedule), feature articles on PowerShell, and much more. It&rsquo;s a great way to learn a little bit at a time, and it&rsquo;s truly awesome content.<br>
And we keep back issues for your perusal!<br><a href="https://powershell.org/techletter/">You can find the back issues online</a>. We post all but the most recent 2-3 issues, but of course you can<a href="https://powershell.org/newsletter/" title="Newsletter">subscribe and have them delivered right to your inbox</a> around the middle of most months.<br>
We&rsquo;re always on the lookout for new content, too - and if you&rsquo;re thinking, &ldquo;oh, I have nothing really to share,&rdquo; you&rsquo;re wrong! It can be as simple as an article about something you figured out. With more than 5,000 subscribers, someone&rsquo;s sure to appreciate your perspective! Contact our Editors at PowerShell.org via e-mail to submit your article, or to suggest an article idea.<br>
And please - tell a friend!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 06/05/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-09-phillyposh-06052014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-09-phillyposh-06052014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2014 03:19:05 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://jdhitsolutions.com/blog/"&gt;Jeff Hicks&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled “Getting Started with Desired State Configuration (DSC)”. During his talked Jeff gave an overview of &lt;a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn249912.aspx"&gt;DSC&lt;/a&gt; and walked through an example of a push mode configuration. A copy of his &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-06-Jeff-Hicks-DSC"&gt;
presentation materials are available here
.&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ru8h73F0g&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be"&gt;
recording of this meeting
&lt;/a&gt; has been posted to our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;
YouTube channel
&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<ul><li><a href="http://jdhitsolutions.com/blog/">Jeff Hicks</a> gave a presentation entitled “Getting Started with Desired State Configuration (DSC)”. During his talked Jeff gave an overview of<a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn249912.aspx">DSC</a> and walked through an example of a push mode configuration. A copy of his<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-06-Jeff-Hicks-DSC">
presentation materials are available here
.</a><ul><li>A<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ru8h73F0g&amp;feature=youtu.be">
recording of this meeting</a> has been posted to our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">
YouTube channel</a></li></ul></li></ul>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Wish List: Better Code Formatting in the Forums (Can You Help?)</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-09-wish-list-better-code-formatting-in-the-forums-can-you-help/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-09-wish-list-better-code-formatting-in-the-forums-can-you-help/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 09 Jun 2014 18:06:36 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I know it&amp;rsquo;s been a &amp;ldquo;wish&amp;rdquo; of many folks for our forums to have better code formatting. Well, if you know some PHP and a little about WordPress, you can make it happen.&lt;br&gt;
What we need is a WordPress plugin that hooks the action for post displays. The plugin needs to take the post body, and look for anything contained within HTML &amp;ldquo;code&amp;rdquo; tags or &amp;ldquo;pre&amp;rdquo; tags.&lt;br&gt;
Within that content, the plugin needs to strip any further code/pre tags (WordPress has a bit of a glitch where it&amp;rsquo;ll sometimes nest them). It should then HTML-encode the remaining content to turn any backticks into an HTML entity. Finally, it should color-code the content, or whatever, and hand it back to WordPress for display.&lt;br&gt;
If you think you might be interested, let me know.&lt;br&gt;
There ARE existing code formatters. But they have some weaknesses:&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I know it&rsquo;s been a &ldquo;wish&rdquo; of many folks for our forums to have better code formatting. Well, if you know some PHP and a little about WordPress, you can make it happen.<br>
What we need is a WordPress plugin that hooks the action for post displays. The plugin needs to take the post body, and look for anything contained within HTML &ldquo;code&rdquo; tags or &ldquo;pre&rdquo; tags.<br>
Within that content, the plugin needs to strip any further code/pre tags (WordPress has a bit of a glitch where it&rsquo;ll sometimes nest them). It should then HTML-encode the remaining content to turn any backticks into an HTML entity. Finally, it should color-code the content, or whatever, and hand it back to WordPress for display.<br>
If you think you might be interested, let me know.<br>
There ARE existing code formatters. But they have some weaknesses:</p><ul><li>Many require you to use a custom shortcode, which our forums users won&rsquo;t pick up on. Getting folks to use the standard CODE tag, which is even on the toolbar, is hard enough.</li><li>Most require additional directives to specify the language and whatnot that will be formatted - that&rsquo;s a hurdle people, in the past, weren&rsquo;t able to grasp.</li><li>Some use extensive client-side JavaScript, which is heavy, performs poorly, and doesn&rsquo;t interact well with some of the other JavaScript on the site.</li><li>Many don&rsquo;t accommodate WordPress&rsquo; treatment of backticks. WP wants them to be code delimiters, but obviously in PowerShell the backtick is important for other reasons.</li></ul><p>What we need isn&rsquo;t giant, and it isn&rsquo;t complicated, it&rsquo;ll just require some time.<br><strong>UPDATE:</strong> I&rsquo;m working on it.<br><strong>UPDATE:</strong> I think I got it. I&rsquo;m using the GeSHi parser Joel uses on PoshCode.org, although I&rsquo;ve applied different CSS style to it. If anyone would like to tackle improving that parser, or the CSS, you can hit me up and I&rsquo;ll give you the code as it stands. But as-is, we get line-numbered, colorized syntax in a scrollable window when you use`to enclose your code blocks. WordPress backticks aren&rsquo;t allowed for code, and inline code isn&rsquo;t supported. Older HTML-style CODE and PRE tags will be converted automatically. I think.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Omaha PowerShell User Group is Open!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-05-omaha-powershell-user-group-is-open/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-05-omaha-powershell-user-group-is-open/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Jun 2014 18:51:10 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The Omaha PowerShell User Group is now open for business!  If you are in the Omaha-Council Bluffs-Lincoln area and are interested in being a part of it, either let myself, Jacob Benson (@vhusker) or Boe Prox (@proxb) know.&lt;br&gt;
We are currently looking for a meeting place and are shooting for having our first meeting the last week in July.  In addition to finding out who might be interested in attending, we would also like to know what days/times work best for you and the kinds of things you would like to get out of the meetings.&lt;br&gt;
You can follow us on Twitter at @OmahaPSUG.  If you wish to contact us through email you can reach us at &lt;a href="mailto:omahapsug@gmail.com"&gt;omahapsug@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The Omaha PowerShell User Group is now open for business!  If you are in the Omaha-Council Bluffs-Lincoln area and are interested in being a part of it, either let myself, Jacob Benson (@vhusker) or Boe Prox (@proxb) know.<br>
We are currently looking for a meeting place and are shooting for having our first meeting the last week in July.  In addition to finding out who might be interested in attending, we would also like to know what days/times work best for you and the kinds of things you would like to get out of the meetings.<br>
You can follow us on Twitter at @OmahaPSUG.  If you wish to contact us through email you can reach us at<a href="mailto:omahapsug@gmail.com">omahapsug@gmail.com</a> .</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Quick Tip: WMI vs. CIM Syntax</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-04-quick-tip-wmi-vs-cim-syntax/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-04-quick-tip-wmi-vs-cim-syntax/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2014 12:31:32 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;# List all classes in a namespace Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -List &lt;/code&gt;# list all classes containing &amp;ldquo;service&amp;rdquo; in their name&lt;br&gt;
Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 | Where CimClassName -like &amp;lsquo;*service*&amp;rsquo; | Sort CimClassName&lt;br&gt;
(or)&lt;br&gt;
Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Classname *service*&lt;br&gt;
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -List | Where Name -like &amp;lsquo;*service*&amp;rsquo; | Sort Name&lt;br&gt;
# get all class instances&lt;br&gt;
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem&lt;br&gt;
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem&lt;br&gt;
# filter class instances&lt;br&gt;
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter &amp;ldquo;DriveType=3&amp;rdquo;&lt;br&gt;
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter &amp;ldquo;DriveType=3&amp;rdquo;&lt;br&gt;
# show all properties&lt;br&gt;
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | Get-Member&lt;br&gt;
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem | Get-Member&lt;br&gt;
# show all properties and values&lt;br&gt;
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | fl *&lt;br&gt;
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem | fl *&lt;br&gt;
# remote computer&lt;br&gt;
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_BIOS -ComputerName dc,win81&lt;br&gt;
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_BIOS -ComputerName dc,win81&lt;br&gt;
# use CIM command to talk to non-CIM computer&lt;br&gt;
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName win32_BIOS -CimSession (&lt;br&gt;
New-CimSession -ComputerName OLD-XP-PC -SessionOption (&lt;br&gt;
New-CimSessionOption -Protocol Dcom&lt;br&gt;
)&lt;br&gt;
)&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><code># List all classes in a namespace Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -List</code># list all classes containing &ldquo;service&rdquo; in their name<br>
Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 | Where CimClassName -like &lsquo;*service*&rsquo; | Sort CimClassName<br>
(or)<br>
Get-CimClass -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Classname *service*<br>
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -List | Where Name -like &lsquo;*service*&rsquo; | Sort Name<br>
# get all class instances<br>
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem<br>
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem<br>
# filter class instances<br>
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter &ldquo;DriveType=3&rdquo;<br>
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter &ldquo;DriveType=3&rdquo;<br>
# show all properties<br>
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | Get-Member<br>
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem | Get-Member<br>
# show all properties and values<br>
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | fl *<br>
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_OperatingSystem | fl *<br>
# remote computer<br>
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName Win32_BIOS -ComputerName dc,win81<br>
Get-WmiObject -Namespace root\CIMv2 -Class Win32_BIOS -ComputerName dc,win81<br>
# use CIM command to talk to non-CIM computer<br>
Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\CIMv2 -ClassName win32_BIOS -CimSession (<br>
New-CimSession -ComputerName OLD-XP-PC -SessionOption (<br>
New-CimSessionOption -Protocol Dcom<br>
)<br>
)</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell.org Annual Operating Budget</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-01-powershell-org-annual-operating-budget/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-06-01-powershell-org-annual-operating-budget/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 Jun 2014 14:30:30 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;As we approach our annual shareholder meeting for PowerShell.org, Inc., I wanted to take a moment and share some details about our 2014-2015 operating budget.&lt;br&gt;
First, you can always &lt;a href="http://1drv.ms/1eKECnJ"&gt;review the budget spreadsheet in our OneDrive account&lt;/a&gt;. This is updated as our plans change, prices rise, and so on; you&amp;rsquo;re welcome to check back whenever you like.&lt;br&gt;
Now, let&amp;rsquo;s talk about some of our organizational goals, and what some of the items in the spreadsheet mean. As you know, we&amp;rsquo;ve been fortunate to have the support of several corporate sponsors since our invention. MVP Systems, Interface Technical Training, CBT Nuggets, and SAPIEN Technologies have been amongst those helping us out; Interface and SAPIEN both signed on for a generous three-year commitment right when we launched, and we couldn&amp;rsquo;t have gotten to this point without them. However, we know that companies&amp;rsquo; goals and positions change over time, so we&amp;rsquo;ve been trying to drive to a point where we didn&amp;rsquo;t need to rely on corporate sponsorship. We now believe that the PowerShell Summit is stable enough that, with a conservative budget, we can meet our operational needs out of the profits from the North America and Europe events.&lt;br&gt;
As a note, PowerShell.org isn&amp;rsquo;t classified as a _nonprofit; _we&amp;rsquo;re a _not-for-profit. _We&amp;rsquo;re legally allowed to make a profit; it just isn&amp;rsquo;t a goal. The corporation pays Federal income tax on any profits, although most of our income is spent on expenses, which end up being deductions.&lt;br&gt;
As you&amp;rsquo;ll notice in the spreadsheet, we believe we can meet our annual operating budget by applying a $175 overhead charge to each attendee of the Summit, assuming we get 100 attendees between the two events annually. That&amp;rsquo;s _conservative; _the N.A. show has done 100 and 150, in its two years. So in reality the number can probably be much smaller.&lt;br&gt;
Our $750 annual AWPP fee includes Summit admission, VERIFIED EFFECTIVE exams, and other benefits; our operating budget reflects the costs for these items (including virtual machine hosting for the examination program). So $175 of that $750 is earmarked for PowerShell.org; that leaves $575 to cover actual Summit expenses. Due to the exchange rate, Europe is our worst-case show for expenses, with a $330/person overhead for food and beverage. The remaining $245 goes to cover speaker overhead: speaker food and beverage (we admit them to the event for free, but they still eat), and some speaker travel reimbursement. With 50 paid attendees, that&amp;rsquo;s $12,250 in overhead income. Subtract $3300 for 10 speakers&amp;rsquo; F&amp;amp;B, and we have about $9000 left to cover other expenses, including some speaker travel reimbursement. The US shows do somewhat better; in reality; we probably will take less than the $175 per person from the Europe show, to allow for more speaker travel expenses, and take a bit more from the US show where our expenses are lower and attendance is known to be higher.&lt;br&gt;
Most of the budget line items should be fairly self-explanatory. In some cases, we&amp;rsquo;re receiving some of the services for free at present; we&amp;rsquo;ve budgeted to pays for them should our free ride ever end. You&amp;rsquo;re welcome to ask about anything that seems unclear, too. But you&amp;rsquo;ll notice that there&amp;rsquo;s no budget for salaries: nobody associated with PowerShell.org, Inc. is paid for their efforts. We&amp;rsquo;re run by volunteers.&lt;br&gt;
So what happens when we get 200 global Summit attendees instead of the 100 we budget for? That&amp;rsquo;ll give us an operational pad. In most cases, it means we&amp;rsquo;ll be able to be a bit more elaborate with the Summit itself, buying some food for an evening event, for example. As I mentioned, it&amp;rsquo;ll also allow us to better reimburse speakers for their out-of-pocket travel expenses, which is definitely a goal. In fact, one reason we&amp;rsquo;ve tried to pay the operational budget from just half our expected attendance is specifically so we&amp;rsquo;ll have extra funds so that speakers don&amp;rsquo;t have to be entirely out-of-pocket to present at the Summits.&lt;br&gt;
I hope this is helpful. As always, feel free to post your questions.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>As we approach our annual shareholder meeting for PowerShell.org, Inc., I wanted to take a moment and share some details about our 2014-2015 operating budget.<br>
First, you can always<a href="http://1drv.ms/1eKECnJ">review the budget spreadsheet in our OneDrive account</a>. This is updated as our plans change, prices rise, and so on; you&rsquo;re welcome to check back whenever you like.<br>
Now, let&rsquo;s talk about some of our organizational goals, and what some of the items in the spreadsheet mean. As you know, we&rsquo;ve been fortunate to have the support of several corporate sponsors since our invention. MVP Systems, Interface Technical Training, CBT Nuggets, and SAPIEN Technologies have been amongst those helping us out; Interface and SAPIEN both signed on for a generous three-year commitment right when we launched, and we couldn&rsquo;t have gotten to this point without them. However, we know that companies&rsquo; goals and positions change over time, so we&rsquo;ve been trying to drive to a point where we didn&rsquo;t need to rely on corporate sponsorship. We now believe that the PowerShell Summit is stable enough that, with a conservative budget, we can meet our operational needs out of the profits from the North America and Europe events.<br>
As a note, PowerShell.org isn&rsquo;t classified as a _nonprofit; _we&rsquo;re a _not-for-profit. _We&rsquo;re legally allowed to make a profit; it just isn&rsquo;t a goal. The corporation pays Federal income tax on any profits, although most of our income is spent on expenses, which end up being deductions.<br>
As you&rsquo;ll notice in the spreadsheet, we believe we can meet our annual operating budget by applying a $175 overhead charge to each attendee of the Summit, assuming we get 100 attendees between the two events annually. That&rsquo;s _conservative; _the N.A. show has done 100 and 150, in its two years. So in reality the number can probably be much smaller.<br>
Our $750 annual AWPP fee includes Summit admission, VERIFIED EFFECTIVE exams, and other benefits; our operating budget reflects the costs for these items (including virtual machine hosting for the examination program). So $175 of that $750 is earmarked for PowerShell.org; that leaves $575 to cover actual Summit expenses. Due to the exchange rate, Europe is our worst-case show for expenses, with a $330/person overhead for food and beverage. The remaining $245 goes to cover speaker overhead: speaker food and beverage (we admit them to the event for free, but they still eat), and some speaker travel reimbursement. With 50 paid attendees, that&rsquo;s $12,250 in overhead income. Subtract $3300 for 10 speakers&rsquo; F&amp;B, and we have about $9000 left to cover other expenses, including some speaker travel reimbursement. The US shows do somewhat better; in reality; we probably will take less than the $175 per person from the Europe show, to allow for more speaker travel expenses, and take a bit more from the US show where our expenses are lower and attendance is known to be higher.<br>
Most of the budget line items should be fairly self-explanatory. In some cases, we&rsquo;re receiving some of the services for free at present; we&rsquo;ve budgeted to pays for them should our free ride ever end. You&rsquo;re welcome to ask about anything that seems unclear, too. But you&rsquo;ll notice that there&rsquo;s no budget for salaries: nobody associated with PowerShell.org, Inc. is paid for their efforts. We&rsquo;re run by volunteers.<br>
So what happens when we get 200 global Summit attendees instead of the 100 we budget for? That&rsquo;ll give us an operational pad. In most cases, it means we&rsquo;ll be able to be a bit more elaborate with the Summit itself, buying some food for an evening event, for example. As I mentioned, it&rsquo;ll also allow us to better reimburse speakers for their out-of-pocket travel expenses, which is definitely a goal. In fact, one reason we&rsquo;ve tried to pay the operational budget from just half our expected attendance is specifically so we&rsquo;ll have extra funds so that speakers don&rsquo;t have to be entirely out-of-pocket to present at the Summits.<br>
I hope this is helpful. As always, feel free to post your questions.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Analyzing the "Black Magic" PowerShell "Exploit" and Appropriate Actions</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-31-analyzing-the-black-magic-powershell-exploit-and-appropriate-actions/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-31-analyzing-the-black-magic-powershell-exploit-and-appropriate-actions/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 31 May 2014 14:39:14 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Trend Micro released a report on a new &lt;a href="http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/black-magic-windows-powershell-used-again-in-new-attack/"&gt;PowerShell-vectored exploit named Black Magic&lt;/a&gt;. I had a lovely Twitter conversation about what this means in terms of PowerShell&amp;rsquo;s vulnerability to attack, and what admins should do. Unfortunately Twitter sucks for carrying on that kind of conversation, so I wanted to post this to clarify a few things.&lt;br&gt;
First, I&amp;rsquo;m going to write this article as if &amp;ldquo;you&amp;rdquo; were hit by this exploit. Don&amp;rsquo;t take it personally, it&amp;rsquo;s just an easier style of language for me - it&amp;rsquo;s not actually addressing &lt;em&gt;you.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Second, when it comes to security, the goal is to &lt;em&gt;stop attacks from happening.&lt;/em&gt; That means you have to consider all the ways something could nail you, and try to block as many of them as is practical. That&amp;rsquo;s called &amp;ldquo;defense in depth,&amp;rdquo; giving you multiple layers of defense. The corollary to that is that your environment must still be functional. I mean, from a secure standpoint, if I unplugged all the WiFi access points and Ethernet switches you have, you&amp;rsquo;d be pretty secure. And non-functional.&lt;br&gt;
Third&amp;hellip; and I don&amp;rsquo;t know how to be delicate about this, but a lot of admins out there aren&amp;rsquo;t very sophisticated about security. There&amp;rsquo;s sometimes a tendency to fix what they can get their hands on, whether or not that makes any impact on security or not. So let&amp;rsquo;s be very clear about what you do when it comes to security: &lt;em&gt;You do as little as possible, and impinge as little functionality as possible, while achieving your security goals.&lt;/em&gt; That helps maintain a &amp;ldquo;functional&amp;rdquo; environment, and keeps the security aspect of it &amp;ldquo;maintainable.&amp;rdquo; Sometimes, &amp;ldquo;as little as possible&amp;rdquo; is quite a lot indeed - but you look for that balance. Finally, you almost &lt;em&gt;never do anything to &amp;ldquo;improve&amp;rdquo; security if it is in fact a null improvement.&lt;/em&gt; That is, you don&amp;rsquo;t lock the doors if the windows can&amp;rsquo;t be closed. There&amp;rsquo;s no point.&lt;br&gt;
Now, let&amp;rsquo;s look at how Black Magic operates.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Trend Micro released a report on a new<a href="http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/black-magic-windows-powershell-used-again-in-new-attack/">PowerShell-vectored exploit named Black Magic</a>. I had a lovely Twitter conversation about what this means in terms of PowerShell&rsquo;s vulnerability to attack, and what admins should do. Unfortunately Twitter sucks for carrying on that kind of conversation, so I wanted to post this to clarify a few things.<br>
First, I&rsquo;m going to write this article as if &ldquo;you&rdquo; were hit by this exploit. Don&rsquo;t take it personally, it&rsquo;s just an easier style of language for me - it&rsquo;s not actually addressing<em>you.</em><br>
Second, when it comes to security, the goal is to<em>stop attacks from happening.</em> That means you have to consider all the ways something could nail you, and try to block as many of them as is practical. That&rsquo;s called &ldquo;defense in depth,&rdquo; giving you multiple layers of defense. The corollary to that is that your environment must still be functional. I mean, from a secure standpoint, if I unplugged all the WiFi access points and Ethernet switches you have, you&rsquo;d be pretty secure. And non-functional.<br>
Third&hellip; and I don&rsquo;t know how to be delicate about this, but a lot of admins out there aren&rsquo;t very sophisticated about security. There&rsquo;s sometimes a tendency to fix what they can get their hands on, whether or not that makes any impact on security or not. So let&rsquo;s be very clear about what you do when it comes to security:<em>You do as little as possible, and impinge as little functionality as possible, while achieving your security goals.</em> That helps maintain a &ldquo;functional&rdquo; environment, and keeps the security aspect of it &ldquo;maintainable.&rdquo; Sometimes, &ldquo;as little as possible&rdquo; is quite a lot indeed - but you look for that balance. Finally, you almost<em>never do anything to &ldquo;improve&rdquo; security if it is in fact a null improvement.</em> That is, you don&rsquo;t lock the doors if the windows can&rsquo;t be closed. There&rsquo;s no point.<br>
Now, let&rsquo;s look at how Black Magic operates.</p><h2 id="step-1-social-engineering" class="ps-heading">Step 1: Social Engineering<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#step-1-social-engineering" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>The exploit comes in the form of an .LNK e-mail attachment. That&rsquo;s a Windows shortcut file. Users are meant to double-click it, and the shortcut launches a PowerShell session with the execution policy essentially turned off.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Problem 1:</strong> You let users get .LNK e-mail attachments from external users. This is stupid. Users shouldn&rsquo;t be able to receive executable file types. Note that a .PS1 file isn&rsquo;t an executable file type, which is why the exploit had to take this action. If you&rsquo;d blocked .LNK attachments at the firewall, the exploit would be useless.<br><strong>Problem 2:</strong> Your users are opening file attachments from people they don&rsquo;t know.<em>There is no technical way to protect an environment where users aren&rsquo;t doing the right thing.</em> No way. Just give up. This is why I keep going on about building a &ldquo;<a href="http://redmondmag.com/Blogs/IT-Decision-Maker/2014/04/Creating-a-Culture-of-Security.aspx">culture of security</a>.&rdquo; If your users&rsquo; job descriptions, or your company employee manual, doesn&rsquo;t say something to the effect of, &ldquo;employees must be able to safely operate company computers in accordance with company policies and standards,&rdquo; then you&rsquo;re just doomed. If it<em>does</em> say that, and a user does open an attachment like this, you write them up and eventually fire them.
If you think you can stop stupid users from bypassing every security measure you put in place, you are dumber than they are
. You have to fix the social engineering element. There is almost no point in trying anything else, because users will get around it.</p></blockquote><p>I know. A lot of you are shrugging and saying, &ldquo;well, you can&rsquo;t fix users, so I&rsquo;ll just lock down PowerShell.&rdquo; It won&rsquo;t work.<br>
I once, and rather famously, refused to help a law firm client get their NTFS file permissions under control, because they let users print sensitive documents and leave them lying around the office.<em>Don&rsquo;t bother locking the door if the windows are open.</em></p><h2 id="step-2-the-download" class="ps-heading">Step 2: The Download<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#step-2-the-download" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>One of the elements of the Twitter discussion was, &ldquo;maybe standard users shouldn&rsquo;t have PowerShell able to run, because it&rsquo;s so powerful and can be exploited so easily.&rdquo;<br>
Um, no.<br>
First: PowerShell&rsquo;s execution policy<em>is not a measure against malware.</em> It was never designed to be, so don&rsquo;t be disappointed when it isn&rsquo;t. If you thought it was, you were wrong, and that&rsquo;s your fault for not educating yourself, not Microsoft&rsquo;s fault for failing to do something they never set out to do in the first place.<br>
Second: PowerShell<em>only lets you do what you have permission to do.</em> The Black Magic exploit used PowerShell<em>simply to download a file from the Internet.</em> That&rsquo;s it. It didn&rsquo;t wipe out Active Directory, it didn&rsquo;t erase a file server, and it didn&rsquo;t start grabbing messages out of Exchange,<em>because normal users can&rsquo;t do those things.</em><br>
Would locking down PowerShell, so that normal users couldn&rsquo;t run it, have stopped this exploit? No, because normal users have an<em>abundance</em> of ways to download files, and the exploit would simply have used a different one. PowerShell was convenient here, not necessary. If you&rsquo;re going to posit locking down PowerShell,<em>you must also lock down every other possible means of downloading a file from the Internet,</em> or you&rsquo;ve done nothing to impact security. Nothing.<br><strong>PowerShell is not powerful.</strong> Erase that from your mind. Everything PowerShell is and does comes from the .NET Framework installed on every one of your computers, which your users have full access to. PowerShell is<strong>nothing more</strong> than a human-friendly way of getting to the Framework without needing Visual Studio on-hand. You could<em>erase</em> PowerShell and 100% of its functionality would still be present and absolutely usable by an exploit. Get your brain wrapped around that, because it&rsquo;s an important concept.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Problem 3</strong>: You let your users download files from trashy websites. Your firewall should have been blocking access, and if it had integrated malware tools and realtime block lists, it probably would have caught this access.<br><strong>Problem 4:</strong> You&rsquo;re not using a local to block
outgoing
access by applications. For standard users, there&rsquo;s little reason to access the Internet by means other than a web browser or known applications. This is a well-known technology and approach that&rsquo;s been around for a decade.</p></blockquote><h2 id="step-3-run-a-file" class="ps-heading">Step 3: Run a File<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#step-3-run-a-file" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Black Magic&rsquo;s last step is to run the downloaded payload,<em>which it does under normal user permissions.</em></p><blockquote><p><strong>Problem 5:</strong> You&rsquo;re allowing users to run arbitrary applications. AppLocker has been around since Windows Vista, and provides a way of &ldquo;whitelisting&rdquo; applications that may run. This payload would never have been allowed to execute if you&rsquo;d been using a built-in tool that&rsquo;s been around since 2008. AppLocker even offers the ability to build that whitelist for you.<br><strong>Problem 6:</strong> You&rsquo;re not running updated anti-malware software that would have detected the payload and blocked it - and alerted someone. Most would have blocked access to the URL where the payload came from, too.</p></blockquote><h2 id="conclusions" class="ps-heading">Conclusions<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#conclusions" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>So you&rsquo;ve had six opportunities to stop this exploit, all of which involve well-known, years-old technologies and techniques. You probably haven&rsquo;t<em>done most of them,</em> and so you want to blame PowerShell.<br>
OK&hellip; I&rsquo;ll step out of the &ldquo;you&rdquo; attack-y mode :).<br>
The point is that, once you have arbitrary code running on users&rsquo; systems, you&rsquo;re owned. Nothing you can do to PowerShell will stop that. This attack could easily have been a .LNK file that ran Cmd.exe and the Telnet or FTP client - it could have achieved the same thing. It could easily have been an .EXE (&ldquo;no, we block EXE file attachments;&rdquo; &ldquo;why the hell don&rsquo;t you also block .LNK then, dummy?&rdquo;).<br>
I don&rsquo;t want to come across as defending PowerShell per se; I&rsquo;m trying to help folks understand where the real security problems lie. PowerShell is a red herring in all this; it was a convenient way of getting innocuous code to execute. There were six other places where<em>this attack would have been stopped in its tracks,</em> and any six of those would also have stopped every other similar kind of attack that didn&rsquo;t rely specifically on PowerShell. That&rsquo;s what makes those six<em>effective</em> - they&rsquo;re global, not targeted at one specific piece of code. All of those six act to stop malware.<br>
Before you take actions in security, you need to make sure you&rsquo;re doing so from a holistic, professional security perspective. The first time a fire broke out in a crowded theater, officials didn&rsquo;t say, &ldquo;well, we should put sprinklers and alarms in that theater.&rdquo; They put them in<em>every</em> theater, and started demanding flame-retardant fabrics and other measures. You address security<em>across the board,</em> not on a piecemeal basis.</p><h2 id="a-tangent-argument" class="ps-heading">A Tangent Argument<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#a-tangent-argument" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>&ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; the argument goes, &ldquo;but we should reduce moving parts. Users don&rsquo;t have a legit need to run PowerShell, so we should lock them out of it.&rdquo;<br>
Valid. Except that PowerShell.exe<em>isn&rsquo;t PowerShell.</em> PowerShell is a .NET Framework-based engine; PowerShell.exe is just a console application that lets you feed typed commands to that engine. You<em>can&rsquo;t</em> remove PowerShell, and you <em>can&rsquo;t</em> &ldquo;block&rdquo; users&rsquo; access to it, because it&rsquo;s part of the Framework. It&rsquo;s an integral part of the operating system. Things you don&rsquo;t even realize are using it, are using it.<br>
But yes, you could block users&rsquo; access to the console application, PowerShell.exe. I might even buy that argument, especially in a highly secure environment where you simply don&rsquo;t want users having access to<em>anything</em> they don&rsquo;t explicitly need to do their jobs. In fact, I<em>would</em> buy that argument,<em>if and only if</em> you block users&rsquo; access to<em>everything</em> they don&rsquo;t explicitly need. Notepad. Windows Paint. Solitaire. Etc. Because based on the theory you&rsquo;re working from,<em>all code is bad code</em> (a valid security perspective) and you block everything not explicitly needed. Remember, PowerShell doesn&rsquo;t give users any special capabilities. Anything a normal user can do in PowerShell<em>can be done in at least 2 other ways using other native tools.</em> This is why AppLocker is a better approach: the list of apps a user<em>needs</em> is smaller than the list of apps they don&rsquo;t, and so a whitelist is more maintainable, no matter how huge it is.</p><h2 id="anyway" class="ps-heading">Anyway&hellip;<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#anyway" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>There you go. Now, you&rsquo;re welcome to make comments on this, and offer your perspective. However, I have a couple of guidelines.</p><ol><li>Keep the conversation civil and professional. I&rsquo;ll delete anything obnoxious.</li><li>Keep the conversation focused on<em>security.</em> And remember that security isn&rsquo;t about locking down the doors when the windows are open; it&rsquo;s about holistically achieving specific goals. You don&rsquo;t take security measures that simply move the target elsewhere. &ldquo;Defense in depth&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t mean 80 security restrictions and 20 ways around them. If something is super-easy to bypass, you don&rsquo;t bother.</li></ol>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>YASG! (Yet Another Scripting Game)</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-30-yasg-yet-another-scripting-game/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-30-yasg-yet-another-scripting-game/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2014 16:02:23 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The monthly Charlotte PowerShell Users Group meeting is coming up quickly. Mark Thursday, June 5th on your calendars. All of our MIA leaders should be at this one. Hopefully we will be able to personally congratulate the Teresa, aka ScriptingWife, on her recent MVP Award. Jump on over to the &lt;a href="http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-PowerShell-Users-Group/events/178572422/"&gt;MeetUp&lt;/a&gt; page and let us know if we will see you there.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The monthly Charlotte PowerShell Users Group meeting is coming up quickly. Mark Thursday, June 5th on your calendars. All of our MIA leaders should be at this one. Hopefully we will be able to personally congratulate the Teresa, aka ScriptingWife, on her recent MVP Award. Jump on over to the<a href="http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-PowerShell-Users-Group/events/178572422/">MeetUp</a> page and let us know if we will see you there.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>[UPDATED] Verified Effective Exams will Begin Soon</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-24-verified-effective-exams-will-begin-soon-looking-for-early-registrants/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-24-verified-effective-exams-will-begin-soon-looking-for-early-registrants/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 24 May 2014 23:21:00 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Check it out&amp;hellip;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/getcertificate.png"&gt;&lt;img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/getcertificate.png" alt="getcertificate"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="wave-1" class="ps-heading"&gt;Wave 1&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#wave-1" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We&amp;rsquo;ll be going live with the PowerShell Toolmaker program very soon. Wave 1 will permit our PowerShell Summit N.A. 2014 alumni who registered early and were given a free exam. If you&amp;rsquo;re one of those folks, &lt;strong&gt;and if you would like to be an early registrant, please contact exams at PowerShell.org&lt;/strong&gt;. You will need to have your Summit confirmation code (it was e-mailed to you when you registered, and was printed on your badge; we cannot provide it to you if you&amp;rsquo;ve lost it). &lt;strong&gt;We&amp;rsquo;re looking for a small handful of early registrants to take the exam and help us test the grading systems&lt;/strong&gt;. If you pass, it&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;real,&amp;rdquo; and you&amp;rsquo;ll get an e-certificate like the one shown here!&lt;br&gt;
How do you know if you got a free exam? There was a slip included with your badge at the Summit. If you weren&amp;rsquo;t paying attention, we&amp;rsquo;ll allow you to try entering your Summit confirmation code as an exam voucher to see if it works. If you can&amp;rsquo;t find your confirmation code, you&amp;rsquo;re out of luck.&lt;br&gt;
Wave 1 is designed to let us test the system and make sure everything is working well, in a small enough scale to manage any problems that arise.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Check it out&hellip;<br><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/getcertificate.png"><img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/getcertificate.png" alt="getcertificate"/></p><h2 id="wave-1" class="ps-heading">Wave 1<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#wave-1" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>We&rsquo;ll be going live with the PowerShell Toolmaker program very soon. Wave 1 will permit our PowerShell Summit N.A. 2014 alumni who registered early and were given a free exam. If you&rsquo;re one of those folks,<strong>and if you would like to be an early registrant, please contact exams at PowerShell.org</strong>. You will need to have your Summit confirmation code (it was e-mailed to you when you registered, and was printed on your badge; we cannot provide it to you if you&rsquo;ve lost it).<strong>We&rsquo;re looking for a small handful of early registrants to take the exam and help us test the grading systems</strong>. If you pass, it&rsquo;s &ldquo;real,&rdquo; and you&rsquo;ll get an e-certificate like the one shown here!<br>
How do you know if you got a free exam? There was a slip included with your badge at the Summit. If you weren&rsquo;t paying attention, we&rsquo;ll allow you to try entering your Summit confirmation code as an exam voucher to see if it works. If you can&rsquo;t find your confirmation code, you&rsquo;re out of luck.<br>
Wave 1 is designed to let us test the system and make sure everything is working well, in a small enough scale to manage any problems that arise.</p><h2 id="next-steps" class="ps-heading">Next Steps<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#next-steps" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>If you&rsquo;d like to know more about the program, and understand when it may be open to you, please review the<a href="https://powershell.org/?p=15671">VERIFIED EFFECTIVE information page</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Patterns for Implementing a DSC Pull Server Environment</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-23-patterns-for-implementing-a-dsc-pull-server-environment/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-23-patterns-for-implementing-a-dsc-pull-server-environment/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 23 May 2014 13:00:25 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;My Patterns for Implementing a DSC Pull Server Environment talk from the PowerShell Summit is now online.&lt;br&gt;
Enjoy!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>My Patterns for Implementing a DSC Pull Server Environment talk from the PowerShell Summit is now online.<br>
Enjoy!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Building Scalable Configurations With DSC</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-22-building-scalable-configurations-with-dsc/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-22-building-scalable-configurations-with-dsc/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2014 18:30:00 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;My Building Scalable Configurations with DSC talk from the PowerShell Summit is now online.&lt;br&gt;
Enjoy!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>My Building Scalable Configurations with DSC talk from the PowerShell Summit is now online.<br>
Enjoy!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Life and Times of a DSC Resource</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-21-life-and-times-of-a-dsc-resource/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-21-life-and-times-of-a-dsc-resource/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 May 2014 01:21:50 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;My Life and Times of a DSC Resource talk from the PowerShell Summit is now online.&lt;br&gt;
Enjoy!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>My Life and Times of a DSC Resource talk from the PowerShell Summit is now online.<br>
Enjoy!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Installing PowerShell v5? Be a Little Careful, OK?</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-21-installing-powershell-v5-be-a-little-careful-ok/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-21-installing-powershell-v5-be-a-little-careful-ok/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 21 May 2014 17:37:46 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m getting a lot of questions from folks, via Twitter and other venues, regarding Windows Management Framework 5.0 - which is where PowerShell v5 comes from. It&amp;rsquo;s awesome that people are installing v5 and kicking the tires - however, please help spread the word:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;v5 &lt;strong&gt;is a preview.&lt;/strong&gt; It isn&amp;rsquo;t done, and it isn&amp;rsquo;t guaranteed bug-free. It shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be installed on production computers until it&amp;rsquo;s officially released.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;v5 doesn&amp;rsquo;t install &amp;lsquo;side by side&amp;rsquo; with v3 or v4. You can&amp;rsquo;t run it with &amp;ldquo;-version 3&amp;rdquo; to &amp;ldquo;downgrade.&amp;rdquo; Now, v5 shouldn&amp;rsquo;t &lt;em&gt;break&lt;/em&gt; anything - something that runs in v3 or v4 should still work fine - but there are no guarantees &lt;strong&gt;as it&amp;rsquo;s a preview and not released code&lt;/strong&gt; at this stage.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Server software (Exchange, SharePoint, etc) often has a hard dependency on a specific version of PowerShell. You need to look into that before you install v5.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;After installing v5, you might not be able to cleanly uninstall and revert to a prior version.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Generally speaking, v5 should be installed in a test virtual machine at the very least, not on a production computer. It&amp;rsquo;s great to play with it, and you should absolutely log bugs and suggestions to &lt;a href="http://connect.microsoft.com"&gt;http://connect.microsoft.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
This situation will be true for &lt;strong&gt;any&lt;/strong&gt; pre-release preview of PowerShell or WMF going forward. &amp;ldquo;Preview&amp;rdquo; is the new Microsoft-speak for &amp;ldquo;beta,&amp;rdquo; and you should treat it as such. Play with it, yes - that&amp;rsquo;s the whole point, and it&amp;rsquo;s how we get a stable, clean release in the end. But play with caution, and never on production computers.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I&rsquo;m getting a lot of questions from folks, via Twitter and other venues, regarding Windows Management Framework 5.0 - which is where PowerShell v5 comes from. It&rsquo;s awesome that people are installing v5 and kicking the tires - however, please help spread the word:</p><ul><li>v5<strong>is a preview.</strong> It isn&rsquo;t done, and it isn&rsquo;t guaranteed bug-free. It shouldn&rsquo;t be installed on production computers until it&rsquo;s officially released.</li><li>v5 doesn&rsquo;t install &lsquo;side by side&rsquo; with v3 or v4. You can&rsquo;t run it with &ldquo;-version 3&rdquo; to &ldquo;downgrade.&rdquo; Now, v5 shouldn&rsquo;t<em>break</em> anything - something that runs in v3 or v4 should still work fine - but there are no guarantees<strong>as it&rsquo;s a preview and not released code</strong> at this stage.</li><li>Server software (Exchange, SharePoint, etc) often has a hard dependency on a specific version of PowerShell. You need to look into that before you install v5.</li><li>After installing v5, you might not be able to cleanly uninstall and revert to a prior version.</li></ul><p>Generally speaking, v5 should be installed in a test virtual machine at the very least, not on a production computer. It&rsquo;s great to play with it, and you should absolutely log bugs and suggestions to<a href="http://connect.microsoft.com">http://connect.microsoft.com</a>.<br>
This situation will be true for<strong>any</strong> pre-release preview of PowerShell or WMF going forward. &ldquo;Preview&rdquo; is the new Microsoft-speak for &ldquo;beta,&rdquo; and you should treat it as such. Play with it, yes - that&rsquo;s the whole point, and it&rsquo;s how we get a stable, clean release in the end. But play with caution, and never on production computers.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Attend a Beta "Advanced PowerShell" Class Live or Remote</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-19-attend-a-beta-advanced-powershell-class-live-or-remote/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-19-attend-a-beta-advanced-powershell-class-live-or-remote/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 19 May 2014 16:29:55 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;As you may know, I helped developing the forthcoming Microsoft Official Courseware 10962A class, &amp;ldquo;Advanced Windows PowerShell.&amp;rdquo; It&amp;rsquo;s a 3-day class that includes an overview of DSC, a full day of scripting and toolmaking, a Workflow overview, error handling and debugging, and more. It&amp;rsquo;s meant as a direct follow-on to the 5-day 10961 course. We&amp;rsquo;re scheduling a beta teach through a Microsoft training center in mid-August 2014. It&amp;rsquo;ll be taught by MCT Jason Yoder, who&amp;rsquo;s an excellent trainer (and who attended PowerShell Summit North America 2014 a few weeks ago, so you know he&amp;rsquo;s jiggy with PowerShell).&lt;br&gt;
There will likely be a fee to attend live or remote, as you&amp;rsquo;ll get the complete &amp;ldquo;A&amp;rdquo; rev of the course. If you think you might be interested, go to &lt;a href="http://powershell.hosted.phplist.com/lists/?p=subscribe&amp;amp;id=7"&gt;http://powershell.hosted.phplist.com/lists/?p=subscribe&amp;amp;id=7&lt;/a&gt; and sign up. Once the full class info is online, we&amp;rsquo;ll e-mail you and let you know where to go find it - we won&amp;rsquo;t share your info with anyone else, including the training center.&lt;br&gt;
Do this quickly - the class will likely fill up.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>As you may know, I helped developing the forthcoming Microsoft Official Courseware 10962A class, &ldquo;Advanced Windows PowerShell.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s a 3-day class that includes an overview of DSC, a full day of scripting and toolmaking, a Workflow overview, error handling and debugging, and more. It&rsquo;s meant as a direct follow-on to the 5-day 10961 course. We&rsquo;re scheduling a beta teach through a Microsoft training center in mid-August 2014. It&rsquo;ll be taught by MCT Jason Yoder, who&rsquo;s an excellent trainer (and who attended PowerShell Summit North America 2014 a few weeks ago, so you know he&rsquo;s jiggy with PowerShell).<br>
There will likely be a fee to attend live or remote, as you&rsquo;ll get the complete &ldquo;A&rdquo; rev of the course. If you think you might be interested, go to<a href="http://powershell.hosted.phplist.com/lists/?p=subscribe&amp;id=7">http://powershell.hosted.phplist.com/lists/?p=subscribe&amp;id=7</a> and sign up. Once the full class info is online, we&rsquo;ll e-mail you and let you know where to go find it - we won&rsquo;t share your info with anyone else, including the training center.<br>
Do this quickly - the class will likely fill up.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>BETA PowerShell Lab Guide for Classes</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-17-beta-powershell-lab-guide-for-classes/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-17-beta-powershell-lab-guide-for-classes/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 17 May 2014 18:59:49 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve been working on a new lab guide for my classes, and thought I&amp;rsquo;d share an early version. Note that this may become unavailable at any point; the final version will go on MoreLunches.com, as the lab guide corresponds largely with &lt;em&gt;Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches&lt;/em&gt;, as well as with several of the free ebooks here on PowerShell.org.&lt;br&gt;
Also note that there is no slide deck. I hate slides and don&amp;rsquo;t use them in class, so I haven&amp;rsquo;t produced any slides. I do use a few diagrams in class (I load them into an iPad app called AirSketch, which &amp;ldquo;broadcasts&amp;rdquo; to my computer&amp;rsquo;s web browser, allowing me to show those images on the screen, and to whiteboard on them as needed), and those diagrams are replicated in the lab guide for students&amp;rsquo; convenience.&lt;br&gt;
This new guide is designed to be more standalone than the ones I&amp;rsquo;ve used in the past. Each lab includes background and syntax reminders, designed so that students don&amp;rsquo;t have to take notes while the instructor is demonstrating things. That way, everyone can focus on the demos. I basically review each lab myself before I start a unit, and then just teach and demo what&amp;rsquo;s covered in the lab. Students then get the lab itself as a reminder, and exercises to cement what they&amp;rsquo;re learning. In many of my classes, this guide is the only thing students have in front of them, and it works well with my teaching style.&lt;br&gt;
At 119 pages, it&amp;rsquo;s a pretty substantial guide - and I have about nine more units to write, plus an additional four I plan to develop in the future.&lt;br&gt;
You can &lt;a href="http://1drv.ms/1lwCYtr"&gt;download the guide in PDF form&lt;/a&gt;. Again, this link may go dead at some point when I&amp;rsquo;m done with the guide, and officially post it on MoreLunches.com. Right now, I&amp;rsquo;m very interested in what you think. It&amp;rsquo;s designed to present very concise summaries of what I teach, not completely replace me, but in some places it&amp;rsquo;s still pretty extensive.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I&rsquo;ve been working on a new lab guide for my classes, and thought I&rsquo;d share an early version. Note that this may become unavailable at any point; the final version will go on MoreLunches.com, as the lab guide corresponds largely with<em>Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches</em> and<em>Learn PowerShell Toolmaking in a Month of Lunches</em>, as well as with several of the free ebooks here on PowerShell.org.<br>
Also note that there is no slide deck. I hate slides and don&rsquo;t use them in class, so I haven&rsquo;t produced any slides. I do use a few diagrams in class (I load them into an iPad app called AirSketch, which &ldquo;broadcasts&rdquo; to my computer&rsquo;s web browser, allowing me to show those images on the screen, and to whiteboard on them as needed), and those diagrams are replicated in the lab guide for students&rsquo; convenience.<br>
This new guide is designed to be more standalone than the ones I&rsquo;ve used in the past. Each lab includes background and syntax reminders, designed so that students don&rsquo;t have to take notes while the instructor is demonstrating things. That way, everyone can focus on the demos. I basically review each lab myself before I start a unit, and then just teach and demo what&rsquo;s covered in the lab. Students then get the lab itself as a reminder, and exercises to cement what they&rsquo;re learning. In many of my classes, this guide is the only thing students have in front of them, and it works well with my teaching style.<br>
At 119 pages, it&rsquo;s a pretty substantial guide - and I have about nine more units to write, plus an additional four I plan to develop in the future.<br>
You can<a href="http://1drv.ms/1lwCYtr">download the guide in PDF form</a>. Again, this link may go dead at some point when I&rsquo;m done with the guide, and officially post it on MoreLunches.com. Right now, I&rsquo;m very interested in what you think. It&rsquo;s designed to present very concise summaries of what I teach, not completely replace me, but in some places it&rsquo;s still pretty extensive.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit N.A. 2014 Session Videos!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-16-powershell-summit-n-a-2014-session-videos/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-16-powershell-summit-n-a-2014-session-videos/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 16 May 2014 21:20:43 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Aaron Hoover was kind enough to webcam the Summit sessions he attended, and he&amp;rsquo;s posted the videos on YouTube. URLs, from Aaron&amp;rsquo;s channel, are below.&lt;br&gt;
Just Enough Admin - Security in a Post-Snowden World - Jeffrey Snover - PowerShell Summit 2014&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Windows System Internals with PowerShell - Adam Driscoll - PowerShell Summit 2014&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;PowerCLI: How to Automate Your VMWare Environment Reports - Matt Griffin - PowerShell Summit 2014&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Parallel Execution with PowerShell - Tome Tanasovski - PowerShell Summit 2014&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Aaron Hoover was kind enough to webcam the Summit sessions he attended, and he&rsquo;s posted the videos on YouTube. URLs, from Aaron&rsquo;s channel, are below.<br>
Just Enough Admin - Security in a Post-Snowden World - Jeffrey Snover - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Windows System Internals with PowerShell - Adam Driscoll - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>PowerCLI: How to Automate Your VMWare Environment Reports - Matt Griffin - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Parallel Execution with PowerShell - Tome Tanasovski - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>PowerShell for Security Incident Response - Lee Holmes and Joe Bialek - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Leverage Multi-Threading for Speeding Up Your Scripts - Jason Walker - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Advanced PowerShell Eventing Scripting Techniques - Matt Graeber - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Using PowerShell as a Reverse Engineering Tool - Matt Graeber - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>On the Job: Putting PowerShell Scheduled Jobs to Work - Jeff Hicks - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>The Seven Secrets of CIM - Brian Wilhite - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>WSMan Cmdlets - Richard Siddaway - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Networking Administration with PowerShell - Richard Siddaway - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Kerberos Delegation, CredSSP, and Windows PowerShell - Aleksandar Nikolic - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>The Joy of Intellisense: Tab Expansion - James O&rsquo;Neill - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Trending and Reporting - Don Jones - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Leveraging Web Services with PowerShell - Trond Hindenes - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Monitoring Using PowerShell - Josh Swenson - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>Cmdlet-ize the Registry - Richard Siddaway - PowerShell Summit 2014</p><p>PowerShell Module Design Rules (and When to Bend Them) - Kirk Freiheit - PowerShell Summit 2014</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>TechEd N.A. 2014 Session Recordings</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-15-teched-n-a-2014-session-recordings/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-15-teched-n-a-2014-session-recordings/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 May 2014 20:50:50 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s some great PowerShell content now online for your viewing pleasure.&lt;br&gt;
Jeffrey Snover and I had a blast doing &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/DCIM-B318#fbid="&gt;Windows PowerShell Unplugged&lt;/a&gt;,&amp;rdquo; and I reviewed some best PowerShell practices (and hopefully provided a little inspiration for your career) in &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/DCIM-B417#fbid="&gt;Windows PowerShell Best Patterns and Practices: Time to Get Serious.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rdquo; And the #2 overall session of TechEd? &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/DCIM-B417#fbid="&gt;DSC: A Practical Overview&lt;/a&gt;,&amp;rdquo; including a surprise demo (and announcement) from Snover showing DSC running on Linux.&lt;br&gt;
Enjoy!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>There&rsquo;s some great PowerShell content now online for your viewing pleasure.<br>
Jeffrey Snover and I had a blast doing &ldquo;<a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/DCIM-B318#fbid=">Windows PowerShell Unplugged</a>,&rdquo; and I reviewed some best PowerShell practices (and hopefully provided a little inspiration for your career) in &ldquo;<a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/DCIM-B417#fbid=">Windows PowerShell Best Patterns and Practices: Time to Get Serious.</a>&rdquo; And the #2 overall session of TechEd? &ldquo;<a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/DCIM-B417#fbid=">DSC: A Practical Overview</a>,&rdquo; including a surprise demo (and announcement) from Snover showing DSC running on Linux.<br>
Enjoy!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Why Puppet vs. DSC Isn't Even a Thing</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-14-why-puppet-vs-dsc-isnt-even-a-thing/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-14-why-puppet-vs-dsc-isnt-even-a-thing/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 May 2014 13:06:15 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;After all the DSC-related excitement this week, there have been a few online and Twitter-based discussions including Chef, Puppet, and similar solutions. Many of these discussions start off with a tone I suppose I should be used to: fanboy dissing. &amp;ldquo;Puppet already does this and is cross-platform! Why should I bother with DSC?&amp;rdquo; Those people, sadly, miss the point about as entirely as it&amp;rsquo;s possible to do.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="point-1-coolness" class="ps-heading"&gt;Point 1: Coolness&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#point-1-coolness" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;First, what Microsoft has accomplished with DSC is &lt;strong&gt;cool.&lt;/strong&gt; Star Wars Episode V was also cool. These facts do not prevent previous things - Puppet/Chef/etc and Episode IV - from being cool as well. Something new being cool does not make other things less cool. This shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be a discussion of, &amp;ldquo;Puppet did this first, so nothing else can possibly be interesting at the same time.&amp;rdquo; As &lt;em&gt;IT professionals,&lt;/em&gt; we should be looking at &lt;em&gt;everything&lt;/em&gt; with an eye toward what it does, and what new ideas it might offer than can be applied to existing approaches.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>After all the DSC-related excitement this week, there have been a few online and Twitter-based discussions including Chef, Puppet, and similar solutions. Many of these discussions start off with a tone I suppose I should be used to: fanboy dissing. &ldquo;Puppet already does this and is cross-platform! Why should I bother with DSC?&rdquo; Those people, sadly, miss the point about as entirely as it&rsquo;s possible to do.</p><h2 id="point-1-coolness" class="ps-heading">Point 1: Coolness<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#point-1-coolness" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>First, what Microsoft has accomplished with DSC is<strong>cool.</strong> Star Wars Episode V was also cool. These facts do not prevent previous things - Puppet/Chef/etc and Episode IV - from being cool as well. Something new being cool does not make other things less cool. This shouldn&rsquo;t be a discussion of, &ldquo;Puppet did this first, so nothing else can possibly be interesting at the same time.&rdquo; As<em>IT professionals,</em> we should be looking at<em>everything</em> with an eye toward what it does, and what new ideas it might offer than can be applied to existing approaches.</p><h2 id="point-2-switching" class="ps-heading">Point 2: Switching<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#point-2-switching" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Have you seen the magazine ads suggesting you ditch Puppet and start using DSC? No, you have not - and you will not. If Puppet/Chef/etc is meeting your needs, keep using it. The fact that Microsoft has introduced a technology that accomplishes similar things (make no mistake, they&rsquo;re not the same and aren&rsquo;t intended to be), doesn&rsquo;t mean Microsoft is trying to convince you to change.<br>
I know where people get confused on this, because in the past that&rsquo;s exactly what Microsoft intended to do. They&rsquo;re not, this time. And I&rsquo;ll explain why in a minute.</p><h2 id="point-3-dsc-on-linux" class="ps-heading">Point 3: DSC on Linux<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#point-3-dsc-on-linux" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Snover demonstrated a DSC Local Configuration Manager running on Linux, consuming a standard DSC MOF file, being used to set up an Apache website on the server. The underlying DSC resources were native Linux code.<br>
This is not an attempt to convince Linux people to switch to Windows, nor is it an attempt to convince them to use DSC. Saying so is like saying, &ldquo;Microsoft made PowerShell accept forward slashes as path separators in an attempt to convert Linux people&hellip;.<em>but we&rsquo;re too smart for that, hahahahah!&rdquo;</em> It&rsquo;s idiotic. Microsoft knows you&rsquo;re not going to suddenly break down and switch operating systems. They may be a giant corporation that sometimes makes silly moves, but they&rsquo;re not<em>dumb.</em><br>
No, DSC on Linux is for<em>Windows admins</em> who choose to use DSC, and who want to extend that skill set to other platforms they have to manage. People who aren&rsquo;t, in other words, faced with a &ldquo;switch&rdquo; decision.</p><h2 id="point-4-puppetchefetc-should-use-dsc" class="ps-heading">Point 4: Puppet/Chef/etc Should Use DSC<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#point-4-puppetchefetc-should-use-dsc" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Linux is, in many many ways, a more simplistic OS than Windows. And I mean that in a very good way, not as a dig. Most config information comes form text files, and text files are ridiculously easy to edit. Getting a solution like Puppet to work on Linux is, form a purely technical perspective, pretty straightforward. Windows, on the other hand, is built around an enormous set of disparate APIs, meaning getting something like Chef/DSC/whatever working on Windows is not only harder, it&rsquo;s essentially a never-ending task.<br>
Microsoft is pouring time and money into creating DSC resources that can, through a very simple and consistent interface, configure tons of the OS. The coverage provided by DSC resources will continue to grow - exponentially, I suspect. That means Microsoft is doing a lot of work that you don&rsquo;t have to.<br>
Even if you&rsquo;re using Puppet/Chef/etc instead of DSC, you can still piggyback on all the<em>completely open and human-readable code</em> that actually makes DSC work. Your recipes and modules can simply call those DSC resources directly. You&rsquo;re not &ldquo;using&rdquo; DSC, but you&rsquo;re snarfing its code, so that you don&rsquo;t have to re-invent that wheel yourself. This should make Puppet/Chef people super-happy, because their lives got easier. Yes, you&rsquo;ll doubtless have to write some custom stuff still, but &ldquo;save me
some
work&rdquo; should always be a good thing.</p><h2 id="point-5-tool-vs-platform" class="ps-heading">Point 5: Tool vs. Platform<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#point-5-tool-vs-platform" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Another thing that sidetracks these discussions is folks not understanding that Puppet/Chef/etc each provide a complete solution stack. They are a management console, they are a domain-specific language, and they are a platform-level implementation. When you adopt Puppet, you adopt it from top to bottom.<br>
DSC isn&rsquo;t like that.<br>
DSC only provides the platform-level implementation. It doesn&rsquo;t come with the management tools you actually need in a large environment, or even in many medium-sized environments. I completely expect tools like System Center Configuration Manager, or something, to provide the management-level tooling on top of DSC at some point - but we aren&rsquo;t discussing System Center.<br>
So arguing &ldquo;Puppet vs. DSC&rdquo; is a lot like arguing &ldquo;Toyota vs. 6-cylinder engine.&rdquo; The argument doesn&rsquo;t make sense. Yes, at the end of the day, Puppet/Chef/etc and DSC are meant to accomplish every similar things, but DSC is only a piece of the picture, which leads to the most important point.</p><h2 id="point-6-microsoft-did-something-neat" class="ps-heading">Point 6: Microsoft Did Something Neat<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#point-6-microsoft-did-something-neat" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>You can&rsquo;t take your Puppet scripts and push them to a Chef agent, nor can you do the reverse. Puppet/Chef/etc are, as I mentioned, fully integrated stacks - and they&rsquo;re proprietary stacks. &ldquo;Proprietary&rdquo; is not the same as &ldquo;close-sourced;&rdquo; and I realize that the languages used by these products aren&rsquo;t specifically proprietary. But the Puppet agent only knows how to handle Puppet scripts, and the Chef agent only knows how to read Chef scripts. That&rsquo;s
not
a dig at those products - being an integrated, proprietary stack isn&rsquo;t a bad thing at all.<br>
But it&rsquo;s interesting that Microsoft took a different approach. Interesting in part because<em>they&rsquo;re</em> usually the ones making fully-integrated stacks, where you can only use their technology if you fully embrace their entire product line. This time,<em>Microsoft bucked the trend</em> and didn&rsquo;t go fully-integrated, proprietary stack. Microsoft did this, and the simple fact that they did is important, even if you don&rsquo;t want to use<em>any</em> of their products.<br>
From the top-down, that is from the management side down, Microsoft isn&rsquo;t forcing you to use PowerShell. They&rsquo;re not forcing you to use Microsoft technology at all, in fact. The configuration file that goes to a managed node is a static MOF file. That&rsquo;s a plain-text file, as in &ldquo;Management Object Format,&rdquo; as in developed by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). A vendor-neutral standard, in other words.<br>
See, Microsoft<em>isn&rsquo;t</em> pushing DSC as a fully integrated stack. DSC is just the bottom layer that accepts a configuration and implements it. Puppet Labs could absolutely design their product to turn Puppet scripts into the MOF file that DSC needs. You&rsquo;d be able to completely leverage<em>the OS-native, built-in configuration agent</em> and all its resources, right from Puppet.<br>
Frankly, de-coupling the administrative tooling from the underlying API should make people<em>happy.</em> If we&rsquo;re having a really professional, non-fanboy discussion about declarative configuration, I think you have to admit that Microsoft has kinda done the right thing. In a perfect world, the Puppet/Chef/etc administrative tools would let you write your configuration scripts in their domain-specific language, and then compile those to a MOF. Everyone&rsquo;s agents would accept the same kind of MOF, and execute the MOF using local, native resources. That approach means<em>any</em> OS could be managed by<em>any</em> tool.<em>That&rsquo;s</em> cross-platform. You&rsquo;d be free to switch tools anytime you wanted, because the underlying agents would all accept the same incoming language - MOF.<br>
I&rsquo;m not saying Puppet/Chef/etc<em>should</em> do that. But if you&rsquo;re going to make an argument about cross-platform and vendor-agnostic tooling, Microsoft&rsquo;s<em>approach</em> is the right one. They&rsquo;ve implemented a service that accepts<em>vendor-neutral configurations</em> (MOF), and implements them using local, native resources. You can swap out the tooling layer anytime you want to. You don&rsquo;t need to write PowerShell; you just need to produce a MOF.</p><h2 id="at-the-end-of-the-day" class="ps-heading">At the End of the Day<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#at-the-end-of-the-day" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>I think the folks behind Puppet/Chef/etc totally &ldquo;get&rdquo; all this. I think you&rsquo;re probably going to see them taking steps to better leverage the work MS is doing on DSC, simply because it saves<em>them,</em> and their users, work. And I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;re going to see Microsoft suggesting you ditch Puppet in favor of DSC. That&rsquo;s a complete non-argument, and nobody at Microsoft even understands why people thing the company wants that.<br>
I fully recognize that there&rsquo;s a lot of &ldquo;Microsoft vs. Linux&rdquo; animosity in the world - the so-called &ldquo;OS religions.&rdquo; I&rsquo;ve never understood that, and I certainly am not trying to convince anyone of the relative worth of one OS over another. PowerShell.org - a community dedicated to a Microsoft product - runs on a CentOS virtual machine, which should tell you something about my total lack of loyalty when it comes to choosing the right tool for a job. If you&rsquo;re similarly &ldquo;non-religious&rdquo; about operating systems, I think DSC is worth taking a look at<em>just to take a look at it.</em> What&rsquo;s it do differently? How can you leverage that in your existing world? Are there any approaches that might be worth considering?<br>
Part of my frustration about the whole &ldquo;Puppet vs DSC&rdquo; meme is that it smacks of, &ldquo;my toys are shinier than your toys,&rdquo; which is just&hellip; well, literally childish. And it worries me that people are missing some of the above, very important, points - mainly, that Microsoft is trying really damn hard to play nicely with the other kids in the sandbox for a change.<em>Encourage</em> that attitude, because it benefits everyone.</p><h2 id="once-more" class="ps-heading">Once More&hellip;<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#once-more" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>And again, I don&rsquo;t think Microsoft is trying to convince you to use DSC, or any other MS product, here. I&rsquo;m certainly not trying to do so. I think DSC presents an opportunity for folks who already have a declarative configuration management system, strictly in terms of saving you some work in custom module authoring. And I think for folks that<em>don&rsquo;t</em> have a declarative configuration management solution, and who already have an investment in Microsoft&rsquo;s platform, DSC is going to be an exceptionally critical technology to master. That doesn&rsquo;t in any way diminish the accomplishment of the folks behind Puppet/Chef/etc. In fact, if nothing else, it further validates those products&rsquo; goals. And I think it&rsquo;s massively interesting that Microsoft took an approach that is open to be used by those other products, rather than trying to make their own top-to-bottom stack. It&rsquo;s a shift in Microsoft&rsquo;s strategic thinking, if nothing else, and an explicit acknowledgement that the world is bigger than Redmond.<br>
Let&rsquo;s at least &ldquo;cheers&rdquo; for that shift in attitude.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>My TechEd 2014 "Patterns and Practices" Example Scripts</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-11-my-teched-2014-patterns-and-practices-example-scripts/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-11-my-teched-2014-patterns-and-practices-example-scripts/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 11 May 2014 14:23:26 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ll be using these examples in my TechEd 2014 session on PowerShell patterns and practices. They won&amp;rsquo;t make much sense, perhaps, until you see the session (live, or in the recordings - and I believe this session is one of the &amp;ldquo;Taste of TechEd&amp;rdquo; ones that will be live-streamed), but here are the scripts.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TechEd-NA-2014-Patterns-Examples.zip"&gt;TechEd-NA-2014-Patterns-Examples&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I&rsquo;ll be using these examples in my TechEd 2014 session on PowerShell patterns and practices. They won&rsquo;t make much sense, perhaps, until you see the session (live, or in the recordings - and I believe this session is one of the &ldquo;Taste of TechEd&rdquo; ones that will be live-streamed), but here are the scripts.<br><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TechEd-NA-2014-Patterns-Examples.zip">TechEd-NA-2014-Patterns-Examples</a></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 05/01/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-10-phillyposh-05012014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-05-10-phillyposh-05012014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2014 22:21:17 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://learn-powershell.net/author/boeprox/"&gt;Boe Prox&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled “Managing WSUS with Windows PowerShell”. During his talked Boe went over the various ways you can orchestrate &lt;a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb332157.aspx"&gt;WSUS&lt;/a&gt; using PowerShell. A copy of his &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PhillyPosh-2014_05_01-BoeProx_WSUS.zip"&gt;presentation materials are available here&lt;/a&gt;.
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We then had a group discussion around:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://paglia.org/"&gt;Lido Paglia&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://mellositmusings.com/"&gt;John Mello&lt;/a&gt; discussed their experiences and what they learned at the &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-north-america/"&gt;2014 PowerShell Summit&lt;/a&gt;,,&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The differences between how Active Directory Users and Computers displays groups when compared to &lt;a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee617241.aspx"&gt;Get-Aduser&lt;/a&gt; in regards to primary group membership. In PowerShell the primary group is only returned in the &lt;em&gt;PrimaryGroup&lt;/em&gt; property and all other groups are returned in the &lt;em&gt;MemberOf&lt;/em&gt; property, while ADUC will show every group the user is a member of.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href="http://youtu.be/k4geOLcrQec"&gt;recording of this meeting&lt;/a&gt; has been posted to our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;YouTube channel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<ul><li><a href="http://learn-powershell.net/author/boeprox/">Boe Prox</a> gave a presentation entitled “Managing WSUS with Windows PowerShell”. During his talked Boe went over the various ways you can orchestrate<a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb332157.aspx">WSUS</a> using PowerShell. A copy of his<a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/PhillyPosh-2014_05_01-BoeProx_WSUS.zip">presentation materials are available here</a>.<ul><li><p>We then had a group discussion around:</p><ul><li><a href="http://paglia.org/">Lido Paglia</a> and <a href="http://mellositmusings.com/">John Mello</a> discussed their experiences and what they learned at the <a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-north-america/">2014 PowerShell Summit</a>,,</li><li>The differences between how Active Directory Users and Computers displays groups when compared to<a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee617241.aspx">Get-Aduser</a> in regards to primary group membership. In PowerShell the primary group is only returned in the<em>PrimaryGroup</em> property and all other groups are returned in the<em>MemberOf</em> property, while ADUC will show every group the user is a member of.</li></ul></li><li><p>A<a href="http://youtu.be/k4geOLcrQec">recording of this meeting</a> has been posted to our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">YouTube channel</a></p></li></ul></li></ul>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 – Call for Topics</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-30-powershell-summit-europe-2014-call-for-topics/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-30-powershell-summit-europe-2014-call-for-topics/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 30 Apr 2014 18:31:01 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The PowerShell Summit is the number one place where PowerShell enthusiasts gather and learn from each other in fast-paced, knowledge packed presentations. Experts from all over the world including MVP’s, Guru’s, and PowerShell team members, join together for a few days to discuss and learn how to maximize using PowerShell in the workplace.&lt;br&gt;
And now the PowerShell Summit is coming to Europe. PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 will be held September 29, 30, and October 1 at the Hotel Park in Amsterdam, Holland. &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-europe/"&gt;https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-europe/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
If you want to share your PowerShell expertise, then this is your official call to submit presentations for selection!&lt;br&gt;
**Topic Areas – What we are looking for&lt;br&gt;
** We are looking for 45-minute presentations covering a wide aspect of PowerShell expertise. We have three main topic areas that may assist you in building an abstract.&lt;br&gt;
• PowerShell Internals – A deep look into the inside workings of PowerShell and practical solutions that are built from them. These presentations are more focused on the PowerShell development community that is building extensions and solutions relating to PowerShell.&lt;br&gt;
• PowerShell in Production – These presentations are focused on domain specific PowerShell solutions for IT Pro’s such as managing Exchange, System Center, IIS, SharePoint, VMware and more.&lt;br&gt;
• PowerShell Features Deep Dive – These presentations are a deep look into configuring and working with PowerShell features and capabilities such as PowerShell Remoting, PowerShell Web Access, Reporting and more.&lt;br&gt;
We are open to presentations across the entire ecosystem that has been built around PowerShell; so don’t hesitate to send an abstract for your particular area of expertise. And don’t think, “oh, I can’t do a presentation!” We aren’t looking for Toastmasters winners – we’re looking for folks to be a part of the community! Take the leap and present! Each session is only 35 minutes, with 10 minutes for Q&amp;amp;A!&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Presentation submissions – What you should send to us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Presentations will be 45-minutes in length (planning for 30-40 minutes of material and 5-15 minutes of Q&amp;amp;A) and the submission should include the following:&lt;br&gt;
• Presentation Title&lt;br&gt;
• Presentation abstract – a description of the presentation and the topics covered. 100 words or less and suitable for marketing.&lt;br&gt;
• 50 word biography&lt;br&gt;
You can submit multiple presentations in the same topic area or for different ones.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;What you get if you present&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The European Summit is working to a very tight budget as this is the first time we are running it. Compensation for speakers will be free admission (not free Association for Windows PowerShell Professionals membership, &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/association-for-windows-powershell-professionals"&gt;https://powershell.org/association-for-windows-powershell-professionals&lt;/a&gt;, just free admission, which includes food). We will not reimburse hotel, expenses, or travel. It’s important that speakers not register for the conference, because we will not be refunding you if you do that.&lt;br&gt;
The financial situation may change to a certain degree if the event sells out but we can’t cover all of your expenses as a speaker and we can’t make any guarantees at this stage.&lt;br&gt;
We also ask that you help publicize the event.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Presentation submission deadline – When you should send it by&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Start sending your presentation submissions immediately! The selection committee will start selecting presentations as soon as they arrive so you don’t want to miss out. The last day we will accept presentation submissions will be May 23, 2014.&lt;br&gt;
Send your proposals to &lt;a href="mailto:cft2014eu@powershell.org"&gt;cft2014eu@powershell.org&lt;/a&gt;. Please either put multiple proposals in a Word doc, or send just one proposal in the body of an email, so that we can track these more easily.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;When you will know you’ve been selected&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The selection committee will start reviewing submissions immediately and begin the selection process. You will be informed if one or more of your presentations have been selected and sent a contract on or before June 14, 2014. You will need to return the signed contract by June 21, 2014.&lt;br&gt;
The final agenda will be announced early July and posted on PowerShell.Org.&lt;br&gt;
We look forward to your submissions and your help in making PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 your most valuable IT/Dev conference of the year!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The PowerShell Summit is the number one place where PowerShell enthusiasts gather and learn from each other in fast-paced, knowledge packed presentations. Experts from all over the world including MVP’s, Guru’s, and PowerShell team members, join together for a few days to discuss and learn how to maximize using PowerShell in the workplace.<br>
And now the PowerShell Summit is coming to Europe. PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 will be held September 29, 30, and October 1 at the Hotel Park in Amsterdam, Holland.<a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-europe/">https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-europe/</a><br>
If you want to share your PowerShell expertise, then this is your official call to submit presentations for selection!<br>
**Topic Areas – What we are looking for<br>
** We are looking for 45-minute presentations covering a wide aspect of PowerShell expertise. We have three main topic areas that may assist you in building an abstract.<br>
• PowerShell Internals – A deep look into the inside workings of PowerShell and practical solutions that are built from them. These presentations are more focused on the PowerShell development community that is building extensions and solutions relating to PowerShell.<br>
• PowerShell in Production – These presentations are focused on domain specific PowerShell solutions for IT Pro’s such as managing Exchange, System Center, IIS, SharePoint, VMware and more.<br>
• PowerShell Features Deep Dive – These presentations are a deep look into configuring and working with PowerShell features and capabilities such as PowerShell Remoting, PowerShell Web Access, Reporting and more.<br>
We are open to presentations across the entire ecosystem that has been built around PowerShell; so don’t hesitate to send an abstract for your particular area of expertise. And don’t think, “oh, I can’t do a presentation!” We aren’t looking for Toastmasters winners – we’re looking for folks to be a part of the community! Take the leap and present! Each session is only 35 minutes, with 10 minutes for Q&amp;A!<br><strong>Presentation submissions – What you should send to us</strong><br>
Presentations will be 45-minutes in length (planning for 30-40 minutes of material and 5-15 minutes of Q&amp;A) and the submission should include the following:<br>
• Presentation Title<br>
• Presentation abstract – a description of the presentation and the topics covered. 100 words or less and suitable for marketing.<br>
• 50 word biography<br>
You can submit multiple presentations in the same topic area or for different ones.<br><strong>What you get if you present</strong><br>
The European Summit is working to a very tight budget as this is the first time we are running it. Compensation for speakers will be free admission (not free Association for Windows PowerShell Professionals membership,<a href="https://powershell.org/association-for-windows-powershell-professionals">https://powershell.org/association-for-windows-powershell-professionals</a>, just free admission, which includes food). We will not reimburse hotel, expenses, or travel. It’s important that speakers not register for the conference, because we will not be refunding you if you do that.<br>
The financial situation may change to a certain degree if the event sells out but we can’t cover all of your expenses as a speaker and we can’t make any guarantees at this stage.<br>
We also ask that you help publicize the event.<br><strong>Presentation submission deadline – When you should send it by</strong><br>
Start sending your presentation submissions immediately! The selection committee will start selecting presentations as soon as they arrive so you don’t want to miss out. The last day we will accept presentation submissions will be May 23, 2014.<br>
Send your proposals to<a href="mailto:cft2014eu@powershell.org">cft2014eu@powershell.org</a>. Please either put multiple proposals in a Word doc, or send just one proposal in the body of an email, so that we can track these more easily.<br><strong>When you will know you’ve been selected</strong><br>
The selection committee will start reviewing submissions immediately and begin the selection process. You will be informed if one or more of your presentations have been selected and sent a contract on or before June 14, 2014. You will need to return the signed contract by June 21, 2014.<br>
The final agenda will be announced early July and posted on PowerShell.Org.<br>
We look forward to your submissions and your help in making PowerShell Summit Europe 2014 your most valuable IT/Dev conference of the year!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Fundraising: PowerShell People Kick Butt, Take Names</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-29-fundraising-powershell-people-kick-butt-take-names/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-29-fundraising-powershell-people-kick-butt-take-names/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 2014 15:21:06 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Our &lt;a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/powershell-summit-session-recording/x/7291807"&gt;IndieGoGo Campaign&lt;/a&gt; is off to an amazing start, raising over $6,300 (including some offline donations) toward our ultimate $9,000 goal. So far, we&amp;rsquo;ve raised enough to ensure we can record two tracks of Summit content - enabling us to record speakers&amp;rsquo; laptops and voice, and to post the videos on YouTube, for free. Meeting our full $9,000 goal will enable three tracks of recordings, which is what the North American show currently produces.&lt;br&gt;
The equipment we&amp;rsquo;re investing in will also support, should we choose to add it, an analog camera input and automatic picture-in-picture, meaning we can later add-on to include video of the speaker(s) as well as what&amp;rsquo;s on their laptop.&lt;br&gt;
This &lt;a href="http://www.epiphan.com/"&gt;equipment&lt;/a&gt; also meets an important set of goals for us: It requires no software on speaker laptops (often problematic), and it&amp;rsquo;s operated - literally - by a single big, red, lighted button. Meaning, it&amp;rsquo;s easy to use and shouldn&amp;rsquo;t interfere with the live audience&amp;rsquo;s experience.&lt;br&gt;
I&amp;rsquo;m personally humbled by the generosity of our community. While larger donations are being considered &amp;ldquo;share purchases&amp;rdquo; in PowerShell.org, Inc., these contributors are essentially getting nothing in return for their money - but they&amp;rsquo;re making something possible that will benefit _everyone. _Making this content permanently available, for free, will become a treasure trove of valuable information _forever. _I can&amp;rsquo;t express my gratitude enough.&lt;br&gt;
Tell a colleague, tell a friend: Every donation helps, no matter how small. And thank you, thank you, thank you.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Our<a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/powershell-summit-session-recording/x/7291807">IndieGoGo Campaign</a> is off to an amazing start, raising over $6,300 (including some offline donations) toward our ultimate $9,000 goal. So far, we&rsquo;ve raised enough to ensure we can record two tracks of Summit content - enabling us to record speakers&rsquo; laptops and voice, and to post the videos on YouTube, for free. Meeting our full $9,000 goal will enable three tracks of recordings, which is what the North American show currently produces.<br>
The equipment we&rsquo;re investing in will also support, should we choose to add it, an analog camera input and automatic picture-in-picture, meaning we can later add-on to include video of the speaker(s) as well as what&rsquo;s on their laptop.<br>
This<a href="http://www.epiphan.com/">equipment</a> also meets an important set of goals for us: It requires no software on speaker laptops (often problematic), and it&rsquo;s operated - literally - by a single big, red, lighted button. Meaning, it&rsquo;s easy to use and shouldn&rsquo;t interfere with the live audience&rsquo;s experience.<br>
I&rsquo;m personally humbled by the generosity of our community. While larger donations are being considered &ldquo;share purchases&rdquo; in PowerShell.org, Inc., these contributors are essentially getting nothing in return for their money - but they&rsquo;re making something possible that will benefit _everyone. _Making this content permanently available, for free, will become a treasure trove of valuable information _forever. _I can&rsquo;t express my gratitude enough.<br>
Tell a colleague, tell a friend: Every donation helps, no matter how small. And thank you, thank you, thank you.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Help us Record the PowerShell Summit Sessions</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-28-help-us-record-the-powershell-summit-sessions/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-28-help-us-record-the-powershell-summit-sessions/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 2014 17:27:23 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;We&amp;rsquo;re often asked if the PowerShell Summit sessions will be recorded or live-streamed. The answer, so far, has been &amp;ldquo;no,&amp;rdquo; because the equipment needed to do so gets expensive.&lt;br&gt;
But we&amp;rsquo;re willing to give it a go - with crowd funding. Check out our &lt;a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/powershell-summit-session-recording/x/7291807#home"&gt;IndieGoGo campaign&lt;/a&gt;, where you can contribute to making session recordings a reality - forever. We&amp;rsquo;ve got about 30 days to reach our goal. So if recorded sessions are important to you - now&amp;rsquo;s the time to put your money where you mouth is!!&lt;br&gt;
Fingers crossed!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>We&rsquo;re often asked if the PowerShell Summit sessions will be recorded or live-streamed. The answer, so far, has been &ldquo;no,&rdquo; because the equipment needed to do so gets expensive.<br>
But we&rsquo;re willing to give it a go - with crowd funding. Check out our<a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/powershell-summit-session-recording/x/7291807#home">IndieGoGo campaign</a>, where you can contribute to making session recordings a reality - forever. We&rsquo;ve got about 30 days to reach our goal. So if recorded sessions are important to you - now&rsquo;s the time to put your money where you mouth is!!<br>
Fingers crossed!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Charlotte 5/1/2014 Meeting update</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-23-charlotte-512014-meeting-update/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-23-charlotte-512014-meeting-update/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:59:00 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The regularly scheduled meeting for the group will not be held due to overlap with the PowerShell Summit and travel related to it for some of our members. If there is interest in scheduling a side meeting, we can do that to accommodate those of us that are not attending the Summit.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If not, we will be back on track and ready for &lt;a href="http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-PowerShell-Users-Group/events/178572422/"&gt;YASG!&lt;/a&gt; (Yet Another Scripting Game) on 6/5/2014. Looks like it is going to be a good one.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The regularly scheduled meeting for the group will not be held due to overlap with the PowerShell Summit and travel related to it for some of our members. If there is interest in scheduling a side meeting, we can do that to accommodate those of us that are not attending the Summit.</p><p>If not, we will be back on track and ready for<a href="http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-PowerShell-Users-Group/events/178572422/">YASG!</a> (Yet Another Scripting Game) on 6/5/2014. Looks like it is going to be a good one.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>SAPIEN's new WMI Explorer Released</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-21-sapiens-new-wmi-explorer-released/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-21-sapiens-new-wmi-explorer-released/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 21 Apr 2014 22:59:41 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;We all know that working with WMI/CIM can be frustrating. So little of it is documented, and it can be tough to find the class that has the exact info you need.&lt;br&gt;
A long time ago, SAPIEN released a very nice WMI Explorer tool that, recently, was taken offline. The reason is that the company was producing an all-new, from-scratch replacement - &lt;a href="http://www.sapien.com/blog/2014/04/17/wmi-explorer-2014-released/"&gt;and it&amp;rsquo;s now available&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
Their new approach is pretty interesting. Rather than just live-browsing the local WMI repository or a remote computer&amp;rsquo;s repository, the tool can now go through the repo and actually create a local cache. That cache is optimized for searching, making it a ton easier to search not only for class names, but also for property names and more. Even property values! So if you know (for example) that &amp;ldquo;Windows 8.1&amp;rdquo; is part of &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; property of &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; class, this tool can help you find where it is. It also provides in-product links to what online WMI documentation exists, making it quicker to get to that stuff.&lt;br&gt;
Although the old tool was a freebie, this new one will set you back $40, and I imagine it&amp;rsquo;s included with the $789 kitchen-sink bundle the company sells. While I miss the free tool, this new one is significant enough that I&amp;rsquo;d pay for it. After all, money is what keeps the programmers at SAPIEN employed, so we can&amp;rsquo;t expect great tools for zero money. Frankly, this new WMI Explorer is one of the very, very, very, very few tools that&amp;rsquo;s going to earn a place in my base VM images that I use in classes - simply because it&amp;rsquo;s so useful. The ability to search for &lt;em&gt;property values&lt;/em&gt; gives me a whole new approach to finding the exact WMI class I need.&lt;br&gt;
It&amp;rsquo;s a well thought-out tool. Now, it&amp;rsquo;s not &amp;ldquo;zero footprint&amp;rdquo; like the old one - but the old one didn&amp;rsquo;t do nearly as much, like creating a local, searchable cache of the repo. Also, this isn&amp;rsquo;t something I&amp;rsquo;d install on all my servers. There&amp;rsquo;s no need - you install it on &lt;em&gt;your&lt;/em&gt; computer, and let it reach out to key servers to discover their repositories. So it&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;zero footprint&amp;rdquo; on the server, which is all I care about. That cache means I can even browse a remote machine&amp;rsquo;s repo when I&amp;rsquo;m completely offline, like on an airplane working on a book. That&amp;rsquo;s a huge deal for me.&lt;br&gt;
SAPIEN&amp;rsquo;s blog article on the software release includes another interesting fact: They plan to release a new line of smaller tools like WMI Explorer, and either sell them separately or as a community package. Cool! But what&amp;rsquo;s even cooler is this: _&amp;ldquo;The proceeds from these tools will go towards supporting user groups and non-profit organizations.&amp;rdquo; _Well, damn. So that $40 isn&amp;rsquo;t even funding the development of the tool per se, it&amp;rsquo;s funding (in part) your local user group. That&amp;rsquo;s awesome, and makes it well worth the standalone purchase if you don&amp;rsquo;t own the whole Software Suite already.&lt;br&gt;
As usual, SAPIEN offers a free trial. Give it a whirl.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>We all know that working with WMI/CIM can be frustrating. So little of it is documented, and it can be tough to find the class that has the exact info you need.<br>
A long time ago, SAPIEN released a very nice WMI Explorer tool that, recently, was taken offline. The reason is that the company was producing an all-new, from-scratch replacement -<a href="http://www.sapien.com/blog/2014/04/17/wmi-explorer-2014-released/">and it&rsquo;s now available</a>.<br>
Their new approach is pretty interesting. Rather than just live-browsing the local WMI repository or a remote computer&rsquo;s repository, the tool can now go through the repo and actually create a local cache. That cache is optimized for searching, making it a ton easier to search not only for class names, but also for property names and more. Even property values! So if you know (for example) that &ldquo;Windows 8.1&rdquo; is part of <em>some</em> property of <em>some</em> class, this tool can help you find where it is. It also provides in-product links to what online WMI documentation exists, making it quicker to get to that stuff.<br>
Although the old tool was a freebie, this new one will set you back $40, and I imagine it&rsquo;s included with the $789 kitchen-sink bundle the company sells. While I miss the free tool, this new one is significant enough that I&rsquo;d pay for it. After all, money is what keeps the programmers at SAPIEN employed, so we can&rsquo;t expect great tools for zero money. Frankly, this new WMI Explorer is one of the very, very, very, very few tools that&rsquo;s going to earn a place in my base VM images that I use in classes - simply because it&rsquo;s so useful. The ability to search for <em>property values</em> gives me a whole new approach to finding the exact WMI class I need.<br>
It&rsquo;s a well thought-out tool. Now, it&rsquo;s not &ldquo;zero footprint&rdquo; like the old one - but the old one didn&rsquo;t do nearly as much, like creating a local, searchable cache of the repo. Also, this isn&rsquo;t something I&rsquo;d install on all my servers. There&rsquo;s no need - you install it on <em>your</em> computer, and let it reach out to key servers to discover their repositories. So it&rsquo;s &ldquo;zero footprint&rdquo; on the server, which is all I care about. That cache means I can even browse a remote machine&rsquo;s repo when I&rsquo;m completely offline, like on an airplane working on a book. That&rsquo;s a huge deal for me.<br>
SAPIEN&rsquo;s blog article on the software release includes another interesting fact: They plan to release a new line of smaller tools like WMI Explorer, and either sell them separately or as a community package. Cool! But what&rsquo;s even cooler is this: _&ldquo;The proceeds from these tools will go towards supporting user groups and non-profit organizations.&rdquo; _Well, damn. So that $40 isn&rsquo;t even funding the development of the tool per se, it&rsquo;s funding (in part) your local user group. That&rsquo;s awesome, and makes it well worth the standalone purchase if you don&rsquo;t own the whole Software Suite already.<br>
As usual, SAPIEN offers a free trial. Give it a whirl.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>[UPDATED] Review: SAPIEN VersionRecall</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-15-review-sapien-versionrecall/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-15-review-sapien-versionrecall/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2014 19:44:42 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I recently played around with &lt;a href="http://www.sapien.com/software/versionrecall"&gt;SAPIEN&amp;rsquo;s VersionRecall&lt;/a&gt;, and thought I&amp;rsquo;d share a bit about the experience. As a note, SAPIEN provided me with a license key to use. VersionRecall is advertised as a simple, single-user version control system &amp;ldquo;for the rest of us.&amp;rdquo; There are no servers, no databases, and nothing complex, according to the marketing copy.&lt;br&gt;
Setup is quick - a 3-screen wizard and you&amp;rsquo;re done. Installation took under a minute. When you first launch the product, it attempts to find all the places on your computer where you might store scripts, so that it can connect those to a version-control repository. You can skip that bit, but it only took a few moments on my virtual machine. It found my DSC scripts, my PowerShell modules, and several other places I&amp;rsquo;d dropped scripts. You then indicate where you&amp;rsquo;d like your version-control repository - this is where old versions of files will be saved. You can also pick a certificate, to have the software automatically sign scripts each time you make a new version. That&amp;rsquo;s a subtle and very cool feature - and it&amp;rsquo;s a way to make AllSigned a more convenient execution policy.&lt;br&gt;
I selected an option to have my version control repository updated every day at 4:30pm. That seems to let the software capture a snapshot of any changed files at that time every day; it was clear that you could also manually submit an update to the repository using VersionRecall or Windows&amp;rsquo; own File Explorer.&lt;br&gt;
From there, you&amp;rsquo;re in an Explorer-like view. It includes a tab for each folder where you store scripts. I find that I like that approach a lot - I tend to organize my scripts that way. I&amp;rsquo;ve got my modules in one spot, some sample scripts in another, stuff I&amp;rsquo;m playing with in a third, and so on - so the tabbed approach fits my organizational style. You can open files for editing right there. I don&amp;rsquo;t have PrimalScript installed on this test machine, but files opened in the ISE just fine. Ribbon buttons let you open the shell, the ISE, or SAPIEN&amp;rsquo;s PrimalScript or PowerShell Studio products.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fig1.png"&gt;&lt;img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fig1.png" alt="fig1"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I recently played around with<a href="http://www.sapien.com/software/versionrecall">SAPIEN&rsquo;s VersionRecall</a>, and thought I&rsquo;d share a bit about the experience. As a note, SAPIEN provided me with a license key to use. VersionRecall is advertised as a simple, single-user version control system &ldquo;for the rest of us.&rdquo; There are no servers, no databases, and nothing complex, according to the marketing copy.<br>
Setup is quick - a 3-screen wizard and you&rsquo;re done. Installation took under a minute. When you first launch the product, it attempts to find all the places on your computer where you might store scripts, so that it can connect those to a version-control repository. You can skip that bit, but it only took a few moments on my virtual machine. It found my DSC scripts, my PowerShell modules, and several other places I&rsquo;d dropped scripts. You then indicate where you&rsquo;d like your version-control repository - this is where old versions of files will be saved. You can also pick a certificate, to have the software automatically sign scripts each time you make a new version. That&rsquo;s a subtle and very cool feature - and it&rsquo;s a way to make AllSigned a more convenient execution policy.<br>
I selected an option to have my version control repository updated every day at 4:30pm. That seems to let the software capture a snapshot of any changed files at that time every day; it was clear that you could also manually submit an update to the repository using VersionRecall or Windows&rsquo; own File Explorer.<br>
From there, you&rsquo;re in an Explorer-like view. It includes a tab for each folder where you store scripts. I find that I like that approach a lot - I tend to organize my scripts that way. I&rsquo;ve got my modules in one spot, some sample scripts in another, stuff I&rsquo;m playing with in a third, and so on - so the tabbed approach fits my organizational style. You can open files for editing right there. I don&rsquo;t have PrimalScript installed on this test machine, but files opened in the ISE just fine. Ribbon buttons let you open the shell, the ISE, or SAPIEN&rsquo;s PrimalScript or PowerShell Studio products.<br><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fig1.png"><img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fig1.png" alt="fig1"/></p><p>Here&rsquo;s how this works: You have to manually submit changed files to the version-control repository, or wait for the daily check-in (remember, I set mine to 4:30pm). This doesn&rsquo;t magically capture changes throughout the day. But, you can always manually submit an update if you&rsquo;ve been making significant edits. That&rsquo;s how most &ldquo;big boy&rdquo; source control systems work - only they don&rsquo;t usually have an automatic daily-check in as a backup plan. VersionRecall does.<br>
You can always compare the current version against a repository version - and it&rsquo;s a very slick comparison view.<br><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fig2.png"><img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fig2.png" alt="fig2"/></p><p>Once you&rsquo;ve checked in a few versions, you can easily see the complete list, quickly see what each file contains, and either restore a previous version or copy it to a different location. You can also compare two versions to see what&rsquo;s different.<br><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fig3.png"><img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fig3.png" alt="fig3"/></p><p>Notably, VersionRecall doesn&rsquo;t stick your files into a database or some proprietary storage. Your check-in files <em>stay</em> files, in their original formats. That means, if you ever need to do so, you can simply go to the folder where VersionRecall&rsquo;s repository is, and grab the files yourself. It should also allow files to be indexed by Windows (for filetypes where it does that), found by Windows search, and so on.<br>
Unfortunately, PowerShell Studio doesn&rsquo;t seem to recognize VersionRecall as a source control provider (at least, it didn&rsquo;t show up when I tried to configure source control in PowerShell Studio). That means you can&rsquo;t use the integrated check-in/out controls in PowerShell Studio. Instead, you almost want to open files by using VersionRecall&rsquo;s Explorer, save them in PowerShell Studio, and then submit them to the repository back in VersionRecall. That&rsquo;s a shame; the automatic check-in/out in PowerShell Studio would make it all a bit simpler.<br>
VersionControl uses a &ldquo;Modern&rdquo; user interface scheme for the most part. Its ribbon is pretty clean and well-organized, and the icons were meaningful. As with most recent SAPIEN products, you can change the theme to one of almost a dozen different styles, so you should be able to find something you like. Icons remain the same either way; all you&rsquo;re changing is the &ldquo;chrome&rdquo; of the UI.<br>
Not much else to say. For a product that bills itself as simple and easy, VersionControl certainly delivers. It does one thing, and it does it pretty well. It&rsquo;s definitely easy - and there&rsquo;s less excuse than ever for not using some kind of version control for your scripts.<a href="http://www.sapien.com/blog/2014/04/09/versionrecall-2014-faq/">A FAQ on SAPIEN&rsquo;s blog</a> answers questions like why VersionRecall doesn&rsquo;t check-in files automagically each time they change, how it compares to something like Git, and more.<br>
[<strong>Update</strong>: I&rsquo;ve removed the section on the license key and activation; SAPIEN&rsquo;s Alex Riedel pointed out that I had some factual errors, because my observations were based on my use of a &ldquo;real&rdquo; license key that was issued for my particular use, not a &ldquo;trial&rdquo; key. I admit that I find software licensing uninteresting, and none of it has any impact on the usefulness of the software, which is what the article was meant to cover.]<br>
VersionRecall sells for $179 as a standalone product, which includes a year of updates. I think that price might be a bit high, given what the product does. I expect, however, that most people are getting VersionRecall as part of a SAPIEN software bundle. For $789, for example, you get everything they make. For me, the perfect combo is PowerShell Studio and VersionRecall, which retails for $568.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit N.A. 2014 – Budget</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-15-powershell-summit-n-a-2014-budget/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-15-powershell-summit-n-a-2014-budget/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 15 Apr 2014 15:56:49 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;As part of our commitment to being a transparent, community-owned organization, I wanted to share the basic budget for the upcoming Summit. Now that registration is cut off, we have most of our final numbers. Keep in mind that, at live events, things &amp;ldquo;on the ground&amp;rdquo; can change quickly - so these are, at present, only our expectations &amp;ldquo;going in.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;$113,833.51 in net registration fees. This is after paying credit card transaction fees.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;-$398.00 for event insurance (already paid)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;-$76,466.04 for the venue, which includes A/V, F&amp;amp;B, room rental, etc. (already paid)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;-$9,335.01 for speaker lodging (hotel)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;-$3,000 for professional event management (including travel for the event manager)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;-$1,490 for our registration web site (already paid)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;-$1,710.51 for deposit on the European Summit&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;-$7,500 for speaker reimbursement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That last number is presently the big question; we have some speakers who paid for their registration, and we need to reimburse them. That&amp;rsquo;s probably about $4,000. We have another $2,500  in promised travel offset fees to speakers doing 3 sessions. We&amp;rsquo;re trying to reimburse additional travel expenses for other speakers so they&amp;rsquo;re not totally out of pocket; the final number may be more than $7,500.&lt;br&gt;
Right now, that puts us at an event profit of roughly $13,933.95. Again, some of that may end up going to additional speaker reimbursement; the rest will help fund PowerShell.org ongoing activities (like Azure hosting and so forth; I&amp;rsquo;ll share a full annual operating budget in June, but it&amp;rsquo;s about $17,000 per year). We have about $20k in payments coming up for the European Summit.&lt;br&gt;
We have approximately $92,000 on-hand; much of that will go to the expenses above that are still pending. We should end April with around $65,000 on-hand - a lot of that comes from earning back a $40,000 pre-payment for the N.A. Summit that we made in fiscal 2013-2014. We&amp;rsquo;ll use some of that $65k to cover the remaining $20k fees on the European Summit; the rest of our cash-on-hand will help provide deposits for the 2015 N.A. Summit, and to fund ongoing operations for 2014-2015. We&amp;rsquo;re in good financial shape - we&amp;rsquo;re making a &lt;em&gt;bit&lt;/em&gt; more than we need, but not very much - which is right where we want to be.&lt;br&gt;
The good news is that, between the Summits and our generous corporate sponsors, we&amp;rsquo;re on track to actually find the $17k wish-list budget we&amp;rsquo;ve put together (which we&amp;rsquo;re still researching and tweaking; as stated, I&amp;rsquo;ll share the full thing in June). That means we&amp;rsquo;ll be able to start spinning up services like the VERIFIED EFFECTIVE program, monthly TechSession webinars, and so on.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>As part of our commitment to being a transparent, community-owned organization, I wanted to share the basic budget for the upcoming Summit. Now that registration is cut off, we have most of our final numbers. Keep in mind that, at live events, things &ldquo;on the ground&rdquo; can change quickly - so these are, at present, only our expectations &ldquo;going in.&rdquo;</p><ul><li>$113,833.51 in net registration fees. This is after paying credit card transaction fees.</li><li>-$398.00 for event insurance (already paid)</li><li>-$76,466.04 for the venue, which includes A/V, F&amp;B, room rental, etc. (already paid)</li><li>-$9,335.01 for speaker lodging (hotel)</li><li>-$3,000 for professional event management (including travel for the event manager)</li><li>-$1,490 for our registration web site (already paid)</li><li>-$1,710.51 for deposit on the European Summit</li><li>-$7,500 for speaker reimbursement</li></ul><p>That last number is presently the big question; we have some speakers who paid for their registration, and we need to reimburse them. That&rsquo;s probably about $4,000. We have another $2,500  in promised travel offset fees to speakers doing 3 sessions. We&rsquo;re trying to reimburse additional travel expenses for other speakers so they&rsquo;re not totally out of pocket; the final number may be more than $7,500.<br>
Right now, that puts us at an event profit of roughly $13,933.95. Again, some of that may end up going to additional speaker reimbursement; the rest will help fund PowerShell.org ongoing activities (like Azure hosting and so forth; I&rsquo;ll share a full annual operating budget in June, but it&rsquo;s about $17,000 per year). We have about $20k in payments coming up for the European Summit.<br>
We have approximately $92,000 on-hand; much of that will go to the expenses above that are still pending. We should end April with around $65,000 on-hand - a lot of that comes from earning back a $40,000 pre-payment for the N.A. Summit that we made in fiscal 2013-2014. We&rsquo;ll use some of that $65k to cover the remaining $20k fees on the European Summit; the rest of our cash-on-hand will help provide deposits for the 2015 N.A. Summit, and to fund ongoing operations for 2014-2015. We&rsquo;re in good financial shape - we&rsquo;re making a <em>bit</em> more than we need, but not very much - which is right where we want to be.<br>
The good news is that, between the Summits and our generous corporate sponsors, we&rsquo;re on track to actually find the $17k wish-list budget we&rsquo;ve put together (which we&rsquo;re still researching and tweaking; as stated, I&rsquo;ll share the full thing in June). That means we&rsquo;ll be able to start spinning up services like the VERIFIED EFFECTIVE program, monthly TechSession webinars, and so on.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit NA 2014 Shirts Available</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-14-powershell-summit-na-2014-shirts-available/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-14-powershell-summit-na-2014-shirts-available/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 14 Apr 2014 16:50:18 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re attending PowerShell Summit NA 2014 (or wish you were), we have some new logo items for purchase! Buy &amp;rsquo;em now and wear &amp;rsquo;em to the Summit, including a baseball jersey and a polo shirt. &lt;a href="http://zazzle.com/powershellorg*"&gt;Visit our Zazzle store&lt;/a&gt; to buy (or the &lt;a href="http://zazzle.ca/powershellorg*"&gt;Canadian store&lt;/a&gt;, to save a bit on shipping if you live up there).&lt;br&gt;
Note that the items may take about 24 hours to become visible, so check on April 15th in the afternoon if you don&amp;rsquo;t see them immediately.&lt;br&gt;
See you at the Summit!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>If you&rsquo;re attending PowerShell Summit NA 2014 (or wish you were), we have some new logo items for purchase! Buy &rsquo;em now and wear &rsquo;em to the Summit, including a baseball jersey and a polo shirt.<a href="http://zazzle.com/powershellorg*">Visit our Zazzle store</a> to buy (or the<a href="http://zazzle.ca/powershellorg*">Canadian store</a>, to save a bit on shipping if you live up there).<br>
Note that the items may take about 24 hours to become visible, so check on April 15th in the afternoon if you don&rsquo;t see them immediately.<br>
See you at the Summit!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Summit Session Change</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-13-summit-session-change/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-13-summit-session-change/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 13 Apr 2014 23:21:08 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Paul Higinbotham&amp;rsquo;s session on threading in PowerShell has been changed, because his content would have overlapped with other sessions. Instead, Paul will be presenting:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;PowerShell Debugging Enhancements&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
A number of script debugging enhancements were added to PowerShell 4.0 and the WMF 5.0 preview release. In this talk I will discuss these new debugging features and demonstrate how they work. This will include the new support for remote debugging, debugging workflow scripts, debugging PowerShell jobs, ISE enhancements for remote debugging, and the new &amp;ldquo;Break All&amp;rdquo; command.&lt;br&gt;
We&amp;rsquo;ll update the schedule grid and abstract document.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Paul Higinbotham&rsquo;s session on threading in PowerShell has been changed, because his content would have overlapped with other sessions. Instead, Paul will be presenting:<br><strong>PowerShell Debugging Enhancements</strong><br>
A number of script debugging enhancements were added to PowerShell 4.0 and the WMF 5.0 preview release. In this talk I will discuss these new debugging features and demonstrate how they work. This will include the new support for remote debugging, debugging workflow scripts, debugging PowerShell jobs, ISE enhancements for remote debugging, and the new &ldquo;Break All&rdquo; command.<br>
We&rsquo;ll update the schedule grid and abstract document.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Massive Update to All Seven Free eBooks at PowerShell.org</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-07-massive-update-to-all-seven-free-ebooks-at-powershell-org/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-07-massive-update-to-all-seven-free-ebooks-at-powershell-org/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 08 Apr 2014 00:13:10 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;We&amp;rsquo;ve just finished a massive re-do of all 7 PowerShell.org free ebooks.&lt;br&gt;
First, they&amp;rsquo;re now hosted in a &lt;a href="http://1drv.ms/1eaLKiu"&gt;public OneDrive folder&lt;/a&gt;. This means you can quickly and easily view them online, download a DOCX, or download a PDF. Anytime, anywhere.&lt;br&gt;
Second, we&amp;rsquo;ve had folks go through and make the formatting more consistent, using a more modern font and somewhat &amp;ldquo;airier&amp;rdquo; spacing. Hopefully that translates to &amp;ldquo;nicer to read.&amp;rdquo; All the original code is also accessible, and available for one-click downloading. Note that .PS1 files may open for viewing; you need to checkmark the file to download it.&lt;br&gt;
Uploads are now proceeding, so depending on when you read this, some files might still be in progress. The GitHub versions (which were problematic for some folks to download) will be removed shortly. Please update your links; &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/ebooks"&gt;https://powershell.org/ebooks&lt;/a&gt; has already been updated.&lt;br&gt;
Enjoy!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>We&rsquo;ve just finished a massive re-do of all 7 PowerShell.org free ebooks.<br>
First, they&rsquo;re now hosted in a<a href="http://1drv.ms/1eaLKiu">public OneDrive folder</a>. This means you can quickly and easily view them online, download a DOCX, or download a PDF. Anytime, anywhere.<br>
Second, we&rsquo;ve had folks go through and make the formatting more consistent, using a more modern font and somewhat &ldquo;airier&rdquo; spacing. Hopefully that translates to &ldquo;nicer to read.&rdquo; All the original code is also accessible, and available for one-click downloading. Note that .PS1 files may open for viewing; you need to checkmark the file to download it.<br>
Uploads are now proceeding, so depending on when you read this, some files might still be in progress. The GitHub versions (which were problematic for some folks to download) will be removed shortly. Please update your links;<a href="https://powershell.org/ebooks">https://powershell.org/ebooks</a> has already been updated.<br>
Enjoy!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 04/04/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-06-phillyposh-03042014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-06-phillyposh-03042014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 07 Apr 2014 03:37:36 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/goateepfe"&gt;Ashley McGlone&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled “Demystifying The PowerShell Scripting Process”. During his talked Ashley broke down the script creation process by starting with a task and working through the cmdlet discovery process to build a repeatable task into a script. A copy of his &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/ashleymcglone/archive/2014/02/08/powershell-saturday-007-charlotte-from-cmdlets-to-scripts-to-powershell-hero.aspx"&gt;presentation materials&lt;/a&gt; are available on his &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/ashleymcglone/"&gt;blog&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We then had a group discussion around:
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;DSC and how various group members are using/testing it&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;WMF 5.0&amp;rsquo;s OneGet&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://code.google.com/p/conemu-maximus5/"&gt;ConEmu &lt;/a&gt;a windows console emulator&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw-rnpOk94Q"&gt;recording of this meeting&lt;/a&gt; has been posted to our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;YouTube channel&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/goateepfe">Ashley McGlone</a> gave a presentation entitled “Demystifying The PowerShell Scripting Process”. During his talked Ashley broke down the script creation process by starting with a task and working through the cmdlet discovery process to build a repeatable task into a script. A copy of his<a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/ashleymcglone/archive/2014/02/08/powershell-saturday-007-charlotte-from-cmdlets-to-scripts-to-powershell-hero.aspx">presentation materials</a> are available on his<a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/ashleymcglone/">blog</a><ul><li>We then had a group discussion around:<ul><li>DSC and how various group members are using/testing it</li><li>WMF 5.0&rsquo;s OneGet</li><li><a href="http://code.google.com/p/conemu-maximus5/">ConEmu </a>a windows console emulator</li></ul></li><li>A<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw-rnpOk94Q">recording of this meeting</a> has been posted to our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">YouTube channel</a></li></ul></li></ul>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Charlotte 4/3/2014 Meeting – Using PowerShell in Websites</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-02-charlotte-432014-meeting-using-powershell-in-websites/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-04-02-charlotte-432014-meeting-using-powershell-in-websites/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2014 18:32:43 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The monthly Charlotte PowerShell Users Group meeting will be held tomorrow, April 3rd at 6PM EDT. The meeting is held at the Microsoft Charlotte Office (8055 Microsoft Way, Charlotte, NC).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This looks to be an awesome meeting with guest speaker Jason Walker. Jason will demonstrate running PowerShell scripts in a cool and novel way – from a website. If you would like to attend, please jump on over to the &lt;a href="http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-PowerShell-Users-Group/events/172416592/"&gt;MeetUp&lt;/a&gt; page and let us know you are coming.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The monthly Charlotte PowerShell Users Group meeting will be held tomorrow, April 3rd at 6PM EDT. The meeting is held at the Microsoft Charlotte Office (8055 Microsoft Way, Charlotte, NC).</p><p>This looks to be an awesome meeting with guest speaker Jason Walker. Jason will demonstrate running PowerShell scripts in a cool and novel way – from a website. If you would like to attend, please jump on over to the<a href="http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-PowerShell-Users-Group/events/172416592/">MeetUp</a> page and let us know you are coming.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>April 3, 2014 Virtual PowerShell User Group meeting</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-29-april-3-2014-virtual-powershell-user-group-meeting/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-29-april-3-2014-virtual-powershell-user-group-meeting/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 29 Mar 2014 21:11:12 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;PowerShell MVP Joel Bennett will present about authoring PowerShell modules, including tips, tricks and best practices for writing modules and functions that work well together (and behave properly in the pipeline) &amp;hellip; and&amp;hellip;&lt;br&gt;
NOTE: if you have QUESTIONS about PowerShell modules which you would like addressed, you can start adding them to the Q&amp;amp;A bar (and voting to rank them) already. Just click the &amp;ldquo;Q&amp;amp;A&amp;rdquo; icon overlay on the video placeholder:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://plus.google.com/hangouts/onair/watch?hid=hoaevent%2Fcval1ku1pro5uijqk4fnmfk45lo&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;t=0"&gt;https://plus.google.com/hangouts/onair/watch?hid=hoaevent%2Fcval1ku1pro5uijqk4fnmfk45lo&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;t=0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>PowerShell MVP Joel Bennett will present about authoring PowerShell modules, including tips, tricks and best practices for writing modules and functions that work well together (and behave properly in the pipeline) &hellip; and&hellip;<br>
NOTE: if you have QUESTIONS about PowerShell modules which you would like addressed, you can start adding them to the Q&amp;A bar (and voting to rank them) already. Just click the &ldquo;Q&amp;A&rdquo; icon overlay on the video placeholder:<br><a href="https://plus.google.com/hangouts/onair/watch?hid=hoaevent%2Fcval1ku1pro5uijqk4fnmfk45lo&amp;hl=en&amp;t=0">https://plus.google.com/hangouts/onair/watch?hid=hoaevent%2Fcval1ku1pro5uijqk4fnmfk45lo&amp;hl=en&amp;t=0</a></p><p>* *</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Code from this week's Oslo class</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-26-code-from-this-weeks-oslo-class/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-26-code-from-this-weeks-oslo-class/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:04:42 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/OSTools.zip"&gt;OSTools&lt;/a&gt; - download for my class in Oslo this week.&lt;br&gt;
Here&amp;rsquo;s some more: &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/share.zip"&gt;share&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/OSTools.zip">OSTools</a> - download for my class in Oslo this week.<br>
Here&rsquo;s some more:<a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/share.zip">share</a></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>We Want Your DSC Resource Wish List!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-20-we-want-your-dsc-resource-wish-list/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-20-we-want-your-dsc-resource-wish-list/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:08:03 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;What sorts of things would you want to configure via DSC that don&amp;rsquo;t already have a resource?&lt;br&gt;
NB: Focusing on the core Windows OS and its components only; Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, and other products are off the table for this discussion.&lt;br&gt;
For example, I want a &amp;ldquo;log file rotator&amp;rdquo; resource, that lets me specify a log file folder, an archive folder, and a pair of dates. Files older than one date are moved from the log folder to the archive folder; archived files older than the second date are deleted.&lt;br&gt;
I&amp;rsquo;d also like a File Permissions resource. Specify a folder or file, optional recursion, and a set of access control entries (in plain English terms), and it&amp;rsquo;ll make sure the permissions stay that way.&lt;br&gt;
Maybe also a User Home Folder resource, which would (a) ensure a folder exists for a given set of user accounts, and (b) ensures a set of &amp;ldquo;template&amp;rdquo; permissions, so that each individual user has the rights to their folder, plus rights given to global users like admins.&lt;br&gt;
What resources would YOU like to have to ease configuration and maintenance in YOUR environment? Drop a comment!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>What sorts of things would you want to configure via DSC that don&rsquo;t already have a resource?<br>
NB: Focusing on the core Windows OS and its components only; Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, and other products are off the table for this discussion.<br>
For example, I want a &ldquo;log file rotator&rdquo; resource, that lets me specify a log file folder, an archive folder, and a pair of dates. Files older than one date are moved from the log folder to the archive folder; archived files older than the second date are deleted.<br>
I&rsquo;d also like a File Permissions resource. Specify a folder or file, optional recursion, and a set of access control entries (in plain English terms), and it&rsquo;ll make sure the permissions stay that way.<br>
Maybe also a User Home Folder resource, which would (a) ensure a folder exists for a given set of user accounts, and (b) ensures a set of &ldquo;template&rdquo; permissions, so that each individual user has the rights to their folder, plus rights given to global users like admins.<br>
What resources would YOU like to have to ease configuration and maintenance in YOUR environment? Drop a comment!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Going Deeper on DSC Resources</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-19-going-deeper-on-dsc-resources/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-19-going-deeper-on-dsc-resources/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:43:37 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Desired State Configuration is a very new technology and declarative configuration management is a very young space yet.  We (Microsoft and the community) are still figuring out the best structure for resources, composite configurations, and other structures.&lt;br&gt;
That said, there are certain viewpoints that I&amp;rsquo;ve come to, either from hands on experience or in watching how other communities (like the Puppet community or Chef community) handle similar problems.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h1 id="how-granular-should-i-get" class="ps-heading"&gt;How Granular Should I Get?&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#how-granular-should-i-get" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no absolute answer.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Desired State Configuration is a very new technology and declarative configuration management is a very young space yet.  We (Microsoft and the community) are still figuring out the best structure for resources, composite configurations, and other structures.<br>
That said, there are certain viewpoints that I&rsquo;ve come to, either from hands on experience or in watching how other communities (like the Puppet community or Chef community) handle similar problems.</p><h1 id="how-granular-should-i-get" class="ps-heading">How Granular Should I Get?<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#how-granular-should-i-get" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h1><p>There is no absolute answer.</p><h2 id="very-very-granular" class="ps-heading">Very, Very Granular<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#very-very-granular" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Resources should be very granular in the abstract, but in practice, you may need to make concessions to improve the user experience.<br>
For example, when I configure an IP address for a network interface, I can supply a default gateway. A default gateway is a route, which is separate from the interface and IP address, but in practice they tend to be configured together. In this case, it might make sense to offer a resource that can configure both the IP address and the default gateway.<br>
I tend to think resources should be very granular. We can use composite resources to offer higher level views of the configuration. If I were implementing a resource to configure a network adapter&rsquo;s IP and gateway, I would have a route resource, an IP address resource, and probably a DNS server setting resource. I would then also have a composite resource to deal with the default use case of configuring a network adapter&rsquo;s IP address, gateway, and DNS servers together.<br>
The benefit of doing it this way is that I still have very discrete, flexible primitives (the IP address resource, the route resource, and the DNS server resource). I can then leverage the route resource to create static routes, or use them directly to more discretely configure the individual elements.</p><h2 id="unless" class="ps-heading">Unless&hellip;<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#unless" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>You have some flow control that you need to happen based on the state of the client or the environment.  Since your configuration is statically generated and is declarative, there are no flow control statements in the configuration MOF document.  That means that any logic that needs to occur at application time<br>
Unfortunately, this leads to the need to re-implement common functionality.  For example, if I have a service that I need to be able to update the binary (not via an MSI), I need to basically re-implement parts of the file and service resource.  This use case requires a custom resource because I need to stop the service before I can replace the binary, but I don&rsquo;t want to stop the service with every consistency check if I don&rsquo;t need to replace the file.<br>
This scenario begs for a better way to leverage existing resources in a cross resource scenario (kind of like RequiredModules in module metadata), but there isn&rsquo;t a clean way to do this<strong>that I&rsquo;ve found</strong> (but I&rsquo;m still looking!).</p><h2 id="my-recommendation" class="ps-heading">My Recommendation<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#my-recommendation" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>So for most cases, I would try to use existing resources or build very granular custom resources.  If I need to offer a higher level of abstraction, I&rsquo;d escalate to putting a composite resource on top of those granular resources.  Finally, if I need some flow control or logic for a multistep process, I&rsquo;d implement a more comprehensive resource.</p><h1 id="what-should-i-validate" class="ps-heading">What Should I Validate?<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#what-should-i-validate" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h1><p>Now that we are seeing some more resources in the community repository (especially thanks to the waves of resources from the Powershell Team!), we are seeing a variety of levels of validation being performed.<br>
I think that the Test-TargetResource function should validate all the values and states that Set-TargetResource can set.<br>
An example of where this isn&rsquo;t happening currently is in the<a href="https://github.com/PowerShellOrg/DSC/blob/master/Resources/cNetworking/DSCResources/PSHOrg_cIPAddress/PSHOrg_cIPAddress.psm1">cNetworking resource for PSHOrg_cIPAddress</a>.  I&rsquo;m going to pick on this resource a bit, since it was the catalyst for this discussion.<br>
The resource offers a way to set a default gateway as well as the IP address.  So what happens if after setting the IP and default gateway, someone changes the default gateway to point to another router?<br>
In this case, the validation is only checking that the IP address is correct.  DSC will never re-correct the gateway and our DSC configuration document (the MOF file) is no longer an accurate representation of the system state, despite the fact that the Local Configuration Manager (LCM) will report that everything matches.<br><strong>This is BAD!!</strong>  If a resource offers an option to configure a setting, that setting should be validated by Test-TargetResource, otherwise that setting should be removed from the resource.  The intent of DSC is to control configuration, including changes over time and return a system to the desired state.  If we ignore certain settings, we weaken our trust in the underlying infrastructure of DSC.</p><h1 id="what-should-i-return" class="ps-heading">What should I return?<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#what-should-i-return" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h1><p>The last element I&rsquo;m going to tackle today is what should be returned from Get-TargetResource.  I&rsquo;ve been on the fence about this one.  Like with Test-TargetResource, there are a number of implementation examples that vary in how they come up with the return values.<br>
Currently, I don&rsquo;t see a ton of use for Get-TargetResource and it doesn&rsquo;t impact the Test and Set phases of the LCM, so it&rsquo;s been easy to ignore.  This is bad practice (shame on me).<br>
Here&rsquo;s my thoughts around Get-TargetResource.  It should return the currently configured state of the machine.  Directly returning parameters passed in is misleading.<br>
Going back to the PSHOrg_cIPAddress from the earlier example, it directly returns the default gateway from the parameter, regardless of the configured gateway.  This wouldn&rsquo;t be so bad if the resource actually checked the gateway during processing and could correct it if it drifted.  But it does not check the gateway, so Get-TargetResource could be lying to you.  T<br>
he most consistent result of Get-TargetResource would be retrieving the currently configured settings.</p><h1 id="whats-left" class="ps-heading">What&rsquo;s left?<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#whats-left" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h1><p>What other burning questions do you have around DSC?  Let&rsquo;s keep talking them through either in the<a href="https://powershell.org/forums/forum/windows-powershell-qa/">forums</a> or in the comments here.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>My DSC Demo-Class Setup Routine</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-17-my-dsc-demo-class-setup-routine/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-17-my-dsc-demo-class-setup-routine/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 17 Mar 2014 22:52:26 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I think I&amp;rsquo;ve gotten my DSC classroom and demo setup ready. Understand that this isn&amp;rsquo;t meant to be production-friendly - it doesn&amp;rsquo;t automate some stuff because I &lt;strong&gt;want&lt;/strong&gt; to cover that stuff in class by walking through it. But, I thought I&amp;rsquo;d share.&lt;br&gt;
I&amp;rsquo;ve basically made an ISO that I can carry into class, attach to a Win2012R2 VM and a Win81 VM, and run students through. The server VM is a DC in &amp;ldquo;company.pri&amp;rdquo; domain, and the client VM belongs to that domain.&lt;br&gt;
In the root of the ISO are these scripts: &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ISO_Root.zip"&gt;ISO_Root&lt;/a&gt; (unzip that). Students basically just open PowerShell, set the execution policy to RemoteSigned or Unrestricted, and then run &lt;strong&gt;SetupLab -DVD D:&lt;/strong&gt;, replacing &amp;ldquo;D:&amp;rdquo; with the drive letter of the VM&amp;rsquo;s optical drive. The script isn&amp;rsquo;t super-intelligent since I demo it at the same time; it needs the colon after the drive letter.&lt;br&gt;
In a folder called DSC_Modules, I add the following DSC modules (unzipped): xActiveDirectory, xComputerManagement, xDscDiagnostics, xDscResourceDesigner, xNetworking, xPSDesiredStateConfiguration_1.1, xSmbShare, xSqlPs, xWebAdministration.&lt;br&gt;
In a folder called DSC_Pull_Examples, I include these scripts: &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DSC_Pull_Examples.zip"&gt;DSC_Pull_Examples&lt;/a&gt; (unzip that).&lt;br&gt;
In a folder called eBooks, I include these files: &lt;a href="http://files.concentratedtech.com/ebooks.zip"&gt;eBooks&lt;/a&gt; (unzip that). Those get used in a lot of the demos I do, so I have the lab setup scripts copy over some script modules.&lt;br&gt;
In a folder called Help, I have a file called Help.zip. This contains everything downloaded by the Save-Help command in PowerShell. The Setup script unzips this into the VM and then runs Update-Help against it, so the VM doesn&amp;rsquo;t need to be Internet-connected.&lt;br&gt;
In a folder called Hotfix, I have the Windows8.1-KB2883200-x64.msu hot fix installer. I include the 32-bit version also, just in case, but my script doesn&amp;rsquo;t use it.&lt;br&gt;
In a folder called Installers, I have installers for PrimalScript, PowerShell Studio, and SQL Server Express with Advanced Services. Again, those get used a lot in my classes, but the setup script doesn&amp;rsquo;t rely on them.&lt;br&gt;
Finally, in a folder called sxs, I have the contents of the Windows 8.1 installation media&amp;rsquo;s \Sources\sxs folder. Some of the things my setup script does - like adding .NET Framework 3.5 so SQL Server 2012 will work - rely on features that aren&amp;rsquo;t in a Win8.1 VM, normally. Because I don&amp;rsquo;t want to rely on the Internet, I include this source so I can install new features from it.&lt;br&gt;
This is all pretty specific to the way I run classes, but if there&amp;rsquo;s any use you can make of it, feel free.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I think I&rsquo;ve gotten my DSC classroom and demo setup ready. Understand that this isn&rsquo;t meant to be production-friendly - it doesn&rsquo;t automate some stuff because I <strong>want</strong> to cover that stuff in class by walking through it. But, I thought I&rsquo;d share.<br>
I&rsquo;ve basically made an ISO that I can carry into class, attach to a Win2012R2 VM and a Win81 VM, and run students through. The server VM is a DC in &ldquo;company.pri&rdquo; domain, and the client VM belongs to that domain.<br>
In the root of the ISO are these scripts: <a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ISO_Root.zip">ISO_Root</a> (unzip that). Students basically just open PowerShell, set the execution policy to RemoteSigned or Unrestricted, and then run <strong>SetupLab -DVD D:</strong>, replacing &ldquo;D:&rdquo; with the drive letter of the VM&rsquo;s optical drive. The script isn&rsquo;t super-intelligent since I demo it at the same time; it needs the colon after the drive letter.<br>
In a folder called DSC_Modules, I add the following DSC modules (unzipped): xActiveDirectory, xComputerManagement, xDscDiagnostics, xDscResourceDesigner, xNetworking, xPSDesiredStateConfiguration_1.1, xSmbShare, xSqlPs, xWebAdministration.<br>
In a folder called DSC_Pull_Examples, I include these scripts: <a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DSC_Pull_Examples.zip">DSC_Pull_Examples</a> (unzip that).<br>
In a folder called eBooks, I include these files:<a href="http://files.concentratedtech.com/ebooks.zip">eBooks</a> (unzip that). Those get used in a lot of the demos I do, so I have the lab setup scripts copy over some script modules.<br>
In a folder called Help, I have a file called Help.zip. This contains everything downloaded by the Save-Help command in PowerShell. The Setup script unzips this into the VM and then runs Update-Help against it, so the VM doesn&rsquo;t need to be Internet-connected.<br>
In a folder called Hotfix, I have the Windows8.1-KB2883200-x64.msu hot fix installer. I include the 32-bit version also, just in case, but my script doesn&rsquo;t use it.<br>
In a folder called Installers, I have installers for PrimalScript, PowerShell Studio, and SQL Server Express with Advanced Services. Again, those get used a lot in my classes, but the setup script doesn&rsquo;t rely on them.<br>
Finally, in a folder called sxs, I have the contents of the Windows 8.1 installation media&rsquo;s \Sources\sxs folder. Some of the things my setup script does - like adding .NET Framework 3.5 so SQL Server 2012 will work - rely on features that aren&rsquo;t in a Win8.1 VM, normally. Because I don&rsquo;t want to rely on the Internet, I include this source so I can install new features from it.<br>
This is all pretty specific to the way I run classes, but if there&rsquo;s any use you can make of it, feel free.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Building Desired State Configuration Custom Resources</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-13-building-desired-state-configuration-custom-resources/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-13-building-desired-state-configuration-custom-resources/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Mar 2014 03:07:14 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Now that we&amp;rsquo;ve suitably rested, let&amp;rsquo;s get back to working with Desired State Configuration.  Now, there are some basic features to work with that ship by default and the &lt;a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2013/12/26/holiday-gift-desired-state-configuration-dsc-resource-kit-wave-1.aspx"&gt;PowerShell team has been blogging some additional resources&lt;/a&gt;, but in order to do some really interesting thing with DSC, we&amp;rsquo;ll need to create our own resources.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="the-high-points" class="ps-heading"&gt;The High Points&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#the-high-points" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/2013/10/02/building-a-desired-state-configuration-infrastructure/"&gt;Overview &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/2013/10/03/building-a-desired-state-configuration-pull-server/"&gt;Configuring the Pull Server (REST version)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Creating Configurations (&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/2013/10/08/building-a-desired-state-configuration-configuration/"&gt;one of two&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/2013/10/14/building-a-desired-state-configuration-configuration-part-2/"&gt;two of two&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/2013/11/06/configuring-a-desired-state-configuration-client/"&gt;Configuring Clients&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Building Custom Resources (this post)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Packaging Custom Resources&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Advanced Client Targeting&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h2 id="the-dsc-resource-structure" class="ps-heading"&gt;The DSC Resource Structure&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#the-dsc-resource-structure" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;DSC resources are (at their most basic) a PowerShell module.  These modules are augmented by a schema.mof file (we&amp;rsquo;ll get into that more in a minute or two).  These modules expose three main functions, Get-TargetResource, Set-TargetResource, and Test-TargetResource.  All three functions should share the same set of parameters.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Now that we&rsquo;ve suitably rested, let&rsquo;s get back to working with Desired State Configuration.  Now, there are some basic features to work with that ship by default and the<a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2013/12/26/holiday-gift-desired-state-configuration-dsc-resource-kit-wave-1.aspx">PowerShell team has been blogging some additional resources</a>, but in order to do some really interesting thing with DSC, we&rsquo;ll need to create our own resources.</p><h2 id="the-high-points" class="ps-heading">The High Points<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#the-high-points" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><ul><li><a href="https://powershell.org/2013/10/02/building-a-desired-state-configuration-infrastructure/">Overview </a></li><li><a href="https://powershell.org/2013/10/03/building-a-desired-state-configuration-pull-server/">Configuring the Pull Server (REST version)</a></li><li>Creating Configurations (<a href="https://powershell.org/2013/10/08/building-a-desired-state-configuration-configuration/">one of two</a>, <a href="https://powershell.org/2013/10/14/building-a-desired-state-configuration-configuration-part-2/">two of two</a>)</li><li><a href="https://powershell.org/2013/11/06/configuring-a-desired-state-configuration-client/">Configuring Clients</a></li><li>Building Custom Resources (this post)</li><li>Packaging Custom Resources</li><li>Advanced Client Targeting</li></ul><h2 id="the-dsc-resource-structure" class="ps-heading">The DSC Resource Structure<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#the-dsc-resource-structure" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>DSC resources are (at their most basic) a PowerShell module.  These modules are augmented by a schema.mof file (we&rsquo;ll get into that more in a minute or two).  These modules expose three main functions, Get-TargetResource, Set-TargetResource, and Test-TargetResource.  All three functions should share the same set of parameters.</p><h3 id="test-targetresource" class="ps-heading">Test-TargetResource<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#test-targetresource" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h3><p>Test-TargetResource validates whether your resource is currently in the desired state based on the parameters provided.  This function returns a boolean, $true if the resource is in the state described or $false if not.</p><h3 id="set-targetresource" class="ps-heading">Set-TargetResource<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#set-targetresource" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h3><p>Set-TargetResource is the workhorse in this module.  This is what will get things into the correct state.  The convention is to support one parameter called Ensure that can take two values, &ldquo;Present&rdquo; or &ldquo;Absent&rdquo; to describe whether or not a resource should be applied or removed as described.<br>
(Here&rsquo;s a little trick.. if you write break your Test-TargetResource into discrete functions, you can use those functions to only run the portions of Set-TargetResource that you need to!)</p><h3 id="get-targetresource" class="ps-heading">Get-TargetResource<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#get-targetresource" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h3><p>This is currently the least useful of the commands, but if experience has taught me anything, it&rsquo;ll likely have an a growing use case over time.<br>
Get-TargetResource returns the current state of the of the resource, returning a hash table of properties matching the parameters supplied to the command.</p><h3 id="exporting-commands" class="ps-heading">Exporting Commands<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#exporting-commands" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h3><p>This module should explicitly export these commands via either Export-ModuleMember or a module manifest.  If you don&rsquo;t, Import-DscResource will have trouble loading the resources when you try to generate a configuration (it&rsquo;s not a problem for running a configuration, just the generation part).</p><h3 id="the-managed-object-framework-mof-schema" class="ps-heading">The Managed Object Framework (MOF) Schema<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#the-managed-object-framework-mof-schema" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h3><p>The last piece of the DSC Resource is a schema file that maps the parameters for the command to a CIM class that can be registered in WMI.  This allows us to serialize the configuration parameters to a standards-based format and allows the Local Configuration Manager to marshal the parameters back to call the PowerShell functions for the phase that the LCM is in.  This file is named modulename.schema.mof.<br>
There is no real reason to write a schema.mof file by hand, both the<a href="https://github.com/PowerShellOrg/DSC/tree/master/Tooling/cDscResourceDesigner">DSC Resource Designer</a> and my<a href="https://github.com/PowerShellOrg/DSC/blob/master/Tooling/DscDevelopment/New-MofFile.ps1">New-MofFile</a> function can help generate that function.  The one key thing to be aware of in the schema.mof is that there is an attribute at the top of each of the MOF classes that denotes a friendly name, which is the identifier you will use in a configuration to specify a resource.</p><p><code>[ClassVersion("1.0.0"), FriendlyName("Pagefile")]</code>## How To Structure a Module With Resources</p><p>To get a good idea of the resource structure, we can look at<a href="https://github.com/PowerShellOrg/DSC/tree/master/Resources/StackExchangeResources">the StackExchangeResources module in the PowerShell.Org GitHub repository</a>.  There is a base module - StackExchangeResources, which has a module metadata file (required, you&rsquo;ll see why in a minute).  In that module, we need a folder DSCResources.  Our custom resource will be placed under that folder.<br>
The reason we need a module metadata file for the base module, is when resources from that module are used in a configuration, the generated configuration MOF files will reference the version of the base module (and that specific version is required on the node where the resource will be applied).<br>
Next up, we&rsquo;ll talk about how we package our resources to be distributed by a pull server.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 03/06/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-13-phillyposh-03062014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-13-phillyposh-03062014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 Mar 2014 01:57:16 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/bielawb"&gt;Bartek Bielawski&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled &amp;ldquo;OMI : PowerShell Everywhere&amp;rdquo;. During his talk Bartek discussed and gave examples of how to CIM cmdlets and CDXML commands to manage everything in your datacenter. A &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-03"&gt;copy of his presentation materials&lt;/a&gt; are available on our &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH"&gt;GitHub Repository&lt;/a&gt;.
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;We then had a script club where various members presented scripts they were working on&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw-rnpOk94Q"&gt;recording of this meeting&lt;/a&gt; has been posted to our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;YouTube channel&lt;/a&gt;; please note that there are some audio issues near the end of the recording.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/bielawb">Bartek Bielawski</a> gave a presentation entitled &ldquo;OMI : PowerShell Everywhere&rdquo;. During his talk Bartek discussed and gave examples of how to CIM cmdlets and CDXML commands to manage everything in your datacenter. A<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-03">copy of his presentation materials</a> are available on our<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH">GitHub Repository</a>.<ul><li>We then had a script club where various members presented scripts they were working on</li><li>A<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw-rnpOk94Q">recording of this meeting</a> has been posted to our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">YouTube channel</a>; please note that there are some audio issues near the end of the recording.</li></ul></li></ul>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The DSC Conversation Continues</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-05-the-dsc-conversation-continues/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-05-the-dsc-conversation-continues/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Mar 2014 18:58:37 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Some &lt;a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1ziudp/desired_state_configuration_dsc_musthave_or_just/"&gt;lovely conversation on DSC over on Reddit&amp;hellip;&lt;/a&gt; with some I wanted to perhaps offer an opinion on. From what I&amp;rsquo;ve seen, these are very common sentiments, and they definitely deserve&amp;hellip; not argument or disagreement, but perhaps an alternate viewpoint. I&amp;rsquo;m not suggesting the commenters are wrong - but that maybe they&amp;rsquo;re not considering the entire picture.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Certainly if you work with a superset of MS OSs (i.e. you do Linux also), then Puppet or something like it seems like a no brainer. In fact, that is what we&amp;rsquo;re doing now. Puppet has powershell modules you can install for instance. Personally, I still feel like Powershell is overrated except for small snippets of that&amp;rsquo;s how something is exposed. Puppet can run powershell commands. AutoIT can run powershell commands&amp;hellip; I just don&amp;rsquo;t see value in Powershell today.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Some<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1ziudp/desired_state_configuration_dsc_musthave_or_just/">lovely conversation on DSC over on Reddit&hellip;</a> with some I wanted to perhaps offer an opinion on. From what I&rsquo;ve seen, these are very common sentiments, and they definitely deserve&hellip; not argument or disagreement, but perhaps an alternate viewpoint. I&rsquo;m not suggesting the commenters are wrong - but that maybe they&rsquo;re not considering the entire picture.</p><blockquote><p>Certainly if you work with a superset of MS OSs (i.e. you do Linux also), then Puppet or something like it seems like a no brainer. In fact, that is what we&rsquo;re doing now. Puppet has powershell modules you can install for instance. Personally, I still feel like Powershell is overrated except for small snippets of that&rsquo;s how something is exposed. Puppet can run powershell commands. AutoIT can run powershell commands&hellip; I just don&rsquo;t see value in Powershell today.</p></blockquote><p>The point is that, until PowerShell, there were no PowerShell commands. Microsoft was incredibly inconsistent about providing automation-friendly commands of any kind. They could have gone down the path of building command-line tools for Cmd.exe; they didn&rsquo;t. The point of PowerShell is that Microsoft forced themselves to build commands. Now, if you run those from AutoIt, or Puppet, or whatever else - that&rsquo;s cool. PowerShell is an API, not a tool. Whatever tool you use to access that API is just dandy. Without the API, the tools are useless.</p><blockquote><p>As to DSC - I&rsquo;m really confused. Why is this separate from Group Policy again? Why is it better? Or is MS giving up on Group Policy as needing a total re-write?</p></blockquote><p>The advantage of Group Policy over DSC, today, is that GP has richer ability to target computers based on OU membership, WMI criteria, etc. Today, DSC targeting isn&rsquo;t that flexible. On the other hand, GP is extremely difficult to extend, since client extensions are native code. GP was built to manage the registry, although it&rsquo;s been extended to do more. DSC is built to do whatever PowerShell (and, via CIM, native code) can touch. My opinion? Yeah, DSC will obviate GP over time. Not instantly.</p><blockquote><p>Specifically, as I&rsquo;ve been rolling out Puppet across Windows and Linux, I see that in some ways, it brings the computer GPO aspect to Linux, and duplicates it a bit on Windows.<br>
Anyway, I won&rsquo;t be surprised to see someone start writing DSC modules in Puppet, because you&rsquo;ll want your config management to work across your platforms. And MS is kind of late to the game here - many many people have lots of knowledge already in Puppet, Chef etc&hellip;</p></blockquote><p>The guys on the PowerShell team love Chef and Puppet. I think you&rsquo;re confusing &ldquo;api&rdquo; and &ldquo;tool.&rdquo; There are two pieces to DSC: Piece one is the ability of PowerShell to read a configuration script and produce a MOF. Piece two is the ability of a Windows computer to receive that MOF and reconfigure itself accordingly. Any tool can do piece one. Use Puppet to produce the MOF. Use Puppet to control which MOFs get sent where. That&rsquo;s the _intent. _But Microsoft takes a big burden off the Puppet developers by having Windows _know what to do with the MOF. _Yeah, MS is late to the game. No question. But they&rsquo;re <em>joining</em> the game, not reinventing it. What they&rsquo;re doing works with what everyone else is already doing.</p><blockquote><p>I would personally carry the sentiment even further and say that investing the bulk of your effort in DSC over something like Puppet would be needlessly tying your own hands. Why focus on something that&rsquo;s platform specific when there is a good cross-platform alternative. Don&rsquo;t put all your eggs in one basket as it were.</p></blockquote><p>Wrong. It isn&rsquo;t an either-or thing. DSC&rsquo;s introduction at TechEd 2013 included a demo of Puppet (or was it Chef?) being used to send configurations to Windows - much more easily, because with DSC, Windows natively knew what to do with them. If you&rsquo;ve<em>got</em> tooling like Puppet, _use it. _DSC is just making Windows work better with it. The whole <em>point</em> of DSC is that it plays the cross-platform game <em>everyone else has already been playing. _<br>
Purely on the Windows side, the need to focus on DSC is more about developing the DSC <em>resources</em> you need, so that you can send a MOF (from Puppet, say) to a Windows computer, and that Windows computer will know how to configure everything <em>you</em> need configured. Microsoft will continue to produce resources for core OS and server application stuff; any LOB stuff is what you&rsquo;d be focusing on.<br>
Heck, even in a pure-Windows environment, with cross-platform off the table, Puppet provides <em>tooling</em></em> _that DSC does not. You&rsquo;re going to need those tools, whether it&rsquo;s Puppet, some future System Center thing, or whatever. DSC is a mid-level API, not a tool.</p><blockquote><p>Configuration managment does seem to be the future &ndash; I just don&rsquo;t agree completely with the author&rsquo;s point of a view that it will have to be DSC.</p></blockquote><p>On Windows, DSC will be the underlying API that your configuration management tool talks to. DSC isn&rsquo;t a configuration management tool. DSC bridges the gap between a text-based MOF and the bajillion proprietary protocols MS uses internally in their products. Remember, on Linux, it&rsquo;s easier - everything already lives in a text file of some kind, right (oversimplifying, I know, but still)? In Windows, config information lives <em>everyplace</em>; DSC&rsquo;s main job is to bridge the gap. DSC doesn&rsquo;t provide <em>management</em> of what configuration goes where; it just provides the implementation mechanism. In PowerShell, there&rsquo;s a primitive ability to write configurations, because MS has to give you something, but yeah&hellip; I think most organizations would benefit from good tooling atop that.<br>
I think this entire discussion is why more people need to start<strong>learning</strong> (not necessarily using) DSC if you have Windows in your environment. Find out what it is, what it isn&rsquo;t, and how it&rsquo;ll play into the other efforts you&rsquo;ve got underway. There&rsquo;s a ton of misconception about what it is and where it&rsquo;s meant to fit in. When I say, &ldquo;if you&rsquo;re not learning DSC, you&rsquo;re screwed,&rdquo; I don&rsquo;t mean, &ldquo;if you&rsquo;re not <em>using</em> DSC.&rdquo; I mean _learning. _Because if you&rsquo;re not _learning _it, you&rsquo;re going to be subject to the same misconceptions about it. You end up spending a lot of time reinventing what it&rsquo;s willing to do - and what it&rsquo;s willing to do <em>in conjunction with</em> your existing tools.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Jobs: PowerShell Scripter Wanted</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-05-jobs-powershell-scripter-wanted/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-05-jobs-powershell-scripter-wanted/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Mar 2014 14:47:19 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Told you this would eventually start happening ;). Matt Sullivan of Strategic Staffing contacted me with the following job posting; if you&amp;rsquo;re interested, reply to him directly at 781-347-5220.&lt;br&gt;
&amp;hellip;&lt;br&gt;
My name is Matt Sullivan and I am a member of the Strategic Staffing Division at NTT DATA Inc., the sixth largest global IT integrator. We have more than 75,000 employees worldwide, offices in 40 different countires, and we are owned by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the largest telecommunications company in the world.&lt;br&gt;
I am currently seeking a Scripting Engineer - PowerShell to join our team in Burlington, VT. The job description can be found below for your review. Please note that your resume will not be submitted to the client until we have discussed your background.&lt;br&gt;
Title: PowerShell Scripter&lt;br&gt;
Location: Burlington, VT&lt;br&gt;
Duration: 1 year&lt;br&gt;
Our Client has a number of projects in flight that require scripting (PowerShell) as part of their automation solution in our Windows environment. This position would require that the contractor meet with other project members, to gather requirements, build, test and document the scripts. He/she will then hand this work off to another vendor to be implemented on the scheduling platform (BMC&amp;rsquo;s Control-M, a SaaS hosted by Client).&lt;br&gt;
As a second priority, the contractor will work with various departments, to examine an existing body of scripts/jobs which also in our Windows environment. These jobs, having been prioritized by the client, will be converted, if necessary, to PowerShell, tested and documented before being turned over to Client. This body of work is not expected to be completed in the time allotted as it is very large. Our goal is to address as many as possible working from the highest priority down.&lt;br&gt;
PowerShell is the scripting language of choice. A few years at a minimum is required including experience with .NET remoting.&lt;br&gt;
Expert level in Powershell&lt;br&gt;
3+ years experience&lt;br&gt;
Powershell V2 and/or V3&lt;br&gt;
Solid understanding of Powershell Remoting&lt;br&gt;
Business Analyst skills&lt;br&gt;
Experience in requirements gathering&lt;br&gt;
Testing methodologies, test plan development&lt;br&gt;
Strong documentation skills&lt;br&gt;
We are dedicated to working with a wide range of IT consultants, as an example corp to corp and W-2 hourly contractors; and we offer competitive benefits for candidates applying as W-2 contractors.&lt;br&gt;
Benefits available for W-2 contractors only:&lt;br&gt;
Medical&lt;br&gt;
Dental&lt;br&gt;
Vision&lt;br&gt;
Caremark Prescription&lt;br&gt;
401(k)&lt;br&gt;
W-2 Employee Assistance Program&lt;br&gt;
Accident Insurance- Workers’ Compensation Insurance and Business Travel Insurance&lt;br&gt;
COBRA&lt;br&gt;
Healthcare Reimbursement Account Programs&lt;br&gt;
Credit Union&lt;br&gt;
Corporate Mortgage Program&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Told you this would eventually start happening ;). Matt Sullivan of Strategic Staffing contacted me with the following job posting; if you&rsquo;re interested, reply to him directly at 781-347-5220.<br>
&hellip;<br>
My name is Matt Sullivan and I am a member of the Strategic Staffing Division at NTT DATA Inc., the sixth largest global IT integrator. We have more than 75,000 employees worldwide, offices in 40 different countires, and we are owned by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the largest telecommunications company in the world.<br>
I am currently seeking a Scripting Engineer - PowerShell to join our team in Burlington, VT. The job description can be found below for your review. Please note that your resume will not be submitted to the client until we have discussed your background.<br>
Title: PowerShell Scripter<br>
Location: Burlington, VT<br>
Duration: 1 year<br>
Our Client has a number of projects in flight that require scripting (PowerShell) as part of their automation solution in our Windows environment. This position would require that the contractor meet with other project members, to gather requirements, build, test and document the scripts. He/she will then hand this work off to another vendor to be implemented on the scheduling platform (BMC&rsquo;s Control-M, a SaaS hosted by Client).<br>
As a second priority, the contractor will work with various departments, to examine an existing body of scripts/jobs which also in our Windows environment. These jobs, having been prioritized by the client, will be converted, if necessary, to PowerShell, tested and documented before being turned over to Client. This body of work is not expected to be completed in the time allotted as it is very large. Our goal is to address as many as possible working from the highest priority down.<br>
PowerShell is the scripting language of choice. A few years at a minimum is required including experience with .NET remoting.<br>
Expert level in Powershell<br>
3+ years experience<br>
Powershell V2 and/or V3<br>
Solid understanding of Powershell Remoting<br>
Business Analyst skills<br>
Experience in requirements gathering<br>
Testing methodologies, test plan development<br>
Strong documentation skills<br>
We are dedicated to working with a wide range of IT consultants, as an example corp to corp and W-2 hourly contractors; and we offer competitive benefits for candidates applying as W-2 contractors.<br>
Benefits available for W-2 contractors only:<br>
Medical<br>
Dental<br>
Vision<br>
Caremark Prescription<br>
401(k)<br>
W-2 Employee Assistance Program<br>
Accident Insurance- Workers’ Compensation Insurance and Business Travel Insurance<br>
COBRA<br>
Healthcare Reimbursement Account Programs<br>
Credit Union<br>
Corporate Mortgage Program</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The DSC Opportunity for ISVs</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-04-the-dsc-opportunity-for-isvs/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-04-the-dsc-opportunity-for-isvs/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 2014 23:45:02 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Desired State Configuration offers a number of immediate opportunities for independent software vendors (ISVs) who are smart enough to jump on board _now. _DSC currently suffers from a marked lack of tooling. That&amp;rsquo;s partially deliberate; MS obviously needs to deliver the functionality, and they may well rely on third parties or the System Center team to build tools on top of that functionality. But let&amp;rsquo;s explore some of the immediate opportunities.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Change Control and Versioning&lt;/strong&gt;. This should be pretty easy. We basically need a way to &amp;ldquo;check in&amp;rdquo; a new DSC configuration, possibly have it go through an approvals workflow, and then deploy it. In more detail, I&amp;rsquo;d want to be able to submit a configuration script to this tool. It would run the config, generate a MOF, and deploy it to a &amp;ldquo;lab&amp;rdquo; pull server location. I could then verify its functionality, and &amp;ldquo;approve&amp;rdquo; it to deploy the MOF to a production pull server. Deployment would include creating the necessary checksum file. Obviously, rollback capability to a previous version would be nice.**&lt;br&gt;
**&lt;br&gt;
**Configuration Consolidation. **Natively, DSC requires me to specify the nodes I want to push a configuration too. I&amp;rsquo;d like to see a tool that lets me create server lists somewhat graphically, organizing things so that a single server might appear in a &amp;ldquo;domain controllers&amp;rdquo; list, a &amp;ldquo;New York servers&amp;rdquo; list, and a &amp;ldquo;Win2012R2&amp;rdquo; list.  I could target configurations at each list, and the tool would combine those configurations to create the appropriate one for each node based on its &amp;ldquo;folder memberships.&amp;rdquo; That might be done through composite resources. This makes DSC work a bit like GPO, with this tool doing the work of combining configurations into a single one per node.&lt;br&gt;
**DSC Studio. **Using the underlying DSC Resource Kit and Resource Designer for functionality, give me an IDE that lets me graphically design a resource (specify properties) and then spit out the schema MOF and skeleton PSM1 file. This could probably be a very simple PowerShell ISE add-on, in fact.&lt;br&gt;
**Node management. **In a pull server environment, give me a tool that lets me group servers. The tool should modify the LCM on each group, so that each member of the group has the same DSC configuration ID. That way, they&amp;rsquo;re all pulling the correct MOF from the pull server. Otherwise, managing GUIDs gets out of hand pretty quickly - I can see a lot of Excel spreadsheets.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Resources&lt;/strong&gt;. There are obviously a ton of resources to be written. This might be a bit of a bad call for an ISV, as you never know what MS is going to release resources for. Now that MS has built so many PowerShell cmdlets, building resources on top of them gets pretty straightforward. They&amp;rsquo;ve pumped out two waves of resources pretty fast already.&lt;br&gt;
In short, I think there&amp;rsquo;s a big opportunity for a smart company. It&amp;rsquo;s a matter of seeing the &amp;ldquo;holes&amp;rdquo; in the technology, which currently focus mainly on management, and filling them in.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Desired State Configuration offers a number of immediate opportunities for independent software vendors (ISVs) who are smart enough to jump on board _now. _DSC currently suffers from a marked lack of tooling. That&rsquo;s partially deliberate; MS obviously needs to deliver the functionality, and they may well rely on third parties or the System Center team to build tools on top of that functionality. But let&rsquo;s explore some of the immediate opportunities.<br><strong>Change Control and Versioning</strong>. This should be pretty easy. We basically need a way to &ldquo;check in&rdquo; a new DSC configuration, possibly have it go through an approvals workflow, and then deploy it. In more detail, I&rsquo;d want to be able to submit a configuration script to this tool. It would run the config, generate a MOF, and deploy it to a &ldquo;lab&rdquo; pull server location. I could then verify its functionality, and &ldquo;approve&rdquo; it to deploy the MOF to a production pull server. Deployment would include creating the necessary checksum file. Obviously, rollback capability to a previous version would be nice.**<br>
**<br>
**Configuration Consolidation. **Natively, DSC requires me to specify the nodes I want to push a configuration too. I&rsquo;d like to see a tool that lets me create server lists somewhat graphically, organizing things so that a single server might appear in a &ldquo;domain controllers&rdquo; list, a &ldquo;New York servers&rdquo; list, and a &ldquo;Win2012R2&rdquo; list.  I could target configurations at each list, and the tool would combine those configurations to create the appropriate one for each node based on its &ldquo;folder memberships.&rdquo; That might be done through composite resources. This makes DSC work a bit like GPO, with this tool doing the work of combining configurations into a single one per node.<br>
**DSC Studio. **Using the underlying DSC Resource Kit and Resource Designer for functionality, give me an IDE that lets me graphically design a resource (specify properties) and then spit out the schema MOF and skeleton PSM1 file. This could probably be a very simple PowerShell ISE add-on, in fact.<br>
**Node management. **In a pull server environment, give me a tool that lets me group servers. The tool should modify the LCM on each group, so that each member of the group has the same DSC configuration ID. That way, they&rsquo;re all pulling the correct MOF from the pull server. Otherwise, managing GUIDs gets out of hand pretty quickly - I can see a lot of Excel spreadsheets.<br><strong>Resources</strong>. There are obviously a ton of resources to be written. This might be a bit of a bad call for an ISV, as you never know what MS is going to release resources for. Now that MS has built so many PowerShell cmdlets, building resources on top of them gets pretty straightforward. They&rsquo;ve pumped out two waves of resources pretty fast already.<br>
In short, I think there&rsquo;s a big opportunity for a smart company. It&rsquo;s a matter of seeing the &ldquo;holes&rdquo; in the technology, which currently focus mainly on management, and filling them in.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Charlotte PowerShell User Group Meeting cancelled this week 3/6/14</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-03-charlotte-powershell-user-group-meeting-cancelled-this-week-3614/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-03-03-charlotte-powershell-user-group-meeting-cancelled-this-week-3614/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 2014 04:00:28 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Sorry but we have to cancel the User group meeting this month in Charlotte on 3/6/14 we will meet again on April 3, 2014.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Sorry but we have to cancel the User group meeting this month in Charlotte on 3/6/14 we will meet again on April 3, 2014.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Up Next: Nick Howell from NetApp talking about software defined datacenter</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-25-up-next-nick-howell-from-netapp-talking-about-software-defined-datacenter/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-25-up-next-nick-howell-from-netapp-talking-about-software-defined-datacenter/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Feb 2014 16:22:28 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;This Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 join us with guest, Nick Howell, (@that1guynick) from NetApp as the discussion will be software defined datacenter. See you at 9:30PM EST&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>This Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 join us with guest, Nick Howell, (@that1guynick) from NetApp as the discussion will be software defined datacenter. See you at 9:30PM EST</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Julie's Comments: The Scripting Games – Winter 2014</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-19-julies-comments-the-scripting-games-winter-2014/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-19-julies-comments-the-scripting-games-winter-2014/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Feb 2014 22:00:00 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This post comes to us from Julie Andreacola, one of the members of team Kitton Mittons, who won The Scripting Games - Winter 2014. You&amp;rsquo;re welcome to submit your thoughts about the Games as well!&lt;/em&gt;__&lt;br&gt;
The 2014 Scripting Games are over and once again, it was a terrific experience. This was my third scripting games and I was blown away with all that I learned.&lt;br&gt;
The team approach was very appealing to me as I have been the PowerShell expert at my workplace so I was hoping to find a team where someone knew more than I did as I’m only intermediate in PowerShell skills. I struggled to put a team together from our local PowerShell user group for the practice event, but it just didn’t work out due to the timing and workload of potential team members. I took to Twitter to find a team that had an open spot and found the Kitton_Mittons.&lt;br&gt;
The team was just what I needed. We had no expectations to win and we acknowledged that some weeks, people would not be able to participate. All of the team, but myself was located in Northern Virginia, so we arranged for a Google Hangout each evening around 7 p.m. We also had a shared repository on GitHub. Both of these tools were new for us, but were invaluable for our team collaboration. I think we only had one night with everyone in attendance. The sessions varied from discussion of elements of the script, screen sharing (nice Google Hangout feature), and general geek conversation. Two of the team traveled to Charlotte NC to join me in PowerShell Saturday 007 where we met and gained another team member for the final few events.&lt;br&gt;
The learning benefits happened immediately. The first week I learned more about parameters and using them to validate inputs. I immediately began implementing them in my scripts at work, making them more robust and easier to hand off to others as I was transitioning to a new job. A couple days later, our team made our first module. I knew it was easy, but had never done it and now my script at work had a module. One of our team members made an install script that put the files and modules in the correct places. I realized the advantage of this especially when turning scripts over to users unfamiliar with PowerShell. I was able to take the same installer script and quickly customize for use in my workplace. The following weeks included getting more experience with efficiencies of script blocks and better error checking. Although many of my evenings were being taken up with PowerShell, I found the nightly sessions invaluable as our team leader, Jason Morgan, took the time to teach and explain the more complex aspects of the scripts.&lt;br&gt;
The 2014 Scripting Games exceeded my expectations and truly advanced my skills. I also have a new network of System Center IT Pros. I’m starting a new job this week and I know what I learned and gained over the last 4 weeks will help me to excel in this new position. A big thank you to my team mates, coaches, judges, and the PowerShell community. Learning can be fun!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><em>This post comes to us from Julie Andreacola, one of the members of team Kitton Mittons, who won The Scripting Games - Winter 2014. You&rsquo;re welcome to submit your thoughts about the Games as well!</em>__<br>
The 2014 Scripting Games are over and once again, it was a terrific experience. This was my third scripting games and I was blown away with all that I learned.<br>
The team approach was very appealing to me as I have been the PowerShell expert at my workplace so I was hoping to find a team where someone knew more than I did as I’m only intermediate in PowerShell skills. I struggled to put a team together from our local PowerShell user group for the practice event, but it just didn’t work out due to the timing and workload of potential team members. I took to Twitter to find a team that had an open spot and found the Kitton_Mittons.<br>
The team was just what I needed. We had no expectations to win and we acknowledged that some weeks, people would not be able to participate. All of the team, but myself was located in Northern Virginia, so we arranged for a Google Hangout each evening around 7 p.m. We also had a shared repository on GitHub. Both of these tools were new for us, but were invaluable for our team collaboration. I think we only had one night with everyone in attendance. The sessions varied from discussion of elements of the script, screen sharing (nice Google Hangout feature), and general geek conversation. Two of the team traveled to Charlotte NC to join me in PowerShell Saturday 007 where we met and gained another team member for the final few events.<br>
The learning benefits happened immediately. The first week I learned more about parameters and using them to validate inputs. I immediately began implementing them in my scripts at work, making them more robust and easier to hand off to others as I was transitioning to a new job. A couple days later, our team made our first module. I knew it was easy, but had never done it and now my script at work had a module. One of our team members made an install script that put the files and modules in the correct places. I realized the advantage of this especially when turning scripts over to users unfamiliar with PowerShell. I was able to take the same installer script and quickly customize for use in my workplace. The following weeks included getting more experience with efficiencies of script blocks and better error checking. Although many of my evenings were being taken up with PowerShell, I found the nightly sessions invaluable as our team leader, Jason Morgan, took the time to teach and explain the more complex aspects of the scripts.<br>
The 2014 Scripting Games exceeded my expectations and truly advanced my skills. I also have a new network of System Center IT Pros. I’m starting a new job this week and I know what I learned and gained over the last 4 weeks will help me to excel in this new position. A big thank you to my team mates, coaches, judges, and the PowerShell community. Learning can be fun!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Free eBook from Microsoft's Scripting Guy: Windows PowerShell Networking Guide</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-19-free-ebook-from-microsofts-scripting-guy-windows-powershell-networking-guide/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-19-free-ebook-from-microsofts-scripting-guy-windows-powershell-networking-guide/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Feb 2014 14:55:00 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Ed Wilson, Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s Scripting Guy, has created a free ebook, _Windows PowerShell Networking Guide. _It&amp;rsquo;s designed to provide a super-quick PowerShell crash course, and then show you how to  manage various networking scenarios by using the shell.&lt;br&gt;
And it&amp;rsquo;s free! Just click the link to get your copy - and please, tell a friend!&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/PoshNetworking.pdf.zip"&gt;PoshNetworking.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Ed Wilson, Microsoft&rsquo;s Scripting Guy, has created a free ebook, _Windows PowerShell Networking Guide. _It&rsquo;s designed to provide a super-quick PowerShell crash course, and then show you how to  manage various networking scenarios by using the shell.<br>
And it&rsquo;s free! Just click the link to get your copy - and please, tell a friend!<br><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/PoshNetworking.pdf.zip">PoshNetworking.pdf</a></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Closing the Games</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-17-closing-the-games/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-17-closing-the-games/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 17 Feb 2014 22:10:30 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;The judging is complete for the fourth and final event in the 2014 Winter Scripting Games.&lt;br&gt;
This Games was something very different in that we presented 4 we complex scenarios that were designed to be as close as possible to the type of tasks you may have to perform at work. The solutions required multi-file answers - there&amp;rsquo;s no way you could solve these with a one liner!&lt;br&gt;
All of the teams that submitted entries rose to meet the hardest challenge I&amp;rsquo;ve seen in a Scripting Games - and I&amp;rsquo;ve taken part of judged all but the first Games.&lt;br&gt;
All entries were scored by 2 judges with the judges being rotated to ensure that all judges scored each team in at least one event.&lt;br&gt;
I&amp;rsquo;d like to thank the judges for their hard work and also thank the coaching team put together by Mike Robbins - most of all I&amp;rsquo;d like to thank all of the teams that entered for taking part.&lt;br&gt;
In any Games we have winners and the winning teams from these Games are:&lt;br&gt;
1.Kitton Mittons with 19.375 points (8 of 8 scores received)&lt;br&gt;
2.TecHaH with 18.75 points (8 of 8 scores received)&lt;br&gt;
3.Schnipersons with 18.5 points (8 of 8 scores received)&lt;br&gt;
Congratulations to Kitton Mittons for winning the 2014 Winter Scripting Games - if a representative from the winning team could please contact Don Jones or myself we&amp;rsquo;ll see about getting your prizes to you .&lt;br&gt;
The Games are closed. .&lt;br&gt;
Until the next time.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>The judging is complete for the fourth and final event in the 2014 Winter Scripting Games.<br>
This Games was something very different in that we presented 4 we complex scenarios that were designed to be as close as possible to the type of tasks you may have to perform at work. The solutions required multi-file answers - there&rsquo;s no way you could solve these with a one liner!<br>
All of the teams that submitted entries rose to meet the hardest challenge I&rsquo;ve seen in a Scripting Games - and I&rsquo;ve taken part of judged all but the first Games.<br>
All entries were scored by 2 judges with the judges being rotated to ensure that all judges scored each team in at least one event.<br>
I&rsquo;d like to thank the judges for their hard work and also thank the coaching team put together by Mike Robbins - most of all I&rsquo;d like to thank all of the teams that entered for taking part.<br>
In any Games we have winners and the winning teams from these Games are:<br>
1.Kitton Mittons with 19.375 points (8 of 8 scores received)<br>
2.TecHaH with 18.75 points (8 of 8 scores received)<br>
3.Schnipersons with 18.5 points (8 of 8 scores received)<br>
Congratulations to Kitton Mittons for winning the 2014 Winter Scripting Games - if a representative from the winning team could please contact Don Jones or myself we&rsquo;ll see about getting your prizes to you .<br>
The Games are closed. .<br>
Until the next time.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>What Should The Scripting Games Look Like Next Time?</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-17-what-should-the-scripting-games-look-like-next-time/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-17-what-should-the-scripting-games-look-like-next-time/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 17 Feb 2014 18:17:14 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;ve been following along with The Scripting Games over the past couple of iterations, you know that we&amp;rsquo;ve been trying some different, new things. This Winter Games, we did a team-based series of events that threw some &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; complex scenarios at you. However, we know some folks would like to see the next Summer Games include a less-complex track that perhaps includes a focus on one-liners.&lt;br&gt;
(Not that one-liners are an essential part of a work environment, but they&amp;rsquo;re fun and a good competitive thing - this is &lt;em&gt;games&lt;/em&gt;, after all.)&lt;br&gt;
So we&amp;rsquo;re looking for your ideas. Drop a comment, and tell us how you think the next Games should be structured.&lt;br&gt;
**However, before you comment, **understand that judging by official, expert judges gets &lt;em&gt;extremely&lt;/em&gt; difficult. Multiple 10 events across 250 entries and you&amp;rsquo;ve got a _metric butt _&lt;em&gt;tonne&lt;/em&gt; of work for our volunteers to do. Quite frankly, it&amp;rsquo;s unlikely we&amp;rsquo;ll be able to provide a score-per-entry with that kind of volume. The folks who do judging just can&amp;rsquo;t take that much time off work. Seriously, even if a judge only had to look at an entry for 2 minutes, that can easily be more than 80 hours of work to look at every entry. It just isn&amp;rsquo;t do-able.&lt;br&gt;
So, in your comment, include some thoughts on what you&amp;rsquo;d like to see for the judging/scoring side as well, keeping in mind the desire of judges to also have family lives and jobs. What&amp;rsquo;s your real goal in participating in the Games? To get &lt;em&gt;community&lt;/em&gt; feedback (comments) on what you&amp;rsquo;ve done? We can arrange that. Is it perhaps educational to have judges pick out &amp;ldquo;noteworthy&amp;rdquo; (both good and bad) entries and comment on them, as a learning guide? Or are you solely after having a &amp;ldquo;known&amp;rdquo; expert offer commentary on your entry - which isn&amp;rsquo;t something we can guarantee if there are a large number of entries?&lt;br&gt;
Help us understand what you&amp;rsquo;re in it for, and give us some ideas for creating a Summer event that&amp;rsquo;s _fun, _as well as educational.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>If you&rsquo;ve been following along with The Scripting Games over the past couple of iterations, you know that we&rsquo;ve been trying some different, new things. This Winter Games, we did a team-based series of events that threw some <em>really</em> complex scenarios at you. However, we know some folks would like to see the next Summer Games include a less-complex track that perhaps includes a focus on one-liners.<br>
(Not that one-liners are an essential part of a work environment, but they&rsquo;re fun and a good competitive thing - this is <em>games</em>, after all.)<br>
So we&rsquo;re looking for your ideas. Drop a comment, and tell us how you think the next Games should be structured.<br>
**However, before you comment, **understand that judging by official, expert judges gets <em>extremely</em> difficult. Multiple 10 events across 250 entries and you&rsquo;ve got a _metric butt _<em>tonne</em> of work for our volunteers to do. Quite frankly, it&rsquo;s unlikely we&rsquo;ll be able to provide a score-per-entry with that kind of volume. The folks who do judging just can&rsquo;t take that much time off work. Seriously, even if a judge only had to look at an entry for 2 minutes, that can easily be more than 80 hours of work to look at every entry. It just isn&rsquo;t do-able.<br>
So, in your comment, include some thoughts on what you&rsquo;d like to see for the judging/scoring side as well, keeping in mind the desire of judges to also have family lives and jobs. What&rsquo;s your real goal in participating in the Games? To get <em>community</em> feedback (comments) on what you&rsquo;ve done? We can arrange that. Is it perhaps educational to have judges pick out &ldquo;noteworthy&rdquo; (both good and bad) entries and comment on them, as a learning guide? Or are you solely after having a &ldquo;known&rdquo; expert offer commentary on your entry - which isn&rsquo;t something we can guarantee if there are a large number of entries?<br>
Help us understand what you&rsquo;re in it for, and give us some ideas for creating a Summer event that&rsquo;s _fun, _as well as educational.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Saturday 007 in review</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-13-powershell-saturday-007-in-review/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-13-powershell-saturday-007-in-review/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:55:44 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;PowerShell Saturday was a huge success. Thank you to all of the speakers, event organizers, and most of all attendees for making it a great day. A new Iron Scripter was crowned and received this awesome trophy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bf9xA3zCAAARsYk.jpg" alt="Embedded image permalink"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Congrats to Stephen Owen aka @SRed13!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There were many great sessions for both beginners and advanced scripters. Some of the speakers even posted slides, videos, and scripts of their presentations. Check out Brian Wilhite’s, @bwhilhite1979, ‘CIM’narios &lt;a href="http://t.co/SZdsUBcOdV"&gt;downloads&lt;/a&gt; from the event. Ashley McGlone, @GoateePFE, posted his beginner sessions including slides, video, and the coveted scripts &lt;a href="http://t.co/y5VaRNA3i5"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>PowerShell Saturday was a huge success. Thank you to all of the speakers, event organizers, and most of all attendees for making it a great day. A new Iron Scripter was crowned and received this awesome trophy.</p><p><img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bf9xA3zCAAARsYk.jpg" alt="Embedded image permalink"/><p>Congrats to Stephen Owen aka @SRed13!</p><p>There were many great sessions for both beginners and advanced scripters. Some of the speakers even posted slides, videos, and scripts of their presentations. Check out Brian Wilhite’s, @bwhilhite1979, ‘CIM’narios<a href="http://t.co/SZdsUBcOdV">downloads</a> from the event. Ashley McGlone, @GoateePFE, posted his beginner sessions including slides, video, and the coveted scripts<a href="http://t.co/y5VaRNA3i5">here</a>.</p><p>If you attended and haven’t requested your free ebook from O’Reilly (the flyer was in the goody bag), you might be surprised by the list that is available.</p><p>Until next time, Happy Scripting!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Testing for the Presence of a Registry Key and Value</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-10-testing-for-the-presence-of-a-registry-key-and-value/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-10-testing-for-the-presence-of-a-registry-key-and-value/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 10 Feb 2014 17:41:19 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;There are a number of different ways to test for the presence of a registry key and value in PowerShell. Here’s how I like to go about it. We’ll use an example key &lt;strong&gt;HKLM:\SOFTWARE\TestSoftware&lt;/strong&gt; with a single value &lt;strong&gt;Version&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/02/testing-for-the-presence-of-a-registry-key-and-value.html"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>There are a number of different ways to test for the presence of a registry key and value in PowerShell. Here’s how I like to go about it. We’ll use an example key <strong>HKLM:\SOFTWARE\TestSoftware</strong> with a single value <strong>Version</strong>:<br><a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/02/testing-for-the-presence-of-a-registry-key-and-value.html">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 02/06/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-09-phillyposh-02062014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-09-phillyposh-02062014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 10 Feb 2014 01:26:38 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Art Beane gave a presentation using PowerShell to automate applications using &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/com/default.mspx"&gt;COM&lt;/a&gt; . A &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-02"&gt;copy of his presentation materials&lt;/a&gt; are available on our &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH"&gt;GitHub Repository&lt;/a&gt;. Due to recording issues, we do not &lt;a href="http://youtu.be/Q0wFY2JPSMg"&gt;We do have a recording&lt;/a&gt; of this meeting on our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;YouTube channel.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Art Beane gave a presentation using PowerShell to automate applications using<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/com/default.mspx">COM</a> . A<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-02">copy of his presentation materials</a> are available on our<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH">GitHub Repository</a>. Due to recording issues, we do not<a href="http://youtu.be/Q0wFY2JPSMg">We do have a recording</a> of this meeting on our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">YouTube channel.</a></p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Problems with Windows Live Logins</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-09-problems-with-windows-live-logins/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-09-problems-with-windows-live-logins/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 09 Feb 2014 20:39:47 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I know we&amp;rsquo;re currently seeing folks having a problem logging into the site by means of Windows Live accounts. Unfortunately, the problem is on Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s end - we&amp;rsquo;ve submitted a ticket.&lt;br&gt;
In the meantime, I want to point out a neat feature that can help: You can log in using a different social account, and if it or you provides the same e-mail address that you use with your Live account, our site will link the two. From then on you can log into the same profile on our site using either social account. Makes a nice backup.&lt;br&gt;
For this linking to work, you (a) need to know the e-mail address that you use to log into Windows Live. You then need to (b1) log in using a social account that has the same e-mail address for you, or (b2) log in using a social account that doesn&amp;rsquo;t provide an e-mail to us. In the case of (b2), we&amp;rsquo;ll then prompt you for an e-mail address, and you provide the same one you use to log into Windows Live. That&amp;rsquo;s how we link your profile to the new social account.&lt;br&gt;
Social accounts that fall into the (b2) category include BlogSpot.com, Twitter, and LiveJournal.&lt;br&gt;
We very much want to get Windows Live working again. We&amp;rsquo;re working on it, and you can contact our admin@ email alias if you think you have any clues for helping.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I know we&rsquo;re currently seeing folks having a problem logging into the site by means of Windows Live accounts. Unfortunately, the problem is on Microsoft&rsquo;s end - we&rsquo;ve submitted a ticket.<br>
In the meantime, I want to point out a neat feature that can help: You can log in using a different social account, and if it or you provides the same e-mail address that you use with your Live account, our site will link the two. From then on you can log into the same profile on our site using either social account. Makes a nice backup.<br>
For this linking to work, you (a) need to know the e-mail address that you use to log into Windows Live. You then need to (b1) log in using a social account that has the same e-mail address for you, or (b2) log in using a social account that doesn&rsquo;t provide an e-mail to us. In the case of (b2), we&rsquo;ll then prompt you for an e-mail address, and you provide the same one you use to log into Windows Live. That&rsquo;s how we link your profile to the new social account.<br>
Social accounts that fall into the (b2) category include BlogSpot.com, Twitter, and LiveJournal.<br>
We very much want to get Windows Live working again. We&rsquo;re working on it, and you can contact our admin@ email alias if you think you have any clues for helping.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Using PowerShell Parameter Validation to Make Your Day Easier</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-04-using-powershell-parameter-validation-to-make-your-day-easier/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-04-using-powershell-parameter-validation-to-make-your-day-easier/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Feb 2014 03:59:24 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;A number of entries in the Winter Scripting Games use parameter validation, but some that I have seen may not be using it correctly or to its full potential.&lt;br&gt;
Writing functions or scripts require a variety of parameters which have different requirements based on a number of items. It could require a collection, objects of a certain type or even a certain range of items that it should only accept.&lt;br&gt;
The idea of parameter validation is that you can specify specific checks on a parameter that is being used on a function or script. If the value or collection that is passed to the parameter doesn’t meet the specified requirements, a terminating error is thrown and the execution of the code halts and gives you an error stating (usually readable) the reason for the halt. This is very powerful and allows you to have much tighter control over the input that is going into the function. You don’t want to have your script go crazy halfway into the code execution because the values sent to the parameter were completely off of the wall.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://learn-powershell.net/2014/02/04/using-powershell-parameter-validation-to-make-your-day-easier/"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>A number of entries in the Winter Scripting Games use parameter validation, but some that I have seen may not be using it correctly or to its full potential.<br>
Writing functions or scripts require a variety of parameters which have different requirements based on a number of items. It could require a collection, objects of a certain type or even a certain range of items that it should only accept.<br>
The idea of parameter validation is that you can specify specific checks on a parameter that is being used on a function or script. If the value or collection that is passed to the parameter doesn’t meet the specified requirements, a terminating error is thrown and the execution of the code halts and gives you an error stating (usually readable) the reason for the halt. This is very powerful and allows you to have much tighter control over the input that is going into the function. You don’t want to have your script go crazy halfway into the code execution because the values sent to the parameter were completely off of the wall.<br><a href="http://learn-powershell.net/2014/02/04/using-powershell-parameter-validation-to-make-your-day-easier/">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>MY 2014 Public POWERCLASS is Now Open for Registration</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-03-my-2014-public-powerclass-is-now-open-for-registration/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-03-my-2014-public-powerclass-is-now-open-for-registration/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 03 Feb 2014 18:44:02 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m going to be running a 3-day POWERCLASS April 2, 3, and 4 near Raleigh-Durham, NC! You can get &lt;a href="http://events.concentratedtech.com"&gt;full details on my company&amp;rsquo;s website&lt;/a&gt;, including pricing and class descriptions.&lt;br&gt;
Don&amp;rsquo;t leave near Raleigh-Durham? Well, it&amp;rsquo;s a fun place, and not that expensive to visit. More importantly, I&amp;rsquo;m &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; going to be doing a huge road-show and visiting a bunch of cities. Right now, my schedule is almost full through _September, _so this may well be the only public class I do in 2014. It might therefore be worth your while to take a short trip!&lt;br&gt;
The class will be VERY limited in size - just 16 students, max, and I&amp;rsquo;ll be happy with a bunch fewer. This is a &lt;em&gt;hardcore&lt;/em&gt; class. We&amp;rsquo;re going to assume you&amp;rsquo;ve conquered the basics of Windows PowerShell and that you&amp;rsquo;re looking to implement best practices, start using PowerShell for real production tasks, and learn more about PowerShell performance and troubleshooting. It&amp;rsquo;s a &amp;ldquo;bring your own laptop&amp;rdquo; hands-on class, too, so you&amp;rsquo;ll get tons of hands-on time with an instructor who really cares about what you learn.&lt;br&gt;
This is all-new material, and you won&amp;rsquo;t find it anyplace else. It&amp;rsquo;s applicable to v2 through v4, although some things - we WILL be covering DSC, for example - only apply to specific versions (and you&amp;rsquo;ll learn which is which as we go).&lt;br&gt;
It&amp;rsquo;s the best PowerShell class I could come up with - I hope you&amp;rsquo;ll join me.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I&rsquo;m going to be running a 3-day POWERCLASS April 2, 3, and 4 near Raleigh-Durham, NC! You can get<a href="http://events.concentratedtech.com">full details on my company&rsquo;s website</a>, including pricing and class descriptions.<br>
Don&rsquo;t leave near Raleigh-Durham? Well, it&rsquo;s a fun place, and not that expensive to visit. More importantly, I&rsquo;m <em>not</em> going to be doing a huge road-show and visiting a bunch of cities. Right now, my schedule is almost full through _September, _so this may well be the only public class I do in 2014. It might therefore be worth your while to take a short trip!<br>
The class will be VERY limited in size - just 16 students, max, and I&rsquo;ll be happy with a bunch fewer. This is a <em>hardcore</em> class. We&rsquo;re going to assume you&rsquo;ve conquered the basics of Windows PowerShell and that you&rsquo;re looking to implement best practices, start using PowerShell for real production tasks, and learn more about PowerShell performance and troubleshooting. It&rsquo;s a &ldquo;bring your own laptop&rdquo; hands-on class, too, so you&rsquo;ll get tons of hands-on time with an instructor who really cares about what you learn.<br>
This is all-new material, and you won&rsquo;t find it anyplace else. It&rsquo;s applicable to v2 through v4, although some things - we WILL be covering DSC, for example - only apply to specific versions (and you&rsquo;ll learn which is which as we go).<br>
It&rsquo;s the best PowerShell class I could come up with - I hope you&rsquo;ll join me.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Scripting Games event 1 close</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-03-scripting-games-event-1-close/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-02-03-scripting-games-event-1-close/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 03 Feb 2014 11:57:25 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Event 1 is over and the judging is complete.&lt;br&gt;
First off congratulations to every team that posted an entry - the events in these games are different and we&amp;rsquo;ve tried to up the challenge level to account for it being a team based.&lt;br&gt;
The high scorers for event 1 are:&lt;br&gt;
1.Troll Bait with 22 points&lt;br&gt;
2.Kitton Mittons with 22 points&lt;br&gt;
3.Aliens with 20 points&lt;br&gt;
4.PhillyPosh with 20 points&lt;br&gt;
5.Thanks4TheInvite with 17 points&lt;br&gt;
6.TecHaH with 17 points&lt;br&gt;
7.Bengals with 17 points&lt;br&gt;
8.TPUG THUGS with 16 points&lt;br&gt;
9.DuPSOGD2 with 16 points&lt;br&gt;
10.Hogans Heroes with 16 points&lt;br&gt;
Congratulations to them.&lt;br&gt;
Good luck to everyone with the remaining events&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Event 1 is over and the judging is complete.<br>
First off congratulations to every team that posted an entry - the events in these games are different and we&rsquo;ve tried to up the challenge level to account for it being a team based.<br>
The high scorers for event 1 are:<br>
1.Troll Bait with 22 points<br>
2.Kitton Mittons with 22 points<br>
3.Aliens with 20 points<br>
4.PhillyPosh with 20 points<br>
5.Thanks4TheInvite with 17 points<br>
6.TecHaH with 17 points<br>
7.Bengals with 17 points<br>
8.TPUG THUGS with 16 points<br>
9.DuPSOGD2 with 16 points<br>
10.Hogans Heroes with 16 points<br>
Congratulations to them.<br>
Good luck to everyone with the remaining events</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Reporting On Installed Windows Programs Via The Registry</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-31-reporting-on-installed-windows-programs-via-the-registry/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-31-reporting-on-installed-windows-programs-via-the-registry/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:37:18 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Quite a common request for working with Windows machines is to report the software installed on them. If you don’t have a centralised system for reporting on client software (many places don’t) then you may turn to some form of scripted method to obtain this information.&lt;br&gt;
Most people tend to head to &lt;strong&gt;Add / Remove Programs&lt;/strong&gt; when thinking about what software is installed in Windows. However, not all applications will always populate information in there, depending on how they have been installed. Additionally, to query that information you would typically query the WMI class Win32_Product, however this &lt;a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974524"&gt;can lead to performance issues&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/01/reporting-on-installed-windows-programs-via-the-registry.html"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Quite a common request for working with Windows machines is to report the software installed on them. If you don’t have a centralised system for reporting on client software (many places don’t) then you may turn to some form of scripted method to obtain this information.<br>
Most people tend to head to <strong>Add / Remove Programs</strong> when thinking about what software is installed in Windows. However, not all applications will always populate information in there, depending on how they have been installed. Additionally, to query that information you would typically query the WMI class Win32_Product, however this <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974524">can lead to performance issues</a>.<br><a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/01/reporting-on-installed-windows-programs-via-the-registry.html">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The Scripting Games Winter 2014 – Update on Event 1 Scores</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-29-the-scripting-games-winter-2014-update-on-event-1-scores/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-29-the-scripting-games-winter-2014-update-on-event-1-scores/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jan 2014 18:16:58 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Note that scorecards for the first event will not be accurate immediately on Sunday when judging closes; we have the scores in the database, but they&amp;rsquo;re not tagged in a way the system can find them. The bug has been fixed, but I need to go through and manually re-tag the first day&amp;rsquo;s scorecards, and it&amp;rsquo;s going to take a couple of days. This also affect the leaderboard display. I hope to have it fixed over the weekend. Thanks for your patience!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Note that scorecards for the first event will not be accurate immediately on Sunday when judging closes; we have the scores in the database, but they&rsquo;re not tagged in a way the system can find them. The bug has been fixed, but I need to go through and manually re-tag the first day&rsquo;s scorecards, and it&rsquo;s going to take a couple of days. This also affect the leaderboard display. I hope to have it fixed over the weekend. Thanks for your patience!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Episode 255 – PowerScripting Podcast – Steve Roberts from Amazon on AWS and PowerShell</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-27-episode-255-powerscripting-podcast-steve-roberts-from-amazon-on-aws-and-powershell/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-27-episode-255-powerscripting-podcast-steve-roberts-from-amazon-on-aws-and-powershell/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:07:40 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A Podcast about Windows PowerShell.&lt;/strong&gt;
Listen:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/powerscripting/PSPodcast-255.mp3"&gt;&lt;img src="http://powerscripting.libsyn.com/img/podcastIcon.gif" alt=""&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="" class="ps-heading"&gt;&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;In This Episode
Tonight on the PowerScripting Podcast, we talk to Steve Roberts from Amazon on Amazon Web Services and PowerShell.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;h2 id="" class="ps-heading"&gt;&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;News
-
[The Scripting Games](https://powershell.org/category/announcements/scripting-games/) are going on now!
-
[PowerShell Saturday #007](http://powershellsaturday.com/007/) is on February 8th
-
[PowerShell Saturday #008](http://powershellsaturday.com/008/) is on February 15th
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;h2 id="" class="ps-heading"&gt;&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Interview
Guest - Steve Roberts
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;h4 id="" class="ps-heading"&gt;&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;Links
-
[Amazon Web Services](http://aws.amazon.com/)
-
[AWS Tools for PowerShell](http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/)
-
AWS .Net / PowerShell team
[Windows &amp;amp; .Net Developer Center](http://aws.amazon.com/net/)
-
[Blog](http://aws.amazon.com/net/)
-
Twitter: [@awsfornet](https://twitter.com/awsfornet)
-
[Handling credentials with PowerShell tools](http://blogs.aws.amazon.com/net/post/Tx36NATIEAMER5V/Handling-Credentials-with-AWS-Tools-for-Windows-PowerShell)
Chatroom Highlights:
[21:55:58] [http://amzn.com/1430264519](http://amzn.com/1430264519)
[21:56:13] Pro PowerShell for Amazon Web Services
[21:56:33] Steve (speaking) was a big help with the book
[21:56:43] his team was great
[https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/](https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/)
[http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/us/7-inch-tablet-fz-m1.asp](http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/us/7-inch-tablet-fz-m1.asp)
[http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/](http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/)
[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html)
[http://aws.amazon.com/](http://aws.amazon.com/)
[http://amzn.com/1430264519](http://amzn.com/1430264519)
[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html)
[http://aws.amazon.com/net/](http://aws.amazon.com/net/)
[http://blogs.aws.amazon.com/net](http://blogs.aws.amazon.com/net)
[http://www.musicradar.com/us/news/guitars/trent-reznor-talks-johnny-cash-168199](http://www.musicradar.com/us/news/guitars/trent-reznor-talks-johnny-cash-168199)
[https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1607005_10202465193703988_1046463679_n.jpg](https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1607005_10202465193703988_1046463679_n.jpg)
## what does AWS stand for again?
DexterPOSh, please add ## before your questions so they are easier for us to pick out
@JonWalz ...got it ##
## can you give a quick/small example of the differences between AWS and Azure?
## Can I extend my local Lab to include machines from AWS ?
## does he have a blog
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;h4 id="" class="ps-heading"&gt;&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;The Question - Hero/Power
-
Thor
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><strong>A Podcast about Windows PowerShell.</strong>
Listen:</p><p><strong><a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/powerscripting/PSPodcast-255.mp3"><img src="http://powerscripting.libsyn.com/img/podcastIcon.gif" alt=""/></strong></p><h2 id="" class="ps-heading"><a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><pre><code>In This Episode
Tonight on the PowerScripting Podcast, we talk to Steve Roberts from Amazon on Amazon Web Services and PowerShell.</code></pre><h2 id="" class="ps-heading"><a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><pre><code>News
-
[The Scripting Games](https://powershell.org/category/announcements/scripting-games/) are going on now!
-
[PowerShell Saturday #007](http://powershellsaturday.com/007/) is on February 8th
-
[PowerShell Saturday #008](http://powershellsaturday.com/008/) is on February 15th</code></pre><h2 id="" class="ps-heading"><a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><pre><code>Interview
Guest - Steve Roberts</code></pre><h4 id="" class="ps-heading"><a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h4><pre><code>Links
-
[Amazon Web Services](http://aws.amazon.com/)
-
[AWS Tools for PowerShell](http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/)
-
AWS .Net / PowerShell team
[Windows &amp; .Net Developer Center](http://aws.amazon.com/net/)
-
[Blog](http://aws.amazon.com/net/)
-
Twitter: [@awsfornet](https://twitter.com/awsfornet)
-
[Handling credentials with PowerShell tools](http://blogs.aws.amazon.com/net/post/Tx36NATIEAMER5V/Handling-Credentials-with-AWS-Tools-for-Windows-PowerShell)
Chatroom Highlights:
[21:55:58] [http://amzn.com/1430264519](http://amzn.com/1430264519)
[21:56:13] Pro PowerShell for Amazon Web Services
[21:56:33] Steve (speaking) was a big help with the book
[21:56:43] his team was great
[https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/](https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/)
[http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/us/7-inch-tablet-fz-m1.asp](http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughpad/us/7-inch-tablet-fz-m1.asp)
[http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/](http://aws.amazon.com/powershell/)
[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html)
[http://aws.amazon.com/](http://aws.amazon.com/)
[http://amzn.com/1430264519](http://amzn.com/1430264519)
[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html)
[http://aws.amazon.com/net/](http://aws.amazon.com/net/)
[http://blogs.aws.amazon.com/net](http://blogs.aws.amazon.com/net)
[http://www.musicradar.com/us/news/guitars/trent-reznor-talks-johnny-cash-168199](http://www.musicradar.com/us/news/guitars/trent-reznor-talks-johnny-cash-168199)
[https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1607005_10202465193703988_1046463679_n.jpg](https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1607005_10202465193703988_1046463679_n.jpg)
## what does AWS stand for again?
DexterPOSh, please add ## before your questions so they are easier for us to pick out
@JonWalz ...got it ##
## can you give a quick/small example of the differences between AWS and Azure?
## Can I extend my local Lab to include machines from AWS ?
## does he have a blog</code></pre><h4 id="" class="ps-heading"><a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h4><pre><code>The Question - Hero/Power
-
Thor</code></pre>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Saturday 007 style</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-23-powershell-saturday-007-style/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-23-powershell-saturday-007-style/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:46:49 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Last year was the first annual PowerShell Saturday in Charlotte, NC. We were 002. This year, we are back and will be blowing minds in 007 style. We have some great speakers and sessions lined up and there are still &lt;a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/powershell-saturday-007-charlotte-nc-tickets-9019263861?ref=ecount"&gt;tickets available&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The popular Iron Scripter! competition will also be back.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All of the information you could want to know about this event is located on the &lt;a href="http://powershellsaturday.com/007/"&gt;PowerShell Saturday&lt;/a&gt; site. Jump on over, take a look around, and don’t forget to register.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Last year was the first annual PowerShell Saturday in Charlotte, NC. We were 002. This year, we are back and will be blowing minds in 007 style. We have some great speakers and sessions lined up and there are still<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/powershell-saturday-007-charlotte-nc-tickets-9019263861?ref=ecount">tickets available</a>.</p><p>The popular Iron Scripter! competition will also be back.</p><p>All of the information you could want to know about this event is located on the<a href="http://powershellsaturday.com/007/">PowerShell Saturday</a> site. Jump on over, take a look around, and don’t forget to register.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Tip from the Head Coach of the 2014 Winter Scripting Games: Design for Performance and Efficiency!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-23-powershell-tip-from-the-head-coach-of-the-2014-winter-scripting-games-design-for-performance-and-efficiency/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-23-powershell-tip-from-the-head-coach-of-the-2014-winter-scripting-games-design-for-performance-and-efficiency/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 23 Jan 2014 14:28:33 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;There are several concepts that come to mind when discussing the topic of designing your PowerShell commands for performance and efficiency, but in my opinion one of the items at the top of the list is &amp;ldquo;Filtering Left&amp;rdquo; which is what I&amp;rsquo;ll be covering in this blog article.&lt;br&gt;
First, let&amp;rsquo;s start out by taking a look at an example of a simple one-liner command that&amp;rsquo;s poorly written from a performance and efficiency standpoint:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://mikefrobbins.com/2014/01/23/powershell-tip-from-the-head-coach-of-the-2014-winter-scripting-games-design-for-performance-and-efficiency/"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;br&gt;
µ&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>There are several concepts that come to mind when discussing the topic of designing your PowerShell commands for performance and efficiency, but in my opinion one of the items at the top of the list is &ldquo;Filtering Left&rdquo; which is what I&rsquo;ll be covering in this blog article.<br>
First, let&rsquo;s start out by taking a look at an example of a simple one-liner command that&rsquo;s poorly written from a performance and efficiency standpoint:<br><a href="http://mikefrobbins.com/2014/01/23/powershell-tip-from-the-head-coach-of-the-2014-winter-scripting-games-design-for-performance-and-efficiency/">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.<br>
µ</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PhillyPoSH 01/09/2014 meeting summary and presentation materials</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-21-phillyposh-01092014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-21-phillyposh-01092014-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Jan 2014 22:53:52 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/nicemarmot"&gt;Lido Paglia&lt;/a&gt; gave a presentation entitled “A PowerShell beginner’s guide to using GitHub”. During his talk Lido went over the history of GitHub and how you can use it to manage your scripts and to collaboratively code (e.g. The Winter Scripting games!). A &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-01"&gt;copy of his presentation materials&lt;/a&gt; are available on our &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH"&gt;GitHub Repository&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/nicemarmot"&gt;Lido Paglia&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://mellositmusings.com/"&gt;John Mello&lt;/a&gt; both went over their approach to the homework problem they presented during the &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/2013/11/12/phillyposh-11072013-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/"&gt;11/07/2013&lt;/a&gt; meeting. You can find a copy of &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-01/blob/master/PhotoFlashback.ps1"&gt;Lido&amp;rsquo;s&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-01/blob/master/PhotoFlashback_JohnMello.ps1"&gt;John&amp;rsquo;s&lt;/a&gt; script in our &lt;a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH"&gt;GitHub Repository&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=culZp4EwmdU"&gt;recording of this meeting&lt;/a&gt; has been posted to our &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg"&gt;YouTube channel&lt;/a&gt;; please note that there are some audio issues near the end of the recording.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<ol><li><a href="https://twitter.com/nicemarmot">Lido Paglia</a> gave a presentation entitled “A PowerShell beginner’s guide to using GitHub”. During his talk Lido went over the history of GitHub and how you can use it to manage your scripts and to collaboratively code (e.g. The Winter Scripting games!). A<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-01">copy of his presentation materials</a> are available on our<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH">GitHub Repository</a>.</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/nicemarmot">Lido Paglia</a> and<a href="http://mellositmusings.com/">John Mello</a> both went over their approach to the homework problem they presented during the<a href="https://powershell.org/2013/11/12/phillyposh-11072013-meeting-summary-and-presentation-materials/">11/07/2013</a> meeting. You can find a copy of<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-01/blob/master/PhotoFlashback.ps1">Lido&rsquo;s</a> and<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH/2014-01/blob/master/PhotoFlashback_JohnMello.ps1">John&rsquo;s</a> script in our<a href="https://github.com/PhillyPoSH">GitHub Repository</a>.</li><li>A<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=culZp4EwmdU">recording of this meeting</a> has been posted to our<a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAc_ow5FIJtRpvew__9Iqzg">YouTube channel</a>; please note that there are some audio issues near the end of the recording.</li></ol>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Adding and Removing Items from a PowerShell Array</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-21-adding-and-removing-items-from-a-powershell-array/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-21-adding-and-removing-items-from-a-powershell-array/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:46:35 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Adding and removing Items from a PowerShell array is a topic which can lead to some confusion, so here are a few tips for you.&lt;br&gt;
Create an array and we will note the type &lt;a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.array(v=vs.110).aspx"&gt;System.Array&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/01/adding-and-removing-items-from-a-powershell-array.html"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Adding and removing Items from a PowerShell array is a topic which can lead to some confusion, so here are a few tips for you.<br>
Create an array and we will note the type <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.array(v=vs.110).aspx">System.Array</a>:<br><a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/01/adding-and-removing-items-from-a-powershell-array.html">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Testing for Admin Privileges in PowerShell</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-21-testing-for-admin-privileges-in-powershell/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-21-testing-for-admin-privileges-in-powershell/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Jan 2014 10:27:53 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Sometimes when running a PowerShell script you may need to test at the beginning whether the process it was called from had Windows admin privileges in order to be able to achieve what it needs to do. Prior to PowerShell v4 I had used something along the lines of the following to test for this condition – not the most obvious piece of code ever to be fair:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/01/testing-for-admin-privileges-in-powershell.html"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Sometimes when running a PowerShell script you may need to test at the beginning whether the process it was called from had Windows admin privileges in order to be able to achieve what it needs to do. Prior to PowerShell v4 I had used something along the lines of the following to test for this condition – not the most obvious piece of code ever to be fair:<br><a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/01/testing-for-admin-privileges-in-powershell.html">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Winter Scripting Games 2014 Tip #2: Use #Requires to let PowerShell do the work for you</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-20-winter-scripting-games-2014-tip-2-use-requires-to-let-powershell-do-the-work-for-you/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-20-winter-scripting-games-2014-tip-2-use-requires-to-let-powershell-do-the-work-for-you/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 21 Jan 2014 03:51:34 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;In Version 2 of PowerShell, you had the ability to use #Requires –Version 2.0 to ensure that your scripts/functions would only run at a specified PowerShell version to prevent folks running an older version from wondering why things weren&amp;rsquo;t working that well.&lt;br&gt;
In this article, I will show you a couple of new additions to the #Requires statement that will make your life easier when writing functions that require specific pre-requisites rather than coding your own methods&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://learn-powershell.net/2014/01/20/winter-scripting-games-2014-tip-2-use-requires-to-let-powershell-do-the-work-for-you/"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article..&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>In Version 2 of PowerShell, you had the ability to use #Requires –Version 2.0 to ensure that your scripts/functions would only run at a specified PowerShell version to prevent folks running an older version from wondering why things weren&rsquo;t working that well.<br>
In this article, I will show you a couple of new additions to the #Requires statement that will make your life easier when writing functions that require specific pre-requisites rather than coding your own methods<br><a href="http://learn-powershell.net/2014/01/20/winter-scripting-games-2014-tip-2-use-requires-to-let-powershell-do-the-work-for-you/">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article..</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Scripting Games 2014 – event submission tip</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-18-scripting-games-2014-event-submission-tip/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-18-scripting-games-2014-event-submission-tip/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 18 Jan 2014 12:21:45 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve testing out the judging system using the practice event and one thing jumped out at me.&lt;br&gt;
It was a lot easier to understand the entries for those teams that included a transcript of their entry.&lt;br&gt;
I would very strongly recommend that you include a transcript of your entry running. As a minimum I would recommend that you include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;the solution running - show each type of input required by the scenario (pipeline, single values, file etc)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;if parameter validation is asked for - show that in action&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;show error handling in action if you can&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;show the partial contents of any output file&lt;br&gt;
Transcripts make for happy judges. You want your judges to be happy don&amp;rsquo;t you&amp;hellip;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>I&rsquo;ve testing out the judging system using the practice event and one thing jumped out at me.<br>
It was a lot easier to understand the entries for those teams that included a transcript of their entry.<br>
I would very strongly recommend that you include a transcript of your entry running. As a minimum I would recommend that you include:</p><ul><li>the solution running - show each type of input required by the scenario (pipeline, single values, file etc)</li><li>if parameter validation is asked for - show that in action</li><li>show error handling in action if you can</li><li>show the partial contents of any output file<br>
Transcripts make for happy judges. You want your judges to be happy don&rsquo;t you&hellip;</li></ul>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Winter Scripting Games 2014 Tip #1: Avoid the aliases</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-16-winter-scripting-games-2014-tip-1-avoid-the-aliases/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-16-winter-scripting-games-2014-tip-1-avoid-the-aliases/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 17 Jan 2014 03:57:53 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Having been a judge for the previous 2 Scripting Game competitions as well as competing in the 2 before that, I have seen my share of scripts submitted that didn&amp;rsquo;t quite meet the cut of what I felt were the best scripts. It doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean that they wouldn&amp;rsquo;t work out in the real world in a production environment (Ok, some wouldn&amp;rsquo;t :)), but some were just really hard to read or others were doing things that I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t consider to be a good practice. The first of several articles that I will be doing will start out with the use of aliases in scripts and why this is not necessarily a good idea.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://learn-powershell.net/2014/01/16/winter-scripting-games-2014-tip-1-avoid-the-aliases/"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Having been a judge for the previous 2 Scripting Game competitions as well as competing in the 2 before that, I have seen my share of scripts submitted that didn&rsquo;t quite meet the cut of what I felt were the best scripts. It doesn&rsquo;t mean that they wouldn&rsquo;t work out in the real world in a production environment (Ok, some wouldn&rsquo;t :)), but some were just really hard to read or others were doing things that I wouldn&rsquo;t consider to be a good practice. The first of several articles that I will be doing will start out with the use of aliases in scripts and why this is not necessarily a good idea.<br><a href="http://learn-powershell.net/2014/01/16/winter-scripting-games-2014-tip-1-avoid-the-aliases/">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Tip #3 from the Winner of the Advanced Category in the 2013 Scripting Games</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-16-powershell-tip-3-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-16-powershell-tip-3-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 16 Jan 2014 14:18:54 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;In my previous blog article (&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/2014/01/09/powershell-tip-2-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/"&gt;PowerShell Tip #2&lt;/a&gt;), I left off with the subject of inline help and stated there was a better way. I’m fast-forwarding through lots of concepts and jumping right into “Advanced Functions and Scripts” with this tip because they are where you’ll find the answer to a “better way” to add inline help.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://mikefrobbins.com/2014/01/16/powershell-tip-3-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;br&gt;
µ&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>In my previous blog article (<a href="https://powershell.org/2014/01/09/powershell-tip-2-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/">PowerShell Tip #2</a>), I left off with the subject of inline help and stated there was a better way. I’m fast-forwarding through lots of concepts and jumping right into “Advanced Functions and Scripts” with this tip because they are where you’ll find the answer to a “better way” to add inline help.<br><a href="http://mikefrobbins.com/2014/01/16/powershell-tip-3-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.<br>
µ</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Winter Scripting Games 2014</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-14-winter-scripting-games-2014/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-14-winter-scripting-games-2014/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 14 Jan 2014 10:00:48 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/PowerShell-Scripting-Games-Logo.png"&gt;&lt;img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/PowerShell-Scripting-Games-Logo.png" alt="PowerShell-Scripting-Games-Logo"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
If you’re looking to learn or improve on existing skills as part of a new year goal and one of those in PowerShell, then you may find it useful to check out the &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/category/announcements/scripting-games/page/2/"&gt;Winter Scripting Games 2014&lt;/a&gt;. When you are looking to improve your scripting skills it can sometimes be tricky if you don’t have a practical problem to solve. By taking part in these games you will have a number of opportunities to apply your skills to _real _problems.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/01/winter-scripting-games-2014.html"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/PowerShell-Scripting-Games-Logo.png"><img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/PowerShell-Scripting-Games-Logo.png" alt="PowerShell-Scripting-Games-Logo"/><br>
If you’re looking to learn or improve on existing skills as part of a new year goal and one of those in PowerShell, then you may find it useful to check out the <a href="https://powershell.org/category/announcements/scripting-games/page/2/">Winter Scripting Games 2014</a>. When you are looking to improve your scripting skills it can sometimes be tricky if you don’t have a practical problem to solve. By taking part in these games you will have a number of opportunities to apply your skills to _real _problems.<br><a href="http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2014/01/winter-scripting-games-2014.html">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Tampa Bay Powershell User Group – Jan Meeting</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-13-tampa-bay-powershell-user-group-jan-meeting/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-13-tampa-bay-powershell-user-group-jan-meeting/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 13 Jan 2014 13:37:14 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Next meeting:&lt;br&gt;
Topic: Winter Scripting Games Kickoff and Team formation&lt;br&gt;
Jan 16th 2014 6 – 8 PM back at Tek System Tampa Office&lt;br&gt;
FOOD PROVDED&lt;img src="http://cdn.powershell.org/wp/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)"&gt;&lt;br&gt;
RSVP via – &lt;a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/tampa-powershell-user-group-tickets-1634714475"&gt;http://www.eventbrite.com/e/tampa-powershell-user-group-tickets-1634714475&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
4301 West Boy Scout Boulevard&lt;br&gt;
Suite 590&lt;br&gt;
Tampa, FL 33607&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Next meeting:<br>
Topic: Winter Scripting Games Kickoff and Team formation<br>
Jan 16th 2014 6 – 8 PM back at Tek System Tampa Office<br>
FOOD PROVDED<img src="http://cdn.powershell.org/wp/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)"><br>
RSVP via –<a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/tampa-powershell-user-group-tickets-1634714475">http://www.eventbrite.com/e/tampa-powershell-user-group-tickets-1634714475</a><br>
4301 West Boy Scout Boulevard<br>
Suite 590<br>
Tampa, FL 33607</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Scripting Games Winter 2014 – WE HAS PRIZES!!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-10-scripting-games-winter-2014-we-has-prizes/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-10-scripting-games-winter-2014-we-has-prizes/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 10 Jan 2014 19:43:49 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Many thanks to SAPIEN Technologies&lt;/strong&gt; for providing - completely without us asking - first-place and overall-best prizes for The Scripting Games!&lt;br&gt;
We&amp;rsquo;ll have copies of PowerShell Studio (x2), PrimalScript (x2), and the entire SAPIEN Software Suite (x1) for our overall top-scoring team at the end of the Games. Team members can decide how to divvy up the loo themselves.&lt;br&gt;
Remember that Event 1 is coming up soon:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Instructions available 2014-01-18 00:00:00 UTC&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Entries accepted starting 2014-01-19 00:00:00 UTC&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;All entries due by 2014-01-26 00:00:00 UTC&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;**You must be registered and on a team
before
we begin accepting entries, or you will not be able to participate. **Any latecomers will not be allowed to chat or upload files, even if they join a team.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><strong>Many thanks to SAPIEN Technologies</strong> for providing - completely without us asking - first-place and overall-best prizes for The Scripting Games!<br>
We&rsquo;ll have copies of PowerShell Studio (x2), PrimalScript (x2), and the entire SAPIEN Software Suite (x1) for our overall top-scoring team at the end of the Games. Team members can decide how to divvy up the loo themselves.<br>
Remember that Event 1 is coming up soon:</p><ul><li>Instructions available 2014-01-18 00:00:00 UTC</li><li>Entries accepted starting 2014-01-19 00:00:00 UTC</li><li>All entries due by 2014-01-26 00:00:00 UTC</li></ul><p>**You must be registered and on a team
before
we begin accepting entries, or you will not be able to participate. **Any latecomers will not be allowed to chat or upload files, even if they join a team.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Tip #2 from the Winner of the Advanced Category in the 2013 Scripting Games</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-09-powershell-tip-2-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-09-powershell-tip-2-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:10:35 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tip #2 - Comment (Document) your code!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
This is another one of those tips that probably isn&amp;rsquo;t very popular, but regardless of how good you are at writing PowerShell scripts and functions, they&amp;rsquo;re useless if no one else can figure out how to use them. You might be thinking that you&amp;rsquo;re the only one who uses the PowerShell code that you write, but I&amp;rsquo;m sure that you like to go on vacation just like the rest of us and none of us are going to live forever.&lt;br&gt;
In &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/2014/01/03/powershell-tip-1-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/"&gt;my tip #1 blog&lt;/a&gt; you learned that you need to &amp;ldquo;Read the Help!&amp;rdquo;. This tip builds on the first one because it allows others to &amp;ldquo;Read the Help!&amp;rdquo; for the PowerShell code that you write.&lt;br&gt;
The type of help that you want to provide for your PowerShell functions and scripts is &amp;ldquo;Comment Based Help&amp;rdquo;. &lt;a href="http://mikefrobbins.com/2014/01/09/powershell-tip-2-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;br&gt;
µ&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><strong>Tip #2 - Comment (Document) your code!</strong><br>
This is another one of those tips that probably isn&rsquo;t very popular, but regardless of how good you are at writing PowerShell scripts and functions, they&rsquo;re useless if no one else can figure out how to use them. You might be thinking that you&rsquo;re the only one who uses the PowerShell code that you write, but I&rsquo;m sure that you like to go on vacation just like the rest of us and none of us are going to live forever.<br>
In <a href="https://powershell.org/2014/01/03/powershell-tip-1-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/">my tip #1 blog</a> you learned that you need to &ldquo;Read the Help!&rdquo;. This tip builds on the first one because it allows others to &ldquo;Read the Help!&rdquo; for the PowerShell code that you write.<br>
The type of help that you want to provide for your PowerShell functions and scripts is &ldquo;Comment Based Help&rdquo;. <a href="http://mikefrobbins.com/2014/01/09/powershell-tip-2-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.<br>
µ</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Summit North America 2014 – Some More Reasons to Register!</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-07-powershell-summit-north-america-2014-some-more-reasons-to-register/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-07-powershell-summit-north-america-2014-some-more-reasons-to-register/</guid><pubDate>Tue, 07 Jan 2014 19:17:37 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;PowerShell Summit North America Registration is in full swing, and we&amp;rsquo;ve got about 50 more spots to reach our break-even goal. Hopefully, those of you that have been holding off for budgetary reasons are now &amp;ldquo;weapons free&amp;rdquo; and can plan to join us in April 2014!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 id="confirmed-powershell-product-team-presenters" class="ps-heading"&gt;Confirmed PowerShell Product Team Presenters&lt;a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#confirmed-powershell-product-team-presenters" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"&gt;&lt;i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We&amp;rsquo;ve confirmed a great set of speakers from the team itself, including Jason Shirk, Lee Holmes, Kenneth Hanson, and Hemant Manhawar. Of course, Shell Father Jeffrey Snover will also be presenting a couple of sessions!&lt;br&gt;
This helps really round out our &lt;a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-north-america/summit-agenda/"&gt;agenda&lt;/a&gt;, along with several special events that we&amp;rsquo;ve got planned. You&amp;rsquo;ll participate in a large-scale Iron Scripter event, mix and mingle with team members in Microsoft&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;top of the world&amp;rdquo; cafe in downtown Bellevue, and rub elbows with PowerShell experts from all over the world during our pre-event mixer.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>PowerShell Summit North America Registration is in full swing, and we&rsquo;ve got about 50 more spots to reach our break-even goal. Hopefully, those of you that have been holding off for budgetary reasons are now &ldquo;weapons free&rdquo; and can plan to join us in April 2014!</p><h2 id="confirmed-powershell-product-team-presenters" class="ps-heading">Confirmed PowerShell Product Team Presenters<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#confirmed-powershell-product-team-presenters" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>We&rsquo;ve confirmed a great set of speakers from the team itself, including Jason Shirk, Lee Holmes, Kenneth Hanson, and Hemant Manhawar. Of course, Shell Father Jeffrey Snover will also be presenting a couple of sessions!<br>
This helps really round out our<a href="https://powershell.org/community-events/summit/powershell-summit-north-america/summit-agenda/">agenda</a>, along with several special events that we&rsquo;ve got planned. You&rsquo;ll participate in a large-scale Iron Scripter event, mix and mingle with team members in Microsoft&rsquo;s &ldquo;top of the world&rdquo; cafe in downtown Bellevue, and rub elbows with PowerShell experts from all over the world during our pre-event mixer.</p><h2 id="become-verified-effective" class="ps-heading">Become VERIFIED EFFECTIVE™<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#become-verified-effective" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>We&rsquo;re going to provide a <strong>free voucher for a VERIFIED EFFECTIVE PowerShell Toolmaker</strong> exam to everyone who&rsquo;s already registered, and to everyone who registers <strong>before the end of January</strong>. This is a $250 value, and you&rsquo;ll be able to take your exam after the Summit is over. VERIFIED EFFECTIVE recognition will be valid for one year. Vouchers will be distributed at the Summit itself, and must be used by the end of June, 2014.</p><h2 id="join-awpp-for-10-off" class="ps-heading">Join AWPP for 10% Off<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#join-awpp-for-10-off" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>Effective July 2014, we will be launching the Association for PowerShell Professionals (AWPP). Future Summit events will be open <em>only</em> to AWPP members (your member fee includes Summit attendance, along with other benefits). Anyone who has registered for the 2014 Summit already, or <strong>who registers before the end of January 2014</strong>, will receive 10% off their first-year AWPP membership, which will also guarantee you admission to the 2015 Summit. That discount will be valid throughout 2014, so you can join at any time during the year. Vouchers will be distributed at the Summit. Your AWPP membership also includes a VERIFIED EFFECTIVE exam, which you can use anytime in your membership year. That means you could easily get verified for two years in a row, at a massive savings.</p><h2 id="save-some-cash-on-the-summit" class="ps-heading">Save Some Cash on the Summit<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#save-some-cash-on-the-summit" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>It&rsquo;s sad, but credit card merchant fees pile up. For the Summit, they can be a lot. So if you&rsquo;d like to pay by company check, we&rsquo;re happy to help. Just contact treasurer@ this domain, and we&rsquo;ll be happy to send you an invoice and accept your payment via check. That&rsquo;ll save you a few bucks.<br>
Don&rsquo;t forget that we&rsquo;ve also negotiated killer $109/night room rates at two hotels that are just a short walk from the Summit venue. We&rsquo;ve also worked out a discounted rate on an airport shuttle from Sea-Tac, so you won&rsquo;t need a rental car. We&rsquo;re doing as much as we can to help minimize your costs.</p><h2 id="please-tell-a-friend" class="ps-heading">Please, Tell a Friend<a class="ps-heading-anchor" href="#please-tell-a-friend" aria-label="Link to this section" title="Link to this section"><i class="fas fa-link" aria-hidden="true"/></a></h2><p>If you can&rsquo;t attend the Summit, or if you plan to attend, or even if you&rsquo;ve already registered - please help us get the word out. We really do need 50 more folks in order to break even, and we need them to help us use up our hotel room block as well, or the organization will be on the hook for those costs. It&rsquo;s crucial that we break even on this event if we&rsquo;re to have more in the future. We don&rsquo;t have a marketing budget, so the more you can do to help folks realize that the Summit exists, the better our chances for succeeding. Thank you in advance!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Scripting Games Winter 2014 – Team Discussion Tips</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-06-scripting-games-winter-2014-team-discussion-tips/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-06-scripting-games-winter-2014-team-discussion-tips/</guid><pubDate>Mon, 06 Jan 2014 15:42:52 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;When you&amp;rsquo;re logged into the Games, you&amp;rsquo;ll notice that clicking on your team pulls up a &amp;ldquo;team discussion&amp;rdquo; box. That&amp;rsquo;s a shared discussion area for you and your team.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/figure_15-001.png" alt="figure_15-001"&gt;&lt;br&gt;
However, if you click on one of the files you&amp;rsquo;ve uploaded, you&amp;rsquo;ll see the discussion turn into a &amp;ldquo;File Discussion.&amp;rdquo; We retain a separate thread for each file you upload, so that you and your team can discuss that file specifically.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/figure_15-002.png" alt="figure_15-002"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>When you&rsquo;re logged into the Games, you&rsquo;ll notice that clicking on your team pulls up a &ldquo;team discussion&rdquo; box. That&rsquo;s a shared discussion area for you and your team.<br><img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/figure_15-001.png" alt="figure_15-001"><br>
However, if you click on one of the files you&rsquo;ve uploaded, you&rsquo;ll see the discussion turn into a &ldquo;File Discussion.&rdquo; We retain a separate thread for each file you upload, so that you and your team can discuss that file specifically.<br><img src="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/figure_15-002.png" alt="figure_15-002"/><p>Deleting a file also deletes its conversation thread. However, <strong>replace</strong>ing a file retains the thread.<br>
Note that coaches may add commentary to any of these, so it&rsquo;s worth your while to quickly click on each file and see if there are comments available.<br>
And of course, your team doesn&rsquo;t HAVE to use these discussion threads. You&rsquo;re also welcome to use email, Skype, smoke signals, or telepathy. Your choice. Keep in mind that our coaches <em>will</em> use these to offer comments on any files you&rsquo;ve added.<br>
Speaking of that: Coaches <em>are not notified</em> when you upload files. That means our coaches are just wondering around looking for files to comment upon. So it&rsquo;s in your interests, if you want their feedback, to get something in the system!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Scripting Games Winter 2014 – Teams in Danger</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-05-scripting-games-winter-2014-teams-in-danger/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-05-scripting-games-winter-2014-teams-in-danger/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 05 Jan 2014 22:37:11 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Note that as of the time of this post (about 2pm Pacific on Jan 5th), the following teams do not have enough players to participate in the upcoming Practice Event:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Lake County Hoosiers&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Annihilators&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;AZPOSH&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Avengers&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;PeopleTecIsAwesome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time Travel is Dangerous&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Kotagiris&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;wow. much power. very shell.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Blasters&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;CCC&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Anteaters&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Barracudas&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Hypothermia&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Bearcats&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;#PSexec&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Avalanche&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Bull Gators&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Alligators&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To reiterate: **You must have 2-6 players signed into the Web site and joined to your team, or you will be unable to post entries. **Anyone joining after midnight UTC on Jan 6th &lt;strong&gt;will not count&lt;/strong&gt; toward your team total for the Practice Event.&lt;br&gt;
Many of the above teams are &amp;ldquo;private,&amp;rdquo; which means nobody can join them without the team invite code.&lt;br&gt;
If you are on one of the following teams, especially if it&amp;rsquo;s public, _consider quitting NOW and joining another public team that needs players. _Otherwise, you may miss out on the practice event, which starts in just a couple of hours.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Note that as of the time of this post (about 2pm Pacific on Jan 5th), the following teams do not have enough players to participate in the upcoming Practice Event:</p><ul><li>Lake County Hoosiers</li><li>A</li><li>Annihilators</li><li>AZPOSH</li><li>Avengers</li><li>PeopleTecIsAwesome</li><li>Time Travel is Dangerous</li><li>Kotagiris</li><li>wow. much power. very shell.</li><li>Blasters</li><li>CCC</li><li>Anteaters</li><li>Barracudas</li><li>Hypothermia</li><li>Bearcats</li><li>#PSexec</li><li>Avalanche</li><li>Bull Gators</li><li>Alligators</li></ul><p>To reiterate: **You must have 2-6 players signed into the Web site and joined to your team, or you will be unable to post entries. **Anyone joining after midnight UTC on Jan 6th <strong>will not count</strong> toward your team total for the Practice Event.<br>
Many of the above teams are &ldquo;private,&rdquo; which means nobody can join them without the team invite code.<br>
If you are on one of the following teams, especially if it&rsquo;s public, _consider quitting NOW and joining another public team that needs players. _Otherwise, you may miss out on the practice event, which starts in just a couple of hours.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Script for Setting Up and Demoing a DSC Pull Server</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-05-script-for-setting-up-and-demoing-a-dsc-pull-server/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-05-script-for-setting-up-and-demoing-a-dsc-pull-server/</guid><pubDate>Sun, 05 Jan 2014 18:59:47 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/dsc.zip"&gt;DSC Setup and Demo Scripts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
I recently set up a virtual machine to use for Desired State Configuration (DSC) demos. I wanted to make the demo-ing fairly brainless, as DSC requires a number of setup steps to get a pull server running. So I took some demo scripts Microsoft offered from TechEd 2013, updated them to work with Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM, and thought I&amp;rsquo;d offer them to you.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;SetupDSC.ps1&lt;/strong&gt; is the main script. Now, because I didn&amp;rsquo;t want to use good ol&amp;rsquo; Start-Demo, there&amp;rsquo;s a who crapload of kinda ugly Write-Debug statements. That way I can get an &amp;ldquo;about to do ____&amp;rdquo; message and then have the script pause before doing it. Lets me explain to the class what&amp;rsquo;s about to happen. You can remove all that crud if you like.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;InstallPullServerConfig.ps1&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;PSWSIISEndpoint.psm1&lt;/strong&gt; are the updated Microsoft scripts. SetupDSC.ps1 calls these. They&amp;rsquo;re intended to run locally; you&amp;rsquo;ll need to be _on _the machine you want to make into a pull server, and it needs to be Windows Server 2012 R2 (the DSC pull server role is part of the OS, not part of Windows Management Framework v4). Setup takes a few minutes, and will install IIS. This sets up an HTTP pull server.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;SampleConfig.ps1&lt;/strong&gt; is a sample DSC configuration, targeted to a computer named MEMBER2. It just specifies that the Windows Server Backup feature be installed. SetupDSC.ps1 actually runs this, which produces a MOF. SetupDSC.ps1 also copies the MOF to the DSC pull server configuration directory.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;SampleSetPullMode.ps1&lt;/strong&gt; also gets run by SetupDSC.ps1. This contains a DSC Local Configuration Manager configuration, targeted to MEMBER2, that turns on pull mode and directs MEMBER2 to pull the previously-created configuration. I think I have it refreshing every 5 minutes, which is totally unrealistic for production. Again, this was made for class demos, but you can adjust the time or leave it off to default to 30min. Running this script creates the MOF and pushes it to MEMBER2. That, in turn, causes MEMBER2 to start pulling the sample config, which causes Windows Server Backup to be installed.&lt;br&gt;
SetupDSC.ps1 has some additional code to show that Windows Server Backup isn&amp;rsquo;t installed, and then is installed (after you give the pull time to occur).&lt;br&gt;
Anyway, might need some tweaking to use in production, but hopefully it&amp;rsquo;ll give you a snapshot of the whole DSC process. Much thanks to &lt;a href="http://readsource.co.uk/blog/2013/10/1/configuring-powershell-dsc-pull-mode"&gt;James Dawson&amp;rsquo;s article on DSC&lt;/a&gt;, which gave me a couple of the tweaks I needed to get all this working on RTM code.&lt;br&gt;
Enjoy.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p><a href="https://powershell.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/dsc.zip">DSC Setup and Demo Scripts</a><br>
I recently set up a virtual machine to use for Desired State Configuration (DSC) demos. I wanted to make the demo-ing fairly brainless, as DSC requires a number of setup steps to get a pull server running. So I took some demo scripts Microsoft offered from TechEd 2013, updated them to work with Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM, and thought I&rsquo;d offer them to you.<br><strong>SetupDSC.ps1</strong> is the main script. Now, because I didn&rsquo;t want to use good ol&rsquo; Start-Demo, there&rsquo;s a who crapload of kinda ugly Write-Debug statements. That way I can get an &ldquo;about to do ____&rdquo; message and then have the script pause before doing it. Lets me explain to the class what&rsquo;s about to happen. You can remove all that crud if you like.<br><strong>InstallPullServerConfig.ps1</strong> and <strong>PSWSIISEndpoint.psm1</strong> are the updated Microsoft scripts. SetupDSC.ps1 calls these. They&rsquo;re intended to run locally; you&rsquo;ll need to be _on _the machine you want to make into a pull server, and it needs to be Windows Server 2012 R2 (the DSC pull server role is part of the OS, not part of Windows Management Framework v4). Setup takes a few minutes, and will install IIS. This sets up an HTTP pull server.<br><strong>SampleConfig.ps1</strong> is a sample DSC configuration, targeted to a computer named MEMBER2. It just specifies that the Windows Server Backup feature be installed. SetupDSC.ps1 actually runs this, which produces a MOF. SetupDSC.ps1 also copies the MOF to the DSC pull server configuration directory.<br><strong>SampleSetPullMode.ps1</strong> also gets run by SetupDSC.ps1. This contains a DSC Local Configuration Manager configuration, targeted to MEMBER2, that turns on pull mode and directs MEMBER2 to pull the previously-created configuration. I think I have it refreshing every 5 minutes, which is totally unrealistic for production. Again, this was made for class demos, but you can adjust the time or leave it off to default to 30min. Running this script creates the MOF and pushes it to MEMBER2. That, in turn, causes MEMBER2 to start pulling the sample config, which causes Windows Server Backup to be installed.<br>
SetupDSC.ps1 has some additional code to show that Windows Server Backup isn&rsquo;t installed, and then is installed (after you give the pull time to occur).<br>
Anyway, might need some tweaking to use in production, but hopefully it&rsquo;ll give you a snapshot of the whole DSC process. Much thanks to<a href="http://readsource.co.uk/blog/2013/10/1/configuring-powershell-dsc-pull-mode">James Dawson&rsquo;s article on DSC</a>, which gave me a couple of the tweaks I needed to get all this working on RTM code.<br>
Enjoy.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Scripting Games Winter 2014 Notice</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-03-scripting-games-winter-2014-notice/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-03-scripting-games-winter-2014-notice/</guid><pubDate>Sat, 04 Jan 2014 00:05:28 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;Due to some vagaries in the system, we have some users who &amp;ldquo;belong&amp;rdquo; to multiple teams.&lt;br&gt;
I think I&amp;rsquo;ve corrected the problem so it won&amp;rsquo;t crop up again.&lt;br&gt;
A couple of players&amp;rsquo; team memberships were manually reduced to 1. If it was you, and you&amp;rsquo;re suddenly on the wrong team, post in the forum and I&amp;rsquo;ll fix it for you.&lt;br&gt;
For everyone else, when you go to the event list you may be redirected to a &amp;ldquo;You&amp;rsquo;re on multiple teams&amp;rdquo; page, and asked to click the team you wish to remain on. Your &amp;ldquo;join date&amp;rdquo; will not change, so you&amp;rsquo;ll still be able to participate in the events. You&amp;rsquo;ll simply be de-listed from the other teams.&lt;br&gt;
As always, post in the forums if you need help.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>Due to some vagaries in the system, we have some users who &ldquo;belong&rdquo; to multiple teams.<br>
I think I&rsquo;ve corrected the problem so it won&rsquo;t crop up again.<br>
A couple of players&rsquo; team memberships were manually reduced to 1. If it was you, and you&rsquo;re suddenly on the wrong team, post in the forum and I&rsquo;ll fix it for you.<br>
For everyone else, when you go to the event list you may be redirected to a &ldquo;You&rsquo;re on multiple teams&rdquo; page, and asked to click the team you wish to remain on. Your &ldquo;join date&rdquo; will not change, so you&rsquo;ll still be able to participate in the events. You&rsquo;ll simply be de-listed from the other teams.<br>
As always, post in the forums if you need help.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Scripting Games Winter 2014 – Practice Event Rules</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-03-scripting-games-winter-2014-practice-event-rules/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-03-scripting-games-winter-2014-practice-event-rules/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Jan 2014 19:40:29 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;On Monday, our practice event should be open at &lt;a href="http://ScriptingGames.org"&gt;http://ScriptingGames.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
**If you formed a team but only have one player on Monday morning, you will not be able to submit entries. **I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed several folks who have only a single player but who have set their team membership to &amp;ldquo;private,&amp;rdquo; meaning nobody can join you unless you provide them with your invitation code.&lt;br&gt;
**Your team must have 2-6 players to participate in the Games. **
You may consider leaving your team (it&amp;rsquo;ll be deleted if you&amp;rsquo;re the last player in it) and joining one of the public teams. Once you join a new team, you will not be able to fully participate until the current, in-progress event is over and the next event begins.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>On Monday, our practice event should be open at<a href="http://ScriptingGames.org">http://ScriptingGames.org</a>.<br>
**If you formed a team but only have one player on Monday morning, you will not be able to submit entries. **I&rsquo;ve noticed several folks who have only a single player but who have set their team membership to &ldquo;private,&rdquo; meaning nobody can join you unless you provide them with your invitation code.<br>
**Your team must have 2-6 players to participate in the Games. **
You may consider leaving your team (it&rsquo;ll be deleted if you&rsquo;re the last player in it) and joining one of the public teams. Once you join a new team, you will not be able to fully participate until the current, in-progress event is over and the next event begins.</p><p>Please keep this in mind. In order to participate in the participate in the Practice Event, **you must have at least 2 players on-team by the time the event starts. **Late joiners will NOT be able to participate. So settle up your team memberships this weekend!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>PowerShell Tip #1 from the Winner of the Advanced Category in the 2013 Scripting Games</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-03-powershell-tip-1-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-03-powershell-tip-1-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/</guid><pubDate>Fri, 03 Jan 2014 17:16:16 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;In case you haven&amp;rsquo;t heard, the 2014 Winter Scripting Games are just now getting started. Regardless of your skill level with PowerShell, it couldn&amp;rsquo;t be a better time to participate since this is the first time in the history of the scripting games that you&amp;rsquo;ll be able to work as part of a team and receive proactive feedback (before your code is judged) from a team of expert coaches who use PowerShell in the real world on a daily basis. Ultimately, the scripting games make learning PowerShell more interesting and challenging while giving you the opportunity to network with other enthusiasts in the industry.&lt;br&gt;
Now it&amp;rsquo;s time to talk about a PowerShell tip that I wanted to share.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Tip #1 - Read the Help!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
While this may not be the most popular tip, believe it or not, it&amp;rsquo;s one of the most important and it&amp;rsquo;s something that&amp;rsquo;s so simple it&amp;rsquo;s often times overlooked. In my opinion, you&amp;rsquo;ll never truly be effective with PowerShell and be able to figure things out for yourself until you learn to read the help.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="http://mikefrobbins.com/2014/01/03/powershell-tip-1-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/"&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt; to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.&lt;br&gt;
µ&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>In case you haven&rsquo;t heard, the 2014 Winter Scripting Games are just now getting started. Regardless of your skill level with PowerShell, it couldn&rsquo;t be a better time to participate since this is the first time in the history of the scripting games that you&rsquo;ll be able to work as part of a team and receive proactive feedback (before your code is judged) from a team of expert coaches who use PowerShell in the real world on a daily basis. Ultimately, the scripting games make learning PowerShell more interesting and challenging while giving you the opportunity to network with other enthusiasts in the industry.<br>
Now it&rsquo;s time to talk about a PowerShell tip that I wanted to share.<br><strong>Tip #1 - Read the Help!</strong><br>
While this may not be the most popular tip, believe it or not, it&rsquo;s one of the most important and it&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s so simple it&rsquo;s often times overlooked. In my opinion, you&rsquo;ll never truly be effective with PowerShell and be able to figure things out for yourself until you learn to read the help.<br><a href="http://mikefrobbins.com/2014/01/03/powershell-tip-1-from-the-winner-of-the-advanced-category-in-the-2013-scripting-games/">Click here</a> to be redirected to the original post of this article on the author’s blog site where you can read the remainder of the article.<br>
µ</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Winter Scripting Games Team Formation in Full Swing</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-02-winter-scripting-games-team-formation-in-full-swing/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-02-winter-scripting-games-team-formation-in-full-swing/</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Jan 2014 21:40:34 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;It looks like Team Formation is in full swing, with more than a dozen teams already registered for The Scripting Games: Winter 2014.&lt;br&gt;
Some team tips:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If you create a new team, we&amp;rsquo;re assigning it a default team name. You can immediately change that.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Teams start as public, but we&amp;rsquo;re allowing you to make them private. This removed the team from the &amp;ldquo;join up&amp;rdquo; list, and gives you an invite code. You can distribute that invite to anyone you wish to join your team, and they can use it to sign up.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The public team list shows a time zone offset. This is kind of the average number of minutes between you and the other people on the team. So basically, lower numbers means you&amp;rsquo;re all closer to the same time zone. You don&amp;rsquo;t necessarily NEED to be close; it depends on how you all plan to collaborate.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Right now, we have about a half-dozen public teams that you can join if you&amp;rsquo;d like to participate in the Games. Remember, a team must have at least 2 players in order to participate.&lt;br&gt;
I&amp;rsquo;m loving some of the team names, like &lt;strong&gt;Excessive Use of -Force&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Troll Bait&lt;/strong&gt;. I know several local user groups are forming teams as well, and encouraging their members to join. You&amp;rsquo;re welcome to use email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or even standing outside and screaming as ways of recruiting members to your team.&lt;br&gt;
The practice event starts Jan 6. &lt;strong&gt;Please pay attention to PowerShell.org&amp;rsquo;s home page&lt;/strong&gt; for late-breaking announcements - if we have a problem, we&amp;rsquo;ll post there to let you know.&lt;br&gt;
Good luck!&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>It looks like Team Formation is in full swing, with more than a dozen teams already registered for The Scripting Games: Winter 2014.<br>
Some team tips:</p><ul><li>If you create a new team, we&rsquo;re assigning it a default team name. You can immediately change that.</li><li>Teams start as public, but we&rsquo;re allowing you to make them private. This removed the team from the &ldquo;join up&rdquo; list, and gives you an invite code. You can distribute that invite to anyone you wish to join your team, and they can use it to sign up.</li><li>The public team list shows a time zone offset. This is kind of the average number of minutes between you and the other people on the team. So basically, lower numbers means you&rsquo;re all closer to the same time zone. You don&rsquo;t necessarily NEED to be close; it depends on how you all plan to collaborate.</li></ul><p>Right now, we have about a half-dozen public teams that you can join if you&rsquo;d like to participate in the Games. Remember, a team must have at least 2 players in order to participate.<br>
I&rsquo;m loving some of the team names, like<strong>Excessive Use of -Force</strong> and <strong>Troll Bait</strong>. I know several local user groups are forming teams as well, and encouraging their members to join. You&rsquo;re welcome to use email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or even standing outside and screaming as ways of recruiting members to your team.<br>
The practice event starts Jan 6. <strong>Please pay attention to PowerShell.org&rsquo;s home page</strong> for late-breaking announcements - if we have a problem, we&rsquo;ll post there to let you know.<br>
Good luck!</p>
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Using Install-WindowsFeature with Offline Source</title><link>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-01-using-install-windowsfeature-with-offline-source/</link><guid>https://powershell.org/articles/2014-01-01-using-install-windowsfeature-with-offline-source/</guid><pubDate>Wed, 01 Jan 2014 17:04:06 +0000</pubDate><description>&lt;p&gt;As you probably know, the Install-WindowsFeature (used to be Add-WindowsFeature; that&amp;rsquo;s now an alias to Install-) can add Windows roles and features from PowerShell. If your server doesn&amp;rsquo;t have the installer source on the local disk, then the cmdlet will default to grabbing it from Windows Update - a pain for disconnected servers. Install-WindowsFeature does offer a means of using an alternate local source (like a DVD or file server location), but using it can be a bit hinky.&lt;br&gt;
The cmdlet help indicates that you should point to a Windows image (WIM) file. That&amp;rsquo;ll work, but you can&amp;rsquo;t just provide the path of the WIM. You also need to put a &lt;strong&gt;wim:/&lt;/strong&gt; prefix on the front of the path, and a suffix that tells the thing which edition of Windows you&amp;rsquo;re working with, so that it grabs the right bits. For example, &lt;strong&gt;wim:/d:/sources/install.wim:4&lt;/strong&gt;. That &amp;ldquo;4&amp;rdquo; is the suffix for Datacenter Edition, telling the installer to look at index 4 within the WIM for the necessary feature.&lt;/p&gt;</description><content:encoded>&lt;![CDATA[<p>As you probably know, the Install-WindowsFeature (used to be Add-WindowsFeature; that&rsquo;s now an alias to Install-) can add Windows roles and features from PowerShell. If your server doesn&rsquo;t have the installer source on the local disk, then the cmdlet will default to grabbing it from Windows Update - a pain for disconnected servers. Install-WindowsFeature does offer a means of using an alternate local source (like a DVD or file server location), but using it can be a bit hinky.<br>
The cmdlet help indicates that you should point to a Windows image (WIM) file. That&rsquo;ll work, but you can&rsquo;t just provide the path of the WIM. You also need to put a <strong>wim:/</strong> prefix on the front of the path, and a suffix that tells the thing which edition of Windows you&rsquo;re working with, so that it grabs the right bits. For example, <strong>wim:/d:/sources/install.wim:4</strong>. That &ldquo;4&rdquo; is the suffix for Datacenter Edition, telling the installer to look at index 4 within the WIM for the necessary feature.</p><ul><li>1 is Standard Edition Server Core</li><li>2 is Standard Edition</li><li>3 is Datacenter Edition Server Core</li><li>4 is Datacenter Edition</li></ul><p>Wanted to post this, as there isn&rsquo;t a good example in the docs.<br><strong>UPDATE:</strong> I&rsquo;ve<a href="https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/812950/install-windowsfeature-docs-incomplete">bugged this in Connect</a> if you&rsquo;d like to vote it up, so that the team gains sight of it and can have an opportunity to expand the docs.</p>
]]></content:encoded></item></channel></rss>