PowerShell v2 is included with the forthcoming Windows 7, but you can take advantage of it in your business now. PowerShell is much more than a command-line interface replacement for CMD.exe (though you could limit yourself to just that usage). It's also a scripting language designed for admins to improve administrative control, as well as to add to efficiency and productivity.
[ Read J. Peter Bruzzese's blog entry "Unleashing the power of PowerShell." | Learn more about Windows 7 in his "Top 10 things I like about Windows 7." ]
Based on the Community Technology Preview version (so some features will improve or change in the final release), PowerShell v2 offers the following enhancements:
Of all these features, the one that really excites me is remoting, which is the ability to run commands (cmdlets) against remote computers. With it, you can run a script or command on another person's PC in PowerShell from your PC or server. It's like Remote Desktop at the command-line level.
A cool aspect of remoting is that it runs in a hidden window on the other person's PC, so they won't know you executed a command on their screen. (Well, tech-savvy users might notice your instance of PowerShell running in Task Manager.)
Another advantage to PowerShell remoting is the ability to fan out remote commands to run on multiple PCs. That lets you manage several PCs with one set of commands, saving you from repeating the work on each remote PC. There is nothing that makes an administrator's life easier than being able to reach out and touch other computers remotely.
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