Get guidance from a well-known scripting expert—and teach yourself the fundamentals of Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript). This tutorial delivers hands-on, self-paced learning labs to help you get started automating Microsoft Windows administration—one step at a time.

Discover how to:

• Manage folders and files with a single script
• Configure network components with Windows Management Instrumentation
• Administer users and groups using subroutines and Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI)
• Design logon scripts to configure and maintain user environments
• Monitor and manage network printers
• Back up and edit the registry—avoiding common pitfalls
• Handle errors and troubleshoot scripts
• Simplify administration for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Internet Information Services 6.0

Includes a CD featuring:

• All practice exercises
• 100+ sample scripts to adapt for your own work

For customers who purchase an ebook version of this title, instructions for downloading the CD files can be found in the ebook.

Expert recommendations, pragmatically applied.

Automate system administration using Windows PowerShell best practices—and optimize your operational efficiency. With this practical guide, Windows PowerShell expert and instructor Ed Wilson delivers field-tested tips, real-world examples, and candid advice culled from administrators across a range of business and technical scenarios. If you’re an IT professional with Windows PowerShell experience, this book is ideal.

Discover how to:

• Use Windows PowerShell to automate Active Directory tasks
• Explore available WMI classes and methods with CIM cmdlets
• Identify and track scripting opportunities to avoid duplication
• Use functions to encapsulate business logic and reuse code
• Design your script’s best input method and output destination
• Test scripts by checking their syntax and performance
• Choose the most suitable method for running remote commands
• Manage software services with Desired State Configuration

Apply best practices for automating system administration with Windows PowerShell 2.0 and optimize your operational efficiency and results. This guide captures the field-tested tips, real-world lessons, and candid advice of practitioners across the range of business and technical scenarios and across the scripting life cycle. Discover how to:

• Take advantage of new features and cmdlets in Windows PowerShell 2.0
• Plan scripting usage scenarios and define standards Deploy Windows PowerShell 2.0 to desktops and servers
• Configure scripting environments
• Optimize remote scripting capabilities
• Work with Active Directory and WMI
• Design functions and modules
• Optimize input and output
• Handle errors
• Document scripts
• Test and troubleshoot scripts
• Avoid scripting pitfalls

The companion CD includes a fully searchable eBook and sample scripts.

For customers who purchase an ebook version of this title, instructions for downloading the CD files can be found in the ebook.