Windows PowerShell provides commands that accomplish many of the tasks that you will need in a production environment. Sometimes, a command is not available but the .NET Framework provides an alternate means of accomplishing a task. Because Windows PowerShell is built on the .NET Framework, it is able to access those alternate means. In this module, you will learn how to discover and run Windows PowerShell commands, and how to use .NET Framework components from inside Windows PowerShell. These two techniques will provide you with the most flexibility and capability for accomplishing tasks in a production environment.

In this module, students will learn how to combine tools – advanced functions that perform a specific task – and a controller script that provides a user interface or automates a business process.

In this module, students will learn how to perform basic error handling in scripts. The focus will be about how to add error handling to existing tools, primarily as a time-saving mechanism (instead of having students write new tools). A side benefit of this approach is that it will help build the skills that you must have to analyze and reuse existing code written by someone else.

In this module, students will learn how to read, manipulate, and write data in XML files. XML files provide a robust, yet straightforward way to store both flat and hierarchical data. XML files are more flexible than CSV, more accessible for small amounts of data than SQL Server, and easier to code against that Excel automation.

In this module, students will learn how to write Desired State Configuration (DSC) configuration files, deploy those files to servers, and monitor servers’ configurations.

In this module, students will learn how to use native Windows PowerShell features to analyze and debug existing scripts. These skills are also useful when students have to debug their own scripts.

In this module, students will learn about the features of the Windows PowerShell Workflow technology.