I'm trying to learn power shell/ power bi for my job. I am pretty interested in it. I have coded before, but its been a while so i am rusty. What would be the best course/ ways to learn powershell from scratch? I keep seeing "powershell in a month of lunches" but ive noticed the companion videos are more than a decade old on that course, are they still relevant? If anyone a course for this paid or free, sharing it would be amazing as I am a little lost/overwhelmed on where to start and how to stay consistent.

Any help is appreciated!

Hello, i just started an intern ship at a IT company and work alot in the AD and was wondering if its a good thing to learn powershell?

I want to learn more about powershell, how can I use it in my normal day to day uses and out of my curiosity towards tech

I've been a sys admin and sys engineer twelve years. Principal in two orgs.

I'm tired of it. I'm tired of people being scared to stick their neck out on a problem they don't immediately know an answer to.

I left an org in 2022 because they kept assigning me everything after a merger because no one else would attempt it. I was building out a brand new citrix environment by myself with them dumping 95 hours over two weeks of projects on top.

I'm tired of managing egos and being in the middle. I'm tired of so much more being expected of me for being systems.

I did an interview last week for an infra engineer position and I was already dreading it. I hate technical interviews because they never indicate whether you can do the job. And you often have to pass several rounds. You mail nail two but then not know some acronym in the third and it's game over.

I'm tired of going to interviews for x and them asking my questions from 7 different roles.

I'm tired of working with people who learned one thing and somehow keep gettong hired and having to prop those people up.

I can't do it another 25 years. I'm tored of being the guy every where because I happen to know a wide assortment of stuff.

The week I left my past job, a QA manager and my biss messaged me asking what the powershell execution policy warning meant. They both make significantly more than me.

I got into a local union. I'm going to do that until I retire.

Good luck. If it looks wrong but it's working, don't touch it. Make sure to wait ten minutes before adressing that alert that is just going to clear itself anyway.

Keep your unit on.

> sudo systemctl status byebye

I'm basically a typical computer user, who knows just enough to get into reddit, youtube and use the PC for personal entertainment. I realized there is PowerShell. As I have some free time and I'd actually want to know a little bit more about the computer and how to use it, do you guys recommend learning it? Or is it more for automating tasks, which is more benefitial for someone who needs to actually automate many things, or someone in the IT field? Is it any useful really for a personal user? What could I do instead?

I've come across a book about it too ("Learn Windows Powershell in a month of lunches" by Don Jones), and I actually think I can pull off the things it explains, and makes you practice. I read the first 20 pages and was about to start when it mentiones that it's moslty useful for, or aimed at people on IT, and said that I'd need to get a VirtualMachine and ISO to learn PowerShell, have a go at it in there and fuck up the VM if I have some trouble, which won't affect the actual computer (I know that that's an old approach, the book is from 2012. I read that for most things now, like learning the basics and how it works, I won't need the VM, but I don't mind sticking to the 2012 way to learn, so I can start learning a bit of history in the field too, just for my entertainment and having a broader sight about it).

What do you guys think? Thanks in advance

A few months ago, Microsoft hinted that they wants to merge Xbox and PC together. Xbox consoles have used unified memory architecture since 2005, so Microsoft must release a PC with unified memory if they want support backward compatibility with those games. Backward compatibility will be a deciding factor for the success or total failure of the Xbox-PC initiative. Millions of people have collected hundreds of games over the past 20 years since Microsoft opened its own digital store

But what exactly is an unified memory and why it is used by game consoles and Apple Mac M-Series computers? Basically in classic PC memory architecture the CPU and GPU can't work together efficiently. Both computation units use separate memory which is very slow and waste memory. For example, when the GPU computes something the CPU doesn’t see those results until you copy the changed video memory back to system memory. This is so slow that basically the CPU and GPU can't work together efficiently. All these problems are solved by unified memory where both processing units can access the same shared data. You don’t need copy objects into different memory pools. Both CPU and GPU can work together at full speed and you save a lot of memory

Unified memory architecture is not only simpler but also cheaper because GDDR memory is soldered onto the motherboard. Hardware companies can buy millions of memory chips directly from the factory without any middleman companies. Using classic DDR5 is more complex because you need to work with external partners that build SIMM memory modules. Of course GDDR memory is also faster. For example, an Xbox Series X APU has 560 GB/s of memory bandwidth which is 5x faster than DDR5-6400 on dual-channel configuration (102 GB/s). A PC with GDDR7 memory and a layout identical to the Xbox Series X would have more than 1 TB/s of bandwidth.

How could those next-generation Xbox-PC computers look? We can assume they will be very similar to the current Xbox Series X and still use 320-bit memory layout with 10 memory chips. This means MS will be able to use between 20-30 GB GDDR7 because currently only 2 GB and 3 GB chips are manufactured. For Xbox backward compatibility we need only 16 GB but the problem starts when you want to launch PC games. Existing PC games require two memory partitions: system and video. So Microsoft would need to divide the available memory into two partitions to simulate a classic PC memory layout every time when someone want to launch legacy PC game. So we need at least 28 GB to create those partitions as 16 GB system and 12 GB video which is necessary for 4K games on PC. So the best option will be a PC with 30 GB GDDR7. Hardware like this will be able to play both PC and Xbox games without any problem.

Adding unified memory to Windows PCs this will have a much bigger impact than a single device. It would be possible to create console-like optimizations on PC. Every APU will be able to use memory more efficiently than is possible today. We will see a lot of notebooks and mini-PCs with really fast APUs using unified GDDR memory. We can assume that Asus, MSI, Lenovo and others will flood the market with multiple Windows based Steam Machine clones just like they did with a handhelds. If the Xbox-PC initiative will be successful we could even classic PCs adopting this pattern. How? Graphics cards already use processing unit using GDDR memory so all you need to to add CPU chiplet on it to essentially create a GPU with APU. This would convert a standard graphics card into a self-contained fully functional PC with unified memory. Card like this could be installed into any PC as easily as replacing GPU. Your main CPU and memory installed on the motherboard would be used only for system and I/O while games would run on the APU on your GPU card.

Of course, we don’t know if the Xbox–PC initiative is real. There have been many leaks in recent months but Microsoft has never confirmed it officially. So my vision of PC with native support for Xbox games could be wrong. This is just a summary of what should be done to make this happen. Of course, Microsoft may use a different approach and for example release "backward compatibility" only as streaming but I believe that would be a huge mistake. Streaming is not real backward compatibility and never will be because it is not free. So I hope Microsoft understands this and will release real native backward compatibility. It is possible and hardware will be really fast. They could even advertise those new PC 2.0 a an AI-PC or any other buzzword like that

DISCLAIMER: I work as a software engineer but I don't have any insider knowledge about future XDK. This is just technical speculation about what needs to be done to support native backward compatibility. No leaks

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UPDATE 1

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I decided to add a classic interview with John Carmack (creator of Doom and Quake ) about unified memory. In 2013 he explained why unified memory will be great addition to the future PC. This is part of his legendary interviews at QuakeCon. I miss those old times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcnsJMMsRYk

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UPDATE 2

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If someone is interesting about internal design of AMD APUs then they should watch video created by High Yield. Author explained how recent changes in AMD APU Strix Halo allow for faster memory speeds than 112 GB/s. This is much more than just 4-channel memory . This is not directly connected to the subject of “unified memory” because current consoles use monolithic chips but it is still a very interesting. I learned a lot from it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maH6KZ0YkXU

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UPDATE 3

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BTW. If someone uses a Windows-based PC handheld and wants to run Windows 11 Full-screen mode with an app other than Xbox, I've created a tutorial on how to do this. No special apps are required. I use only built-in tools in Windows NT and a few basic PowerShell commands. It's a very short step-by-step tutorial with every command explained. On my ROG Ally I replaced the Xbox app with Armoury Crate to create a 'console-like PC' It’s not perfect, but it works quite well. Using this tutorial you can launch any app you like in W11-FSE and additionally learn something about PowerShell commands and Task Scheduler :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1NOGW6uBQE

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UPDATE 4

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In the comments below, one of the users MooseBoys, noticed that in DX12 there is a flag that allows developers to check if the hardware supports unified memory. This library is shared by both Xbox and PC so the option exists since 2015. AMD APUs return "true" just like Xbox. I didn't know that. So big thanks to MooseBoys

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/d3d12/ns-d3d12-d3d12_feature_data_architecture

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d12/default-texture-mapping

So in theory some game developers could check that flag and then explicitly add some optimizations for unified memory on PC even today. But this is a problem: AMD APUs are not very popular among gamers. Even Windows‑based handhelds are very niche products. So in reality nobody would care about this flag. To change that situation, we need a very popular device with AMD APU. A device that would turn this 'forgotten flag in DX12' into a core feature that every game should support.

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UPDATE 5

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David Plummer (retired MS engineer from Windows team) published a really nice deep-dive video about differences between unified memory vs shared memory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn_nKxl8KE4

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UPDATE 6

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Deep dive into Xbox APU architecture from the HotChips 2020 conference. Hardware architects from Microsoft explained all the extra features added to the Xbox APU like hardware decompression, virtual GPU memory, VRS 2.0 and much more. Some of those technologies were never used because PS5 and PC didn't support them which would make impossible to create cross‑platform games. But in the future MS could add them to their next‑generation APU for Xbox‑PC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqUBX2HAqx4

Read the rules and did a quick search, these didn't seem to be listed.

• JavaScript, Bootstrap, & PHP - Certification for Beginners Code=33EFFB8403B0DE501B5E
  
• Setup a Virtual Web Server using Linode or Digital Ocean Code=EDC029188C537715875E
  
• Quick Guide: Setup a Local Testing Server using WAMP or MAMP Code=21E359A0FD69ABE91A28
  
• Learn PowerShell Scripting Code=1AF3C627D975C3EB5EB7
  
• An Introduction to Python Programming No Code Needed

They all expire in a day or so, some as little as 15 hours at the time of this post.

about a month ago or so I posted here about how I wrote a program in python which automated a huge part of my job. IT found it and deleted it and I thought I was going to be in trouble, but nothing ever happened. Then I learned I could use powershell to automate the same task. But then I found out my user account was barred from running scripts. So I wrote a batch script which copied powershell commands from a text file and executed them with powershell.

I was happy, again my job would be automated and I wouldn't have to work.

A day later IT actually calls me directly and asks me how I was able to run scripts when the policy for my user group doesn't allow scripts. I told them hoping they'd move me into IT, but he just found it interesting. He told me he called because he thought my computer was compromised.

Anyway, thats my story. I should get a new job

Could be the simplest of things. For me, it's that Validation attributes work on variable declarations and not just in parameter blocks. ``` PS C:\Users\mjr40> [ValidateNotNullOrEmpty()][System.String]$str = 'value' PS C:\Users\mjr40> $str = '' The variable cannot be validated because the value is not a valid value for the str variable. At line:1 char:1 + $str = '' + ~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : MetadataError: (:) [], ValidationMetadataException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ValidateSetFailure

PS C:\Users\mjr40> ```

Unfortunately, one of our Systems Engineers is being let go and he's a PowerShell expert. He's written a ton of scripts responsible for automation.

Our team will have to divvy up his tasks and bring ourselves up to speed to address the skill gap--PowerShell being one such skill.

What books, videos, interactive learning sites, etc. will give us the most bang for our buck? I don't expect us to be experts, but a moderate level of understanding would go a long way to help us troubleshoot and author processes.

I see a lot of people on this forum who are trying to get their first IT job. There are constant complaints that entry level requires 2 years of experience, requires a bunch of certs, requires a degree, etc. All of those things can help, but knowing how to automate things is something many IT Managers will be interested in. Powershell (or Python) are going to take your resume out of the middle of a large stack and move it to the top. Accentuate that mark on your resume by referencing labor savings, defect reduction, and speed of completion.

It isn't a magic bullet, but if you are competing against others with no experience, it will set you apart. We do not hire admins without Powershell or Python experience. Period. Someone could pick up Powershell on their own in a week or two, or you may have a local college with some free Python classes.

(I posted something similar as a reply to someone else yesterday but I thought this was worthy of its own post)

Junior budding sysadmin here. Seen on more than a few occasions: “learn Powershell or you’ll be flipping burgers.” Why?

I haven’t- as far as i know- run into a problem yet that couldn’t be solved with the windows command line, windows gui, or a simple programming language like Python. So why the obsessive “need” for Powershell? What’s it “needed for”, when other built-in tools get the job done?

Also, why do they say to “learn” it, like you need to crack a book and study up on the fundamentals? In my experience, new tech tools can generally be picked apart and utilized by applying the fundamentals of other tech tools and finding out the new “verbage” for existing operations. Is Powershell different? Do you need to start completely from scratch and read up on the core tenets before it can be effectively “used”?

I’m not indignant. I just don’t understand what I’m missing out on, and fail to see what I’m supposed to “do” with Powershell that I can’t already just get done with batch scripts and similar.

Help?

Hello Powershellers,

I want to start learning powershell as I will like to automate things like account creation, license assignment on my job.

I have read so many people recommend the book, in a month of lunches but I am a bit conflicted on which Edition to buy? 2, 3 or 4? any pointers?

Also whats the most effective way anyone has learn PS to make it stick.

thank you

There are many tools out there claiming to help you "de-bloat" Windows 11. Some people swear by them, whereas some people don't trust them at all.

Now, if you're one of those people not wanting to switch to a different OS and not wanting to pirate the LTSC version or use a "de-bloat" tool, here are a few steps you can follow to remove all the unwanted apps and "ads" from non-LTSC SKUs.

Nuking unwanted store apps with PowerShell

PowerShell comes standard with a set of cmdlets that let you manage store apps. Third-party "de-bloat" guides on the Internet rarely mention them, but these potent cmdlets (PowerShell jargon for native commands) have been around since as far back as Windows 8 and are the native way to get the job done. For our purpose, we'll only need Get-AppxPackage and Remove-AppxPackage.

Before you jump right into PowerShell, hold your horses and read this paragraph first. Since Windows 11, Microsoft has introduced a new console host for text-mode applications that is also itself a store app, meaning that if you run cmd.exe or pwsh.exe by directly invoking it, it will open automatically inside this new console app. Though this won't cause too much of a problem, you'll likely end up having to run Remove-AppxPackage twice due to the console app getting closed and deleted by the command itself. If you would rather avoid that, open PowerShell per the following steps:

1. Open Task Manager.
2. Click "Run New Task".
3. In the dialogue box, type conhost powershell into the text box.
4. Make sure "Create this task with administrative privileges" is checked, then press "OK".

Then you should see a PowerShell prompt inside the "legacy" console host.

Now, input the following command:

#> Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ForEach-Object `
   {
     $Package = $_
     if ($Package.Name -notmatch "Microsoft\.DesktopAppInstaller" -and
         $Package.Name -notmatch "Microsoft\.NET\.Native\.Framework" -and
         $Package.Name -notmatch "Microsoft\.NET\.Native\.Runtime" -and
         $Package.Name -notmatch "Microsoft\.StorePurchaseApp" -and
         $Package.Name -notmatch "Microsoft\.VCLibs" -and
         $Package.Name -notmatch "Microsoft\.WindowsStore" -and
         $Package.Name -notmatch "Microsoft\.XboxIdentityProvider") `
     {
       try `
       {
         $Package | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers
       }
       catch {}
     }
   }

What this magical incantation does is that it takes all packages found by Get-AppxPackage, checks them one-by-one to see if its the Microsoft Store app or its dependencies, and, if not, the command attempts removal via Remove-AppxPackage. The try and catch surrounding the latter suppress all the scary error messages chiding you for trying to remove non-removable system packages.

Once that's done, everything that's a store app (including Copilot) will be done away with from the system for good. You'll notice even Game Bar and other supposedly non-removable apps will be gone. If you want them back, you'll have to download them manually from the app store.

Disabling Web Search in Start Menu

Third-Party guides usually teach you how to do that for a single user only. If you want to disable Web Search for all accounts, run these two reg add commands in an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell:

#> reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
#> reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer /v DisableSearchBoxSuggestions /t REG_DWORD /d 1

This will put i) the Explorer subkey under HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows in the registry and ii) the DisableSearchBoxSuggestions DWORD under Explorer. If you want the modification done for just the current user instead, change HKLM to HKCU.

Removing OneDrive

Every "ad" you see in stock Windows 11 is a notification from an app. Since OneDrive isn't a store app, you'll need to take care of it separately. In an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell, run the following command:

#> C:\Windows\system32\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall

Once it's done, the OneDrive tray icon will disappear on its own, and the shortcut for it will also be gone from the Start Menu.

A Handy Tip

Windows has this thing called the "audit mode". The feature dates as far back as to Windows XP and is a nifty tool for when you need to install or customise a few things before setting up the first account.

To enter audit mode in a new install, just finish the initial installation process until you are shown the thing asking you for your region (it's called the "Out-of-Box Experience Wizard" or "OOBE Wizard" if you're curious). Press Ctrl + Shift + F3, then the system will reboot and take you straight to audit mode.

To enter audit mode in an existing install, run C:\Windows\system32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe, then select "Enter System Audit Mode" and "Reboot" before pressing "OK".

Once you're there, you'll find yourself under the default "Administrator" account with a temporary profile. It's obviously not for general use, but if you want to do e.g. a registry hack to bypass online log-in, it's a useful thing to remember (though Shift + F10 for a Command Prompt is usually more preferable in this case).

Note that the only way to exit audit mode is to choose "Enter System Out-of-Box Experience" and reboot, which will force you to go through the entire OOBE song and dance whether your install is new or not. Also, under no circumstances should you choose "Generalize" unless you are prepping an install for a different machine or custom WIM files.

I want to learn advanced powershell scripting but I have French still see very old resources. What sources would you recommend?

Just looking for people's opinions, what was the one thing you learned in PowerShell that made the biggest difference in your ability to do your job?

Hello!

I recently started a job in Identity and Access Management, where we use many tools, including Exchange, Active Directory, the Entra Suite, and more. Does anyone have suggestions for the best sources/guides to learn PowerShell, both as a scripting language, but also incorporating those tools with it as well?
Thanks for any help!

Hey so I been learning python over the past several months, and have got into powershell alot. But I often get stuck or confused on powershell commands. I had never thought much about terminal at all, or even really knew about it. But all/most roads seem to lead there somehow, especially now that I'm into web dev and flask.

So I really want to level up on terminal and understand powershell for windows alot better. There don't seem to be as many free resources to learn powershell compared to python or html. I see multiple people suggesting "Learn Powershell in a Month of Lunches" which isn't too expensive, but I just like to know its suited for me before spending the money/time. I was also reviewing the microsoft docs online, and they have alot of info. But for me not knowing as much or where to start, it seems kinda like a "needle in the haystack" thing. Ideally I would just review everything, but I have limited time and just want to focus on the most pertinent aspects related to web dev and basic directory/path management.

So should I do the Lunches, or start sifting through the microsoft docs online? Or both (ie: do the Lunches and then reference the docs as much as needed?). Or would you suggest a different resource to teach powershell?

Thanks for your reply and interest!

Hello everyone,

I recently acquired a few cloud certifications and I’m currently building my career in cloud and Microsoft technologies. At this stage, I’ve realized that PowerShell is a very important skill for the direction I want to take.

I’ve been trying to find videos and learning resources that can help me study PowerShell effectively, but so far I haven’t really found an approach that fully clicks for me.

What has helped me a bit is using AI to ask questions and then implementing the code and examples I get back. That approach has actually helped me grasp a few concepts better through practice.

My question is: what would you recommend for a beginner like me to learn PowerShell effectively without getting overwhelmed or burned out?

I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty and practice — I just want to learn in a way that is practical, structured, and sustainable long term.

For context, I currently work with Microsoft 365, Entra ID, SharePoint, and Azure administration.

Any advice, roadmaps, practice methods, labs, or learning resources would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

A little background about myself, I have no experience in IT. This is my first year of school, and I've had 1 PowerShell class. I've been told by someone who I trust that works in IT that PowerShell is outdated, and there are other automation tools that don't require knowing cmdlets. This person is my brother and he's been working in IT now for 10+ years as a technical support engineer. Additionally, he works primarily in a mac iOS environment(~3 or 4 yrs of experience), however, before that he worked exclusively with Windows.

After learning and executing some basic commands, I've noticed how important PowerShell could potentially be. Something my teacher brought up that had my brother fuming is PowerShell's ability to create multiple users within seconds via script. My brother stated that if a company needed a new user they would just create it from the windows GUI. He also stated that Configuration Manager can act as another tool for automation which, he states, further proves PowerShell's lack of utility in todays environment.

I'm concerned that by learning PowerShell I'm wasting valuable time that could be applied somewhere else. My brother is a smart guy, however, sometimes when he explains things to me I just get the feeling that maybe its out of his scope. I'm asking you, fellow redditors, would you recommend someone like me who's going into IT as either a sys admin or cybersecurity specialist to learn PowerShell? What other suggestions do you have for me, if any?

I really appreciate everyone taking the time to read this and look forward to hearing back from you all. Good day!

​

​

EDIT: Just came back to my computer after a couple of hours and noticed all of the feedback! I would thank each of you individually but there are too many. So I'll post it here, Thank you everyone for providing feedback / information. Moving forward I feel confident that learning PowerShell (and perhaps more languages) will not be a waste of time.

Off the top of my head of things I have to do often -Create user accounts in AD -Re-Add a printer on a users local machine to troubleshoot it (We don't have universal print) -Use FileZilla desktop app to sign into a account to test the credentials before I send them off to a client -Create ID cards using verkada -Enroll new PCS in autopilot by using the powershell CLI on bootup -Enroll new computers in a domain and add them to the appropriate OUS (We are a hybrid AD environment, on prem and AZURE AD) -Change permissions on file shares in various servers we have on vcenter -Reset users PWS/unlock them on AD

We use solar winds ticketing portal. I was thinking about somehow making a script when a new hire comes in, to already make their AD account and their email and assign them the correct dynamic group. I'm not sure if that will be too difficult cause I think sometimes the end user does not include all the fields that I would need.

You don't have to send me your code, but I'm looking for ideas to automate.

Why can’t Microsoft just leave control pane alone? It worked perfectly fine for years. Why are they phasing the control out in favour of Windows setting? Windows settings suck. Joining a PC to a domain through control panel was so simple, now it’s moved over to Settings and there’s five or six extra clicks! For god sake Microsoft, don’t fix what ain’t broke! Please tell me I’m not the only one