There are dozens of powershell tool writeups, and I don’t want to just rehash what they say, so I will summarize what I use, and why.
First of all, there is a limited functionality that comes with Powershell. The PSE (powershell editor) works – but it’s limited. So I prefer third party editors like PowerGui Script Editor
Once you have an editor of choice you can start coding. However there may come a time when you need something… more. Third party sets of commandlets are available to enhance your abilities.
So what modules do you already have? To find out – run the Get-Module cmdlet with the -ListAvailable switch to list all the modules already installed.
Get-Module -ListAvailable
The cmdlet outputs too much information for me, so If like me you want to see just the names and their descriptions. So the trick is to pass the output via a “format-table” command:
Get-Module -ListAvailable | Format-Table Name, Description
Which gives us something like this:
Name Description
—- ———–
ActiveDirectory
NetworkController Powershell cmdlets to manage a NetworkControll…
AppvClient Microsoft Application Virtualization Client Mo…
Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Core.Cmdlets System Center Cmdlets Module
Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.Cmdlets System Center Service Manager 2010 R2 Cmdlets …
Microsoft.MonitoringAgent.PowerShell
SMLets CodePlex Service Manager Cmdlets
ActiveRolesManagementShell ActiveRoles Management Shell
Now you can search for the modules you want to install.