The title of this post may be considered misleading by some. Let me explain what I mean by telling you about a struggle that I have. The struggle is that once I learn something well enough for it to be something I do without thinking, it becomes hard for me to switch and do something else.

There are times where you need to know if the object you are working with is an array. There is an easy way to check: use the GetType method. Try the following command:

Sometimes, you are copying a document you wrote in [favorite editor] as text, but now you want to post it as a markdown document. I know, I know. Converting to markdown happens to me all the time! Luckily, there is a tip I’d like to share to help you with some of the markdown elements.

In case you ever run across a situation where you are using RegEx and are getting unexpected results, you need to know that RegEx engines are not all the same. PowerShell uses the .NET engine, which should not come as a surprise since PowerShell runs on .NET.

You may have heard it said that using Write-Host kills puppies. You may have even had that type of hysterical hyperbole transmitted to you during one of my PowerShell classes or by one of the PowerShell aficionados in the community. Then, some of you may have been brazen enough to look at some of my scripts and then pointed fingers at the author (me) and said, “Ha! You don’t even follow your own guidance!” (See how smart I make you sound even while you are trying to cast aspersions.) 😉

If you find a PowerShell Gallery project has almost everything you need except for one little feature, you can (hopefully) modify the code on your own machine and then use it for yourself. However, that does not do much for the community of users that may also want to use your enhancement. Here is an example of how to add to a project that is already on PowerShell Gallery.

If you are trying to justify to your organization’s management that using PowerShell to automate tasks is a worthwile effort, look at the following example where I used PowerShell to automate an application deployment task. The first table is the actual process and the second table is the value of the automation.

In this post I am going to give some details around my introduction to PowerShell and what learning PowerShell and my involvement with the PowerShell community has done for me.

If you are wanting to learn how to use PowerShell then you better know about “The Tripod.” This is what I call the three cmdlets that you will most likely use more than any other cmdlets. They are:

This is where I’m going to drop my thoughts and ramblings about PowerShell (mostly) and other related stuff. I may even throw in some random topics here and there, but since what I like talking about is technology, it will probably be technology related. I hope you can relate to that. If so, does that make you my blog family?