This book, Windows PowerShell, is an introduction to Windows PowerShell and also contains practical examples to give a brief introduction to the topic, even if the reader does not have extensive scripting experience. This book is definitely not intended for professional script programmers - there is extensive Windows PowerShell help, many online forums, and further reading that will provide experts with all the information they need. However, a beginner will find everything in this book that they need to learn more about scripting, and hopefully learn to enjoy using the computer even without a mouse. The sources for this book come primarily from Microsoft publications on Windows PowerShell. The information in the book is presented in a new way, convenient for the target audience. We did not present the theory at the beginning of the book; its place is taken by various examples and small practical tasks that will reliably hold your attention. Once you've read this and decided to make Windows PowerShell a regular part of your regular computing experience, feel free to read the original Windows PowerShell documentation, which will be automatically installed when you install Windows PowerShell: Getting Started with Windows PowerShell Windows PowerShell Basics

To really benefit from this book, you must have access to a PC on which you will do the exercises while reading. The only prerequisite is that it must be a PC with Windows PowerShell 1.0 installed, which comes free with Windows XP SP2. For information about downloading and installing PowerShell, see the following websites.