I have been teaching and presenting about PowerShell for over 10 years. I always put a great emphasis on doing as I firmly believe that is the best way to learn something like PowerShell. I've also heard a number of people over the years say that they want to learn and do more with PowerShell but they don't know where to start. They need a purpose or reason to use PowerShell. For experienced PowerShell pros that might seem hard to imagine but for beginners this shouldn't be unexpected. So I finally got around to finishing a book project I've thought about since PowerShell 1.0.
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I have finished a new book called The PowerShell Practice Primer which you can get now from Leanpub.com. You can find a free sample chapter with a few typical exercises so 5that you can get a feel for the rest of the book. By the way, the sample exercises are not repeated in the book so you might think of them as bonus material!
Let me tell you a little about this book and why I think it will help you.
The book is a collection of 100 exercises designed to improve your fluency with PowerShell. The book is divided into 4 parts covering core PowerShell elements with a range of problems for you to solve. I've tried to create meaningful and practical exercises, but the real value is in the process. I wanted to have a fun way for you to build up your PowerShell muscles and develop good practices. While the solutions might be helpful, the true learning payoff is the process you went through to arrive at the answer. The answers should be no more than a few lines of PowerShell code that you might run in an interactive session. You are not expected to write PowerShell scripts. I also wrote questions that don't require any sort of network or domain. All you need is a Windows 10 computer or something running Windows PowerShell 5.1.
Each exercise chapter is formatted with a working area for notes. Since Leanpub books are digital, and may people read the PDF version, I thought you might want to print parts of chapter and use them for notes. But I even went one better. When you purchase the book, you should also get a few extras to download. These are .ps1 version of each exercise chapter formatted with regions and work areas that you can open in the PowerShell ISE or VS Code. You can use the editor to help develop your solution and have a comment block to keep notes.
I wrote the book for someone who has finished the Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches book and is ready to dig deeper into PowerShell. But even more experience PowerShell users might be interested to test their skills and compare their solutions with mine.
I don't cover everything in Windows PowerShell in this book. If it does well and there is interest I already know how a 2nd volume might lay out. PowerShell Core is also a possible future topic. So if you purchase a copy (thank you!), be sure to let me know what you think, if it helped you, and what helps you learn.
