Looking for Enterprise Beta testers

With PowerGUI 1.7 getting closer to beta release we are looking for beta customers who are really willing to push the limits for enterprise deployments of the admin console.

Here’s the scenario which we are going to support in 1.7 and want to beta test:

1. IT architect/consultant/system integrator/superbright IT genius customizes PowerGUI admin console and leaves only the functionality for a particular role (e.g. helpdesk) within this particular organization needs (for example, it would have a list of users limited to a specific geographic location and only provide actions to reset passwords, change phone numbers, and so on).
2. PowerGUI admin console (without script editor) gets installed for each helpdesk person in the office.
3. New functionality is used to lock-down these consoles (so helpdesk people cannot see the PowerShell code behind the actions, or modify the functionality, and so on.)

This helps equip everyone in the IT organization with exact tools they need, get rid of scripting (scripts get turned into admin console UI), and thus reduce risks and associated costs, and make life easier for everyone.

If this is a solution which you would consider deploying in your company – now is the time to influence the way we implement it. The beta program starts really soon and if you want to be in please contact PowerGUI product manager – Darin Pendergraft ( Darin.Pendergraft at quest com ) and let him know some details about your specific scenario so he can chose right candidates for the beta.

Tags: PowerGUI, PowerShell
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Video: PowerShell Script Debugging

Darin posted yet another quick PowerGUI demo – this time on basics of PowerShell script debugging: passing in script parameters, setting breakpoints, changing variable values during a debug session, and using the step-into function:

Here’s the video link and the link to the whole series.

Tags: Debugger, Demo, PowerGUI, PowerShell
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Video: Automating GPO with PowerShell

Darren‘s “Automating Group Policy Management” session from DEC 2008 got posted on YouTube:

In the session Darren shows both VBScript and PowerShell ways of managing Group Policy – and he is using currently available APIs (including the free GPO cmdlets that his SDM Software produced) – so you don’t have to wait for Windows Server 2008 R2 to start using Darren’s scripts. Check it out!

P.S. Quite a few sessions from DEC 2008 got posted recently – check them all out here.

As I mentioned, TEC 2009 (they renamed it to TEC – The Experts Conference because of the Exchange track added) is going to have a lot more PowerShell and huge amount of new information on the latest directory, identity management, messaging, and cloud-related technologies from Microsoft. I myself has already registered for the event so hopefully will see you there.

Tags: Conferences, Directory Experts Conference, GPO, PowerShell, VBScript, Webcast, DEC
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PowerGUI Tips & Tricks Videos

Darin has just started a series of really short videos (1-3 minutes) on his favorite features in PowerGUI and just quick tips and tricks he learned and wanted to share. There are 5 videos at the moment with hopefully more to come:

	PowerGUI Editor Tips and Tricks This video shows some time-saving features of the PowerGUI Script Editor: intellisense is used to quickly create a PowerShell command that detects and lists all processes running on the local system, the code snippet feature is used to paste a fully formed function template into the edior, and the VB snippet feature is used to demonstrate how the PowerGUI editor recognizes VB code structures and substitutes the equivalent PowerShell structure instead.
	PowerGUI download and install This video shows the download URL for PowerGUI, and demonstrates a default install.
	PowerGUI Column Quick Tip This video shows how to customize the output grid in PowerGUI to show or hide data that you want to see. Columns can me reordered or hidden.
	Generating Reports Using PowerGUI This video demonstrates how to use PowerGUI to create reports. In this video we use PowerGUI to find all system processes consuming more than 20% CPU and export that data to a .CSV file.
	Setting Filters in PowerGUI This video demonstrates how to use filters to customize the output data grid in PowerGUI. A filter will be created on the ‘Services’ node to generate a list of system services that have stopped. The filtered list will then be saved as a new node that can be reused.

Here’s the PowerGUI playlist address for you to bookmark.

Tags: Demo, PowerGUI, PowerShell
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Convert PowerPack to PowerShell script library

PowerPack library at PowerGUI.org is a great source of PowerShell-based administrative consoles for almost every IT platform out there: from VMware to Hyper-V, from WSUS to Operations Manager, from Facebook to Websphere MQ. They make for awesome GUI administrative experience which you can easily tweak by editing the properties of any node.

However, what if you want to use some of the functionality from a PowerPack from PowerShell command-line or scheduled script? You can open Properties of the node you like and save the code as a PS1 file, or use the Convert-PowerPack2Ps1 script I have just posted.

All you need to do is supply the source PowerPack file name/path and the target ps1 name:

& .\Convert-PowerPack2Ps1.ps1 "ActiveDirectory.powerpack" "AD.ps1"

Then you can simply dot-source the newly created ps1 file:

. .\AD.ps1

Then you can start using the imported functions in your command line:

Get-QADUser 'Dmitry Sotnikov' | MemberofRecursive

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

There’s a bunch of things I want to be adding in the future, like generating more PowerShell style names for the functions, resolving function name conflicts, maybe directly importing packs into PowerShell namespace without intermediary ps1 file, and so on. However, I wanted to share what I had so far rather than keep it private till it becomes perfect.

Get the script from poshcode: Convert-PowerPack2Ps1 or find it in PowerGUI Script Editor through Search Online dialog box.

Tags: PowerGUI, PowerPack, PowerShell
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OCS & PowerShell webcast

The Swiss IT Pro User Group team is holding an Office Communications Server & PowerShell meeting on Tuesday February 3, 2009 evening in Zurich and there will be a LiveMeeting webcast for those of us who happen to be far from Geneva lake that day.

Rolf Masuch the leader of the German/Austrian/Swiss PowerShell usergroup and Desmond Lee are presenting. The agenda is available from the event page.

OCS and PowerShell (and PowerGUI) are definitely better together – see the OCS PowerPack – so the event is worth checking out.

The first 10 registered and confirmed attendees will each receive a free, full NFR copy of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition at the end of the event. Learn the details and register here.

Tags: OCS, PowerShell, Webcast
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Debug patch posted

We have posted a minor update for PowerGUI 1.6 (build 1.6.1.639) to the downloads page. This patch fixes a relatively rare issue that a few of our 1.6 users experienced: PowerGUI displaying the “Continue with this operation?” prompt on each step during debugging.

If you are one of the users affected by the issue please download version 1.6.1.639 from the downloads page.

Tags: PowerGUI, PowerShell, Release
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PowerGUI hits 200,000 downloads

Actually its already above 205,000 as the counter on the downloads page shows at the moment.

First of all, the number itself is huge and this is a great achievement for the team and the great community we have at powergui.org.

Secondly, it is great to see how the growth is accelerating. It took us about 15 months to get to the 100K mark, but only 6 months to double that! Wow!

Tags: PowerGUI, PowerShell
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PowerGUI in Arabic, Japanese, and Turkish

One of the key new features PowerGUI 1.6 release is three new languages added to our user interface (in alphabetic order):

• Arabic – spoken natively by about 280 million people – localization made by Sherif Talaat who is also maintaining the one and only Arabic blog on PowerShell!
• Japanese – spoken by over 130 million people – translated by Mitsuru Oka.
• Turkish – spoken by over 63 million people worldwide – localized by Emin Imer.

This is a huge boost for us (almost half-billion new potential users ), bringing the total number of languages currently provided for PowerGUI to 17: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, English, Japanese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish. Huge thanks to everyone doing this translation work! You guys rock!

If your Windows is using one of these languages for the user interface, PowerGUI should just pick it up. If not – use PowerGUI’s Tools/Options menu to select your language. And please go to this page if you want to contribute to these or any other localizations – let’s make PowerGUI and PowerShell accessible to everyone!

[Update] Note that Arabic localization is currently in experimental mode. We still have a bunch of dialog boxes which we need to change to right-to-left layout for full support. We know about the issue but wanted to share what we had so you can start using it and giving us your feedback.

Tags: Localization, PowerGUI, PowerShell
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Need your input on PowerPack directions

We are currently working on the new PowerPack architecture to turn them into real add-ons with automated upgrades and so on, and we would like to learn more about how you use or plan to use PowerPacks to make sure we design the system that satisfies your needs.

Here’s the key question that we’d like you to comment upon:

When you use someone else’s PowerPack, do you ever need to modify it, and if so how?

The obvious reason for the question is that the more you modify a pack, the harder it is to automatically upgrade it to a newer version, when the pack owner releases one.

So my personal inclination is to say: for tree nodes no changes are permitted if the node is a part of a PowerPack. You cannot delete any nodes or folders, edit any code, change parameters for cmdlet nodes, rename anything, change order, create your own subnodes – nothing. The only thing allowed is selecting the columns you need in the grid.

If you need to change things – you select the nodes you need (or a subtree with the nodes) and Ctrl-drag them to another folder in the tree to create your own copy. You can then do anything you like to these copied items. However, these are indeed one time copies which will not get upgraded when the original PowerPack creator makes any changes to his/her product and publishes the upgrade.

Does this sound fair or too harsh? If this is too limiting please share your scenarios. Post your comments to this forum thread if you have powergui.org login and to this post if you don’t.

Tags: PowerGUI, PowerPack, PowerShell
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