Release Candidate for Scripting Engine

The first release candidate of PowerShell (previously code-named Monad), the company’s next-generation shell-scripting engine, became available in Apr. 2006. PowerShell enables administrators to run a variety of system and application management tasks at the command line and compose scripts for routine operations that are difficult to write using existing tools. However, until developers create PowerShell extensions specific to their applications, the tool’s usefulness for managing those applications will be limited.

PowerShell Streamlines Administration

PowerShell’s goal is to allow comprehensive Windows system and application management at the command line or via scripts, thus complementing the graphical user interface (GUI) management tools of those systems and applications. Although GUI management tools have many advantages-for example, they are simple and intuitive and do not require mastery of arcane command and scripting languages, which are the mainstay of platforms such as UNIX and Linux-they often come under fire from administrators in large-scale computing environments, where it is often more efficient to automate routine management or maintenance tasks by running well-tested scripts.