Best PowerShell Books 2024

Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches, Fourth Edition: Covers Windows, Linux, and macOS

Learn PowerShell in a Month of Lunches, Fourth Edition is a task-focused guide for administering your systems using PowerShell. It covers core language features and admin tasks, with each chapter a mini-tutorial you can easily complete in under an hour. Discover how PowerShell works on different operating systems, and start automating tasks so they take just a few seconds to complete. No previous scripting experience required.

The book is based on the bestselling Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches by community legends donald w jones and Jeffery Hicks. PowerShell team members Travis Plunk and Tyler Leonhardt and Microsoft MVP James Petty have updated this edition to the latest version of PowerShell, including its multi-platform expansion into Linux and macOS.

You will learn:

Discoverability with the Help system
Background jobs and automation techniques
Simple scripting to automate repetitive tasks
Managing cloud services from major cloud providers
Extending PowerShell with commands
Common syntax and commands cheat sheet

This is the best PowerShell book for beginners in 2023.

PowerShell Cookbook: Your Complete Guide to Scripting the Ubiquitous Object-Based Shell

by Lee Holmes is an introduction to the PowerShell language and scripting environment provides more than 400 task-oriented recipes to help you solve all kinds of problems. Intermediate to advanced system administrators will find more than 100 tried-and-tested scripts they can copy and use immediately.

This thorough Windows PowerShell Cookbook provides hands-on recipes for typical operations and administrative chores that you can use whether you’re on the client or server version of Windows, and it’s updated for PowerShell 5.1 and Open Source PowerShell up to 7.0 and beyond. You’ll also find quick references to common PowerShell technologies like regular expressions, the XPath language, format specifiers, and frequently used.NET, COM, and WMI classes. You will:

On Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019, learn how to use PowerShell.
Explore the command model, object-based pipeline, and pervasive scripting capabilities of PowerShell.
Learn the basics of the interactive shell, pipelines, and object concepts.
Work with files, scripts that are connected to the internet, user interaction, and other routine tasks.
Work with Active Directory and the filesystem to complete tasks in systems and enterprise administration.

PowerShell for Sysadmins: Workflow Automation Made Easy

by Adam Bertram shows you how to use PowerShell to manage and automate your desktop and server environments so you can go to an early lunch. PowerShell® is both a scripting language and an administrative shell that lets you control and automate nearly every aspect of IT. In PowerShell for Sysadmins, five-time Microsoft® MVP “Adam the Automator” Bertram shows you how to use PowerShell to manage and automate your desktop and server environments so that you can head out for an early lunch.

You’ll learn how to:

• Combine commands, control flow, handle errors, write scripts, run scripts remotely, and test scripts with the PowerShell testing framework, Pester
• Parse structured data like XML and JSON, work with common domains (like Active Directory, Azure, and Amazon Web Services), and create a real-world server inventory script
• Design and build a PowerShell module to demonstrate PowerShell isn’t just about ad-hoc scripts
• Use PowerShell to create a hands-off, completely automated Windows deployment
• Build an entire Active Directory forest from nothing but a Hyper-V host and a few ISO files
• Create endless Web and SQL servers with just a few lines of code!

Real-world examples throughout help bridge the gap between theory and actual system, and the author’s anecdotes keep things lively.

Stop with the expensive software and fancy consultants. Learn how to manage your own environment with PowerShell for Sysadmins and make everyone happy.

Windows PowerShell in Action

by Bruce Payett and Richard Siddaway is the definitive guide to PowerShell 6. In 2006, Windows PowerShell reinvented the way administrators and developers interact with Windows. Today, PowerShell is required knowledge for Windows admins and devs. This powerful, dynamic language provides command-line control of the Windows OS and most Windows servers, such as Exchange and SCCM. And because it’s a first-class .NET language, you can build amazing shell scripts and tools without reaching for VB or C#.

Windows PowerShell in Action, Third Edition is the definitive guide to PowerShell, now revised to cover PowerShell 6. Written by language designer Bruce Payette and MVP Richard Siddaway, this rich book offers a crystal-clear introduction to the language along with its essential everyday use cases. Beyond the basics, you’ll find detailed examples on deep topics like performance, module architecture, and parallel execution.

This book includes:

The best end-to-end coverage of PowerShell available
Updated with coverage of PowerShell v6
PowerShell workflows
PowerShell classes
Writing modules and scripts
Desired State Configuration
Programming APIs and pipelines

Mastering PowerShell Scripting: Automate and manage your environment using PowerShell 7.1, 4th Edition

mastering powershell by Chris Dent removes your fears and guides you through PowerShell’s capabilities New chapters on debugging and troubleshooting, as well as developing GUIs, have been added to this fully redesigned edition (online chapter). Work with parameters, objects, and.NET classes from within PowerShell 7.1 to learn about the new capabilities of PowerShell 7.1.

Asynchronous processing, desired state setup, using more complex scripts and filters, debugging issues, and error-handling approaches are all covered in this comprehensive guide. Learn how to use PowerShell 7.1 to efficiently manage large volumes of data and interface with other services. This book will show you how to use multiple methods to analyze data, manipulate regular expressions, and deal with Windows Management Instrumentation to get the most out of PowerShell’s automation features (WMI). You will learn:

Use functions, switches, and looping structures to make your code more efficient.
You should test and debug your scripts, as well as raise and catch errors.
To test and manipulate data, work with objects and operators.
Different data formats can be parsed and manipulated.
To run code asynchronously, use jobs, runspaces, and runspace pools.
PowerShell makes it simple to create.NET classes.
In PowerShell scripts, create and use regular expressions.
Make use of advanced approaches to specify and limit parameter behavior.

This is the best PowerShell book in 2023.

Windows PowerShell Step by Step

by Ed Wilson help you learn the basics of Windows PowerShell scripting on your own, including the features available in Windows PowerShell 5. Whether you’re an IT professional, power user, or consultant, you’ll get the tips, exercises, and code you need to master the basic techniques for automating Windows setup, deployment, and management.

Find out how:
Run cmdlets and command prompt utilities
Manage Windows workstations and servers with built-in cmdlets
Use providers to access external information
Write and run scripts from Windows ISE
Create features that are easy to maintain
Create standardized environments with profiles
Automate Windows systems with WMI, CIM cmdlets, and remoting
Automate Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
Debug scripts and handle errors
Execute commands that survive interruptions
Use Desired State Configuration (DSC) to manage software services and their environments
Get powerful new modules from the PowerShell Gallery

PowerShell 7 for IT Professionals

by Thomas Lee is your guide to utilizing it PowerShell 7, which has several improvements over earlier versions of PowerShell Core and Windows PowerShell, can be used to build up automation in Windows. Users using PowerShell 7 can take advantage of the high level of compatibility with the Windows PowerShell modules they use today. This book demonstrates how IT professionals, particularly Windows administrators and developers, may use PowerShell7 to do critical tasks such as controlling networking, using AD/DNS/DHCP, leveraging Azure, and more.

This book contains robust examples with sample code so that readers may follow along and learn everything PowerShell 7 has to offer. The scripts use PowerShell 7 on Windows 10 19H1 or later, as well as Windows Server 2019. You will:

• Become familiar with the PowerShell 7 administration environment.
• Automate networking, Active Directory, Windows storage, shared data, and more with PowerShell 7.
• Use PowerShell 7 to run Windows Update, IIS, Hyper-V, WMI, and CIM cmdlets.
• Learn how to work with reports in the new PowerShell 7 environment.

Don Jones’ PowerShell 4N00bs

What is PowerShell, and why should you care about it? Is there a difference between “PowerShell Core” and “Windows PowerShell?” What is a CLI, and why is it so horrible to click icons? Don Jones’ PowerShell 4N00bs is a friendly, brief, and easy-to-follow book that gets you started with PowerShell straight away. This book is built around Microsoft’s open-source and cross-platform PowerShell Core, making it simple to follow along on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

You’ll learn why PowerShell exists, and Don will point out the six major speed bumps that most novices hit – and how to avoid them yourself! You’ll get the confidence to begin engaging in the many useful PowerShell communities, such as PowerShell.org, instead of starting your PowerShell experience in the wrong way. Don’s straightforward approach highlights the instances where PowerShell “lies,” preventing you from becoming confused. PowerShell’s more esoteric principles are made crystal obvious through several analogies and anecdotes, and numerous examples demonstrate exactly what PowerShell is doing and why you should care. This is the book you’ll want to start your PowerShell career with if you only have one!

PowerShell Pocket Reference: Portable Help for PowerShell Scripters

This portable reference to PowerShell summarizes the command shell and scripting language and provides a concise guide to the many tasks that make PowerShell so useful. If you’re a busy administrator and don’t have time to plow through huge books or in-depth online searches, this is the ideal on-the-job tool.

Written by PowerShell team member Lee Holmes and excerpted from his PowerShell Cookbook, this edition offers up-to-date coverage of Windows PowerShell 5.1 and open source PowerShell Core up to 7 and beyond.

Beginning with a guided tour of PowerShell, this handy guide covers:

PowerShell language and environment
Regular expression reference
XPath quick reference
.NET string formatting
.NET DateTime formatting
Selected .NET classes and their uses
WMI reference
Selected COM objects and their uses
Standard PowerShell verbs

Practical Automation with PowerShell: Effective scripting from the console to the cloud

Practical Automation in PowerShell reveals how you can use PowerShell to build automation solutions for a huge number of common admin and DevOps tasks. Author Matthew Dowst uses his decades of experience to lay out a real blueprint for setting up an enterprise scripting environment with PowerShell. The book goes beyond the basics to show you how to handle the unforeseen complexities that can keep automations from becoming reusable and resilient. From the console to the cloud, you’ll learn how to manage your code, avoid common pitfalls, and create sharable automations that are adaptable to different use cases.

you will learn how to:

Build PowerShell functions to automate common and complex tasks
Create smart automations that are adaptable to new challenges
Structure your code for sharing and reusability
Store and secure your automations
Execute automations with Azure Automation, Jenkins, Task Scheduler, and Cron
Share your automations with your team and non-technical colleagues
Store and retrieve data, credentials, and variables
Use source control solutions to maintain and test code changes
Provide front-end UI solutions for PowerShell automations