What is Windows Powershell

PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems. It is designed to automate system administration tasks and provide a more powerful and flexible alternative to the traditional Windows command prompt (cmd.exe).

PowerShell provides a number of features that make it a popular choice for Windows system administrators and developers, including:

An object-oriented scripting language that supports variables, loops, conditional statements, functions, and other programming constructs.
Integration with the .NET Framework, which provides access to a wide range of system classes and APIs.
A powerful command-line shell that supports tab completion, command aliases, and piping of output between commands.
A modular architecture that allows users to extend the functionality of PowerShell by writing their own modules and cmdlets.
Integration with Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and other management technologies, which enables users to manage remote systems and automate administrative tasks.

PowerShell has become an essential tool for Windows system administrators and developers, and its popularity continues to grow as more organizations adopt it for their management and automation needs.

Powershell Script example

An example of a simple PowerShell script that prompts the user to enter a number and then checks if the number is even or odd:

Prompt the user to enter a number

$num = Read-Host "Enter a number"

Check if the number is even or odd

if ($num % 2 -eq 0) {
Write-Output "$num is even."
} else {
Write-Output "$num is odd."
}
```

Here’s how the script works:

The Read-Host cmdlet prompts the user to enter a number and stores the value in the $num variable.
The if statement checks if the number stored in $num is even by using the modulus operator % to divide the number by 2 and check if there is a remainder. If there is no remainder (i.e., the result of the modulus operation is 0), the number is even, and the script outputs a message saying so. Otherwise, the number is odd, and the script outputs a message saying that instead.

You can save this script in a .ps1 file and run it in PowerShell by navigating to the directory where the script is saved and typing .\scriptName.ps1 (replace scriptName.ps1 with the actual name of your script file).