Archive for the ‘Beginners’ Category
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016 by June Blender
Tested on: PowerShell 2.0+, PowerShell Studio 2016 This step-by-step example shows you how to create a very simple multi-form PowerShell GUI app. The app consists of a parent form that gets data from a child form and displays it. When you finish, you'll know how to use the basic multi-form features of PowerShell Studio. For details about how these features work under the covers, see How Do Multi-Form Projects Work? For this task, we assume that you know how to create a single-form PowerShell GUI app or that you've participated in a Thinking in Events hands-on lab. Otherwise, start with…
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Tags: forms, gui, juneb, multi-form, multiple forms, powershell, PowerShell GUI, PowerShell Studio
Posted in Beginners, GUIProgramming, Howto, PowerShell, PowerShell Studio, Windows PowerShell | 26 Comments »
Wednesday, May 25th, 2016 by June Blender
When I started using Git back in 2012, I wasn't new to source control systems. I used a database-backed source control system back in the 80's and, at Microsoft, I used Visual Source Safe (VSS) and Team Foundation Server (TFS). I was a whiz at checking files in and out, examining and comparing versions, and restoring versions. Still, when I started to use Git for the Azure "help drawer" docs, I was totally unprepared for the effect of changing branches on Git-managed files on disk. Git Checkout -- An Example Here's an example. I'm working in my fork (my online…
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Tags: Git, git checkout, GitHub, juneb
Posted in Beginners, Git, GitHub, Howto | 11 Comments »
Monday, May 23rd, 2016 by June Blender
There are so many features in PowerShell Studio and PrimalScript that I think I can't live without, like the Format Script button, file groups, and conditional breakpoints. But, there are few features I'd love to have that aren't there. They're easy enough to add, but they're really personal to me. Fortunately, I can add them myself. What is a custom tool? The Custom Tool feature in PowerShell Studio and PrimalScript lets you define commands in an INF file and add them to a menu. For example, I have huge Scripts library on One Drive where I keep all of my…
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Tags: add to menu, custom menu, custom tools, gitignore, juneb
Posted in Beginners, Howto, PowerShell Studio, PrimalScript | 8 Comments »
Friday, May 20th, 2016 by June Blender
Sometimes, I say things so many times that I start to believe them, even when I'm wrong. Here's a correction of one of the details that I've gotten wrong repeatedly. "You can only use the Properties pane on one object at time." -- me Um, no. The Properties pane in PowerShell Studio displays the properties and property values of an object, that is, one of the Windows Forms controls on the Designer pane. By default, it displays the properties of one object at a time. To determine which object the Properties pane displays: In the Designer pane, click the object. -or-…
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Tags: GUI programming, juneb, PowerShell Studio, Properties, Properties pane
Posted in Beginners, GUIProgramming, Howto, PowerShell Studio | 5 Comments »
Monday, May 16th, 2016 by June Blender
Like almost everyone in the DevOps world, I use GitHub, not because I like it, but because everyone uses it. In fact, I dislike it, because it’s confusing by design. Its misleading language excludes users, rather than welcoming them. To use it, you have to forget the actual meaning of words in English, or even their technical meaning, and use them as though they are arbitrary strings. Worst of all, because most people memorize a command sequence without fully understanding how it works, when something goes wrong, it’s almost impossible to troubleshoot. Okay, enough ranting. I just discovered a solution…
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Tags: Git, GitHub, juneb
Posted in Beginners, Git, GitHub, Howto | 19 Comments »
Wednesday, March 30th, 2016 by June Blender
One of the best parts of the PowerShell community culture is the willingness of people at all levels of expertise to help others to learn. It acknowledges that we learn from each other all the time and pays backward and forward for help that others have given to us. So, there are many people giving talks and presentations about PowerShell. And, PowerShell Studio has several features that make presentations easier. Filegroups: Open all scripts and modules for your presentation in a single click, even if the code files are on different machines in different locations. The files open in PowerShell…
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Tags: powershell, PowerShell Studio, SAPIEN
Posted in Beginners, PowerShell Studio, Tip, Windows PowerShell | 5 Comments »
Monday, March 21st, 2016 by June Blender
UPDATE: Added a -Search parameter that searches all SAPIEN forums for the term that you specify and then opens the page with the results. Thanks to Prasoon V. Karunan for the contribution. I love helping people learn Windows PowerShell and SAPIEN products. I answer questions on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit (love the /r/powershell subreddit), Google+, Slack, email, in the line at Starbucks, etc. But, I'm also a scripter, and I know the value of automation and efficiency. So, rather than answer one question for one person, I'd rather answer each question for many people. And, to get the best answer, I'd like…
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Tags: code formatting, Forum, powershell, questions, Script
Posted in Beginners, Best practices, Forum, Howto, Tip | 5 Comments »
Monday, March 14th, 2016 by June Blender
Like most things, once you know the basics, it's really easy to build GUI applications with Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Studio. And, like most things, it's hard to learn the basics. We're here to help. We just posted a two-part series of videos. You can watch them in any order. My First Form: Build a Simple PowerShell GUI App is a step-by-step guide to building a little PowerShell GUI app that displays the versions of Windows and Windows PowerShell on your system. My First Form: Controls and Properties is like a prequel. It introduces you to the concepts of the Windows Forms controls…
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Tags: GUI programming, juneb, powershell, PowerShell GUI, PowerShell Studio, PowerShell Studio 2016, Step-by-step, video, Windows PowerShell
Posted in Beginners, GUIProgramming, Howto, PowerShell Studio, Videos, Windows PowerShell | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 by June Blender
My friend, Thom Schumacher, who has been leading the Arizona PowerShell User Group for the past few months, is getting to know PowerShell Studio. Like many of us, he came to PowerShell Studio from PowerShell ISE, so he looks for the "ISE way" to do things in PowerShell Studio. "How do I use PSEdit in PowerShell Studio?," Thom asked on Twitter. Here's my answer. Um, you don't need it Being very literal, you don't need the PSEdit function in PowerShell Studio. The PSEdit function, which is defined in and works only in PowerShell ISE (not in the ISE module), opens…
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Tags: juneb, powershell, powershell editor, PowerShell Studio, psedit, Windows PowerShell
Posted in Beginners, PowerShell Studio, Tip, Windows PowerShell | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2016 by June Blender
Applies to: -- Windows PowerShell 5.0.10586.63 -- PowerShellGet 1.0.0.1 I'm a huge fan of sharing Windows PowerShell modules and making them easy to find (Find-Module), view (Save-Module), and install (Install-Module). So, I truly love the new PowerShellGet module. However, you really need to understand how it works before you use it. Otherwise, you might end up with commands and modules that don't work correctly (or at all) or don't do what you expect. Or, you might download modules with commands that shadow or hide commands that your scripts run. Update-Module is one of the really useful cmdlets in PowerShellGet, but if you don't know…
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Tags: juneb, modules, powershell, powershell 5.0, PowerShell Studio, PowerShellGet, scripting
Posted in Beginners, Best practices, General, Howto, PowerShell 5.0, PowerShell Studio, Windows PowerShell | 15 Comments »
