Windows Power Shell 1.0

[Ruffnekk]

I discovered the Windows Power Shell from Microsoft. This command line shell is absolutely a must-have for any serious IT professional. I've been playing with it a couple of days and the type of information you can get is amazing. A nice touch is that you can use most common *nix/Linux commands as well (Microsoft created a set of aliases for those). Check the Windows Powershell homepage for downloads and documentation. It's on the Windows 2003 Server section, but they have a version that runs on XP and Vista as well.

From the Microsoft site:

Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT Professionals achieve greater productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT Professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation. Windows PowerShell is easy to adopt, learn, and use, because it works with your existing IT infrastructure and existing script investments, and because it runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server “Longhorn”. Exchange Server 2007, System Center Operations Manager 2007, System Center Data Protection Manager V2, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager leverage Windows PowerShell to improve efficiency and productivity.

EDIT: This Microsoft site has a nice collection of sample scripts to get you started.

[tinjaw]

Just, FYI. If you haven't been paying attention to Microsoft P.R. you may not know that this is what was formerly known as Monad.

[mutant]

I'm still a fan of Cygwin/PuttyCYG. You get all the goodness of Putty, plus a Bash shell.

[iphigenie]

I just have trouble with the constant validation that MS always wants.

I own my license of XP but still, it's just a really intrusive thing they are doing every time. I decide to find alternatives.