sca-powershell-foundations

Start by learning command discovery with Get-Command and Get-Help, then practice reading pipeline objects with Get-Member. This project walks through four phases covering shell selection, command discovery, object filtering, and profile customization in about 60 minutes.

Windows PowerShell 5.1 ships with Windows and runs on .NET Framework, while PowerShell 7 is the modern cross-platform version built on .NET Core. They install side by side rather than upgrading each other, and you can check which one is running with $PSVersionTable.PSVersion.

Use Where-Object to filter which objects pass through, Sort-Object to order them, and Select-Object to pick specific properties. For example, Get-Service | Where-Object Status -eq 'Running' | Sort-Object Name lists running services alphabetically.

PowerShell 7 runs on macOS and Linux, so the verbs and pipeline concepts still apply. The profile file path differs from Windows, and the shell comparison phase needs adaptation since Windows PowerShell 5.1 is Windows-only.

The execution policy may block profile scripts from running. Fix it with Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned, which allows local scripts while still requiring downloaded scripts to be signed.

This project covers PowerShell as a language only, not remote administration. It excludes Active Directory cmdlets, Azure connections, and scripts longer than about ten lines, which are covered in later Server and Cloud Administration projects.