I realized awhile ago that learning PowerShell was becoming more important for my career in the Microsoft Systems Management realm.  I thought I would share some of the resources that have helped me on this learning journey.

I first became familiar with Don Jones at the Microsoft Management Summit.  I had the opportunity to sit in on a few of his excellent PowerShell sessions.  Afterward, I purchased his book, “Learn Windows Powershell In A Month Of Lunches.”  It’s hard to communicate dry technical material, and I thought Don did a good job with this book.  I found it helpful.  He also has a lot of useful tech and career type advice on his blog.

Microsoft has some great free online courses at The Microsoft Virtual Academy.  The two PowerShell courses I took were “Getting Started With Powershell 3.0 Jump Start,” and “Advanced Tools And Scripting With Powershell 3.0 Jump Start.”  One of the presenters is Jeffrey Snover from Microsoft, who is the inventor of Powershell!  It doesn’t get much better than that.  Check them out.  They are well worth your time.

I’m fortunate that I have a Powershell savvy colleague that I’ve learned a lot from him.  It’s been invaluable to try out some scripts with his supervision, and dig through some of his for pointers. Learning from your peers is always invaluable.  If you can seek out someone in your organization or a user group that can provide some one-on-one assistance, it really helps.

I’ve also recently renewed my subscription to Windows IT Pro magazine, which is now digital only.  They regularly have PowerShell articles.  You can also follow them on Twitter and subscribe to their emails for info.

Lastly, check out PowerShell.org.  Contributors like Don Jones post articles there, and they have a forum that you can go to for help.