Windows PowerShell
is the extensible command-line interface shell and scripting language that provides
a command-line environment for interactive exploration and administration of
computers. In addition, it provides developers with an opportunity to script
these commands, enabling them to be automated, scheduled, and run multiple
times.
Originally, when
Microsoft released MS-DOS, it was not used as a shell. It was entirely a
standalone operating system. The initial and original Microsoft Windows release
was a graphical shell that sat on top of the MS-DOS operating system. Once
Windows NT was introduced, this situation was reversed. MS-DOS became the shell
in the graphical Windows operating system. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs)
were basically developed for users with less technical background who were
looking for a friendly interface. Because graphical interfaces are limited to
fewer functions, once you hit their limitations you will start relying on the
command-line interface. For example, with a GUI, if you want to rename all the
extensions of a group of files and suffix each file with the current day’s
timestamp, it will take a while because you have to select and rename each file
individually. Therefore, command-line interfaces and their commands are very
commonly used for administrative tasks and automation. They also help to
consolidate functionality in batches, through MS-DOS batch files.
command.com was
used as the command-line user interface in early versions of Microsoft Windows.
cmd.exe was introduced in Windows NT. When administrators reached the limit of
command-line batch files, they started looking for a language that could do
both command shell functions and programming. Microsoft introduced the Visual
Basic
scripting
language, which helped administrators initially. However, there were
limitations in VBScript as well. Administrators started relying on Windows
Management Instrumentation (WMI) and COM objects introduced later by Microsoft
for many other administrative functions. The administrative command-line
interface started becoming more complicated with internal DOS commands, external
DOS commands, batch files, executables, VBScripts, WMI, and so forth. It was
with all of this in mind that Microsoft developed and introduced Windows
PowerShell.
