If you’re interested in PowerShell then you have probably already seen the news over at the Microsoft PowerShell Team Blog, but just in case I’ve linked to the three recent posts that I think are pretty much just awesome. Go take a look, you can bet I will be ;-)

Jonathan and Hal (from the PowerScripting Podcast) will be hosting Jeffrey Snover for a Virtual PowerShell V2 Launch Party on Thursday, which is of course GA* day for Windows 7!!

Lee Holmes from the PowerShell Team has also announced that one of their internal tools has been released as a Codeplex Project.

The Cmdlet Designer makes it much easier for teams to concentrate on the design, naming, and consistency of their cmdlets, while also guaranteeing name registration and collision avoidance across Microsoft.

To sweeten the deal, it offers:

* Integrated help authoring
* Efficient bulk operations (parameter and cmdlet cloning)
* Generation of cmdlet code
* Full scripting support
* Automatic code-spec comparison and testing
* Role-based security, history logging, and more.

But wait, there’s more! It’s now available under MS-PL from http://www.codeplex.com/CmdletDesigner

And last, but in no means least, with the recent announcement of the Windows 7 Resource Kit book comes the availablity of the Windows 7 Resource Kit PowerShell Pack. There’s a detailed breakdown of the features in the PowerShell Team’s blog post, but in a brief look it contains: 10 modules with 600+ scripts. Great work James!

* General Availablity.

Just in case though ;)

VMware have their VI toolkit in beta, and I’ve been lead to believe that it has lots of PowerShell goodness. There are apparently 102 cmdlets included so a lot to take a look at and play with.

I’ve just found out that my main machine is due to arrive on Sunday, so as I am currently a man of leisure, I should have some “play” time available over the next week or two :)

The toolkit beta is available here and there’s also a blog available.

I’ve been hearing good things about PowerShell Plus for a while now, most recently from Richard. It’s definitely on my list of things to play with. I just need to find more play time!!

You may recall that I got to see a demo of SpecOps Command, and had access to an early preview. Unfortunately I didn’t get past installing it to really have a play. I believe this application is really going to have a big impact on PowerShell, and it would appear Jeffrey is of the same opinion! Well done to Magnus, Thorbjorn and everyone at SpecOps for going RTM.

When I started this blog, I kept the default theme from WordPress, with the view of worrying about the content rather than the look. Most people seem to read the content via RSS, so that’s been fine. I’m not going to change the focus, but I’m going to revamp the website, update the toolbox and example code and generally give everything an uplift for the New Year.

I’m also aware that posts have lacked the technical content that I want them to have lately. So over the next few weeks I plan on getting a lot more interesting posts up.

Watch this space ;)

Apologies for the poor homage. I couldn’t help myself ;)

During email exchanges with Michael Niehaus and Tim Mintner a couple of weeks ago I felt that things were very close – they were replying to my email at 1am their time!

The jump from Beta3 to RC1 was a big one, and I felt the product mature a lot in that short space. I’m really pleased with how MS have developed this new incarnation of BDD. There’s loads of good features under the hood to get an automated deployment up and running in next to no time, and its free! ;)

Congratulations on the hard work guys!

The PowerShell Team have released a CTP of 2.0.

Skype have released Beta 2.0 for Linux (finally bringing video!)

SDM Software have released a set of free cmdlets full of GPO goodness!

And even though it wasn’t technically this week, Microsoft’s Deployment4, was officially named Microsoft Deployment, and went to RC1.

My favourite so far, was yesterdays highlight about the new Bulletproof X and Graphical X configuration feature. Anything to make configuring/troubleshooting X easier in my book deserves some attention!!

Well worth taking a look at, especially tomorrows look at Desktop Effects with Compiz Fusion :)

I have been having a gripe about the sheer amount of stuff installed with Ubuntu though (that’s the Debian voice in me!), so I’ve been musing about Linux From Scratch. My main concern there is how do you keep your hand cranked distro patched?

Anyway, those of you that like to play with Ubuntu will know that they release a new version every 6 months! The next release is Gutsy Gibbon and is due out:

Cool! :)

GPExpert™ Scripting Toolkit for PowerShell
PoshConsole
PowerShell Community Extensions
PowerGadgets
Quest’s PowerGUI
PowerLocker PowerPad
PowerShell Analyzer
ActiveRoles Management Shell for AD (aka Quest AD Cmdlets)
Zimbra PowerShell Cmdlets
SAPIEN PrimalScript 2007

What else is out there that I should add to the list? What tools do you have in your toolbox, and which ones are essential Vs nice-to-have?

You can download a trial from here.

Now as an all round scripting IDE I think this is an excellent product, though I’ve not had a look at this latest offering. The question is, if you just want an IDE for PowerShell, how will it fare against the building list of competitors?

PowerShell Analyzer
PowerGUI

Now PrimalScript has a mature background in it’s favour, and I’m going to take a wild guess and presume that the debugger will work on PowerShell – I’ve only ever used it with VBScript in the past. The down side of course is the cost comparison, and the fact that debugging can be achieved within the shell itself.

I’m still not convinced to move from my earlier assessment.

Yet.

I think it’s time I started to take a closer look at some of the new tools though.

What do you think of the tools emerging for PoSh?