Yesterday, I blogged about my favorite four new PowerShell 2.0 features. The one I like most is Graphical PowerShell. Maybe "IDE" (Integrated Development Environment) is an exaggeration. Graphical PowerShell is still a very simple tool. But, I think, it is a good start, and I hope that Microsoft will keep on adding new features. In this post, you'll find some screenshots and a short description of Graphical PowerShell.
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The first thing you should do before you start playing with Graphical PowerShell is to change the execution policy to "unrestricted". Otherwise, you won't be able to run scripts within Graphical PowerShell. Open a PowerShell prompt as administrator and type:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
If you want to learn more about execution policies type:
get-help about_signing
Okay, let's start looking at Graphical PowerShell.
Syntax highlighting
Check out the screenshot and you'll see how Graphical PowerShell highlights syntax.
Multi-tabbed scripting pane
Grapical PowerShell allows you to open multiple scripts and you can switch between them using tabs.
Run scripts
In the upper pane, you can edit the scripts. After you saved it in a file, you can run it within Graphical PowerShell. The output of the script will be displayed in the middle pane.
Work on the command line
To work interactively with PowerShell you have to type in commands in the lower pane. The ouput will be displayed in the middle pane.
Multiple runspaces
The concept of runspaces is probably something for advanced PowerShell programmers. In Grapical PowerShell, you can consider them as different shells. Runspaces are organized in vertical tabs.
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Hi Michael,
I just came across this post today. I was wondering, since the PowerShell v2.0 feature you highlighted as your favorite is Graphical PowerShell, did you realize you can get that with v1.0 for free today? PowerGUI (http://www.powergui.org) provides both a graphical admin console/script repository where you can run your scripts and work with the results in a GUI as well as a script editor/lightweight IDE that gives you syntax highlighting, intellisense and debugging. I just wanted to mention it in case you weren’t aware that it is available, because, well, why wait for v2.0 for these features?
Thanks for listening.
Kirk out.
Acknowledged captain. I might check it out soon. I think Powergui fits well in our list of free admin tools.