Windows PowerShell 2.0 CTP
Graphical PowerShell
The information in this article was written against the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows PowerShell 2.0. This information is subject to change in future releases of Windows PowerShell 2.0.
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Sneak Peek: Graphical PowerShell
When you install the November 2007 Community Technology Preview (CTP) release of Windows PowerShell 2.0 you get an added bonus: an “early alpha version” of a tool called Graphical PowerShell. As the name implies, this is an early (very early) peek at a tool that will eventually evolve into a full-fledged scripting and development environment for Windows PowerShell. Of course, that won’t happen until sometime in the future, and, admittedly, there’s not that much to Graphical PowerShell just yet. (After all, it is an “early alpha version.”) But that doesn’t mean that Graphical PowerShell isn’t worth a sneak peek. Or two.
Note. Graphical PowerShell is installed along with Windows PowerShell 2.0; however, the tool will work only if you also have .NET Framework 3.0 installed. If you’re running Windows Vista that’s no big deal; in that case you already have .NET Framework 3.0 installed. If you’re running a different version, check out this page for more information about downloading and installing the correct version of .NET Framework 3.0 for your computer. |
When you start Graphical PowerShell you’re presented with an application window divided into three panes, panes just like these:
The top pane provides a spot for you to type a new script. (Or to load in an existing script; simply click the Open button and select the script you’d like to work with.) The middle pane is the output pane; when you run a script or type a command at the command prompt, all your output will appear here.
Meanwhile the bottom pane is the command prompt. Graphical PowerShell’s bottom pane is like a trimmed-down version of the PowerShell console; it’s a place where you can type – and execute – PowerShell commands. For example, suppose you type Get-ChildItem in the bottom pane. In that case, your Graphical PowerShell window should look like this:
Now, what’s going to happen when you press ENTER? Well, Get-ChildItem is going to run; Get-ChildItem is going to return information about all the files and folders in the current directory; and – perhaps best of all – that information is going to be displayed in the middle pane of the Graphical PowerShell window. The net result? This is the net result:
Cool, huh?
What’s that? Why is that cool? Well, suppose you’re writing a script in the top pane, and that script has to return a collection of all the files and folders found in the current directory. That’s fine, but suppose you can’t remember exactly how to perform this task. Is that going to be a problem? Of course not. All you have to do is keep typing commands in the bottom pane until you get it right, then simply copy that command and paste it into your script.
Like we said: cool, huh?
Let’s shift gears a little and talk about the top pane, the script editor. At the moment, this is a rudimentary script editor at best: it has color-coding (note that cmdlets are displayed in blue and cmdlet parameters in purple) but doesn’t have IntelliSense (at least not yet). On the other hand, this editor does have line numbers, which – even at this early stage – puts it a step or two ahead of Notepad:
Best of all, you simply type your script the same as you would in Notepad; the color coding and line numbering take place automatically.
And that’s a good point: it wouldn’t be all that useful if you had to do your own color coding, would it?
When you’re done typing, you might want to save the script (click Save) and then run the script (click Run). Why? Because the script will run, and the output will appear right in the middle pane of the Graphical PowerShell window:
Note. Yes, you do have to save the script before you can run it. |
Again, that’s pretty handy: you can do your script-writing and script-testing in the same window. That might not be the most exciting development to ever hit the computer world, but it’s not bad, either.
Here’s one more nice feature, something that, again, makes Graphical PowerShell worth a look: the utility has a multi-document interface. (Which is just a fancy way of saying that you can work on more than one script – and in more than one runspace – at a time.) Notice what happens when you click the New button; you get a second runspace and three new panes to work with:
To switch between runspaces just click the appropriate tab. Again, it might not be revolutionary, but you’re likely to find it more convenient to work in 5 or 6 Graphical PowerShell runspaces than to work with 5 or 6 separate instances of Notepad.
As we may have mentioned (once or twice) this is an “early alpha” version of Graphical PowerShell; the features available in this preview version represent a small subset of the features likely to appear in the final version. We say “likely” because those final features have yet to be set; in fact, the PowerShell team is very interested in hearing which features you would like to see in the final version of Graphical PowerShell. From within Graphical PowerShell click the Feedback button to bring up an email message pre-addressed to the PowerShell team. Alternatively, send email to Gpsfback@microsoft.com and give the PowerShell team some feedback and suggestions.
