Unfortunately, Microsoft does not provide a script editor for WPS yet However, a few third-party editors support WPS (see 9, PowerShell Tools ) Throughout this book, we use PowerShellPlus Editor, which is free for noncommercial use A previous editor called PowerShell IDE from the same author was free even for commercial use However, PowerShell IDE never made it to a nal release and was discontinued The PowerShellPlus Editor is part of PowerShellPlus PowerShellPlus consists of the editor and a console that provides IntelliSense while using the PowerShell interactively

PowerShellPlus does not need any setup It is a true NET application with XCopy deployment You just unpack the ZIP le to the directory of your choice and start the PowerShellPlusexe that is part of the package

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The PowerShellPlus has, according to the WPS console, two modes: an interactive mode and a script mode (see Figure 114) After starting the PowerShellPlus, you will see the interactive mode You can use any commandlet (or pipeline) When you press Return, the commandlet is executed, and the result displays in the same window The handy feature is the IntelliSense If you enter Get-P, you will see a drop-down list of the available commandlets that start with these letters

Figure 114 WPS IDE in interactive mode To use the PowerShellPlus in script mode, click Code Editor and create a new script le (New/PowerShell Script) or open an existing script PS1 le (Open) Now open the script le CreateUserps1 that you created earlier You will see line numbers, and you will encounter the same IntelliSense features that you have in interactive mode To run the script,

click the Run symbol in the toolbar (see Figure 115) The result will display in the interactive Windows in the background

WARNING Make sure the user account does not exist before running the script Otherwise the script will fail with the error The account already exists

Figure 115 WPS IDE in script mode Another great feature is debugging Place the cursor on any line in your script and click the Debugging icon Next, go to any line and press F9 This creates a red circle next to that line, called a breakpoint Now run the script You will see the PowerShellPlus Editor executing the script in slow motion, marking the current line yellow and stopping at the line with the breakpoint (see Figure 116) In the Variables Inspector window, you can inspect the current value of all variables In the interactive window, you can type any WPS command that will be executed within the current context That is, you can interactively access all script variables To continue the script, press F8 or click the Continue icon in the toolbar

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Figure 116 Script debugging with the WPS IDE Code snippets are also a nice feature of the PowerShellPlus In a script le, click Snippet/Insert on the toolbar or select Insert Snippet in the context menu in the main Editor window You will be able to select a snippet You can create you own snippets with the PowerShellPlus (via Snippets/ New on the toolbar)

Summary

Windows PowerShell is a new NET-based environment for scripting and is an interactive command-line shell WPS is an optional feature on Windows Server 2008 and an add-on for Windows XP, Vista, and Server 2008 Commands in WPS are called commandlets The PSCX extends WPS with additional commandlets

Summary

The PowerShellPlus is an alternative shell for WPS commands and an editor for WPS scripts In the next chapter, you learn much more about commandlets and pipelines You also learn how to get help if you are seeking a command or the available options for a commandlet