PowerShell was first introduced to the world at the Professional Developer's conference in Los Angles in 2003 by Jeffrey Snover. Code named Monad, it represented a complete revolution in management. A white paper written around that time, The Monad Manifesto (refer to http://www.jsnover.com/blog/2011/10/01/monad-manifesto/) remains an amazing analysis of the problem at the time of managing large number of Windows systems. A key takeaway—the GUI does not scale, whereas PowerShell does.
PowerShell has transformed managing of complex, network-based Windows infrastructure and increasingly non-Windows infrastructure. Knowledge of PowerShell and how to get the most from PowerShell is now obligatory for any IT Pro job—the adage being Learn PowerShell or learn Golf.
This book takes you through the use of PowerShell in a variety of scenarios using many of the rich set of features included in Windows Server 2016. This preface provides you with an introduction to what is in the book and some tips on how to get the most out of the content.