PowerShell Plus is the most advanced Interactive Development Environment for PowerShell available today. Designed to help administrators and developers quickly learn and master Windows PowerShell, it also dramatically increases the productivity of expert users. PowerShell Plus features a powerful interactive console, an advanced script editor and debugger and a comprehensive interactive learning center all integrated into a single product.

1. Idera PowerShell Plus
Professional Edition v4.7
Product Tour
January 2013

2. Content
 Overview
 Getting Started
 Features
 Troubleshooting

3. Overview
 What is PowerShell Plus?
 A Free tool to learn and master Windows PowerShell fast
• Learn PowerShell fast with the interactive learning center
• Execute PowerShell quickly and accurately with a Windows
UI console
• Access, organize and share pre-loaded scripts from the
QuickClick™ library
• Code & Debug PowerShell 10X faster with the advanced
script editor
 Where do I get it?
• http://www.idera.com/Free-Tools/PowerShell-Plus/

4. Getting Started
 Requirements
 Microsoft PowerShell 2.0
• Windows 7 RTM – x86/x64
• Windows Vista RTM and higher - x86/x64
• Windows XP SP3 and higher - x86/x64
• Windows Server 2003 SP2 - x86/x64
• Windows Server 2008 RTM and higher - x86/x64
 Microsoft PowerShell 3.0
• Windows 7 (with WMF v3 installed)
• Windows 2008 R2 (with WMF v3 installed)
• Windows 8

5. Getting Started
 Install
 Open downloaded ZIP and run EXE
 Initial dialog allows you to review Release Notes, navigate to
Support or Install the product
 32-bit and 64-bit version can BOTH be installed side-by-side on
a 64-bit computer
 Licensing
 Freeware model
 Supported upgrade paths
 Version 4.2, 4.5, 4.6

6. Getting Started
 Support for PowerShell v3
 Command line switch added to PSEditor.exe (desktop
shortcut)
• PSEditor.exe –version 2 (or 3)
 Windows 8 will automatically start up as PS v3
• Verify by running $PSVersionTable to find out which version
of PowerShell is running in the Console
 New reserved words added to support Workflow features
• Caveat: Workflows can not be debugged since they run as
jobs

7. Getting Started
 Review Execution Policy
 Microsoft has an Execution Policy setting for PowerShell to
prevent scripts from running by default
 We detect the effective execution policy and allow the
customer to change it using our Welcome Wizard dialog by
setting the CurrentUser policy

8. Getting Started
 What is New in 4.7?
 Custom Layout
 New tool windows – Breakpoints, Bookmarks, Call Stack
 New tool dialogs – GUID creator, Clone
Parameters, Regex Expression Evaluator
 Find in Current Document and Find in All Open
Documents (Find dialog)
 Open Containing Folder
 Reload from Disk
 Support Block Comments in Editor when using Comments
option
 Code signing supports .PSM1

9. Features
 Manage Startup Options
 User settings are kept in the user‟s in
AppDataLocalPowerShellPlus folder
• When troubleshooting an issue that seems to be User
Settings related (i.e. Cached Data)… launch it by pressing
right SHIFT key at the Splash screen of PowerShell Plus.

10. Features
 Manage Startup Options
Checking this option
will solve most
problems related to
Snapin upgrades
and mismatched
code completion
information and
Learning Center
documentation
Manually set
ApartmentState (STA or
MTA). Auto detect
default on PS v2 or v3 if
unchecked.

11. Features
 Upgrade Notification
 Automatically checked when PowerShell Plus starts
• Can check after started by using Options->Resources

12. Features
 Welcome Wizard
 Execution Policy
 Remoting Configurations
 SQL Server Connections
 Email Settings
 Library Script Execution

13. Features
 Unified IDE

14. Features
 Unified IDE benefits
 Raise visibility of core features
 Editor and PowerShell Console are integrated
 Tool windows available to both Console and Editor
• QuickClick Library for organizing scripts and executing
• Code Snippets for managing reusable code
• Computer Group configurations for interactive remote sessions and
remote execution of scripts
• Variables for viewing current state of system and user variables
• Command History for viewing most recent commands
• Find Results for navigating multiple search results
• Breakpoints for managing all breakpoints in open scripts
• Bookmarks for managing all bookmarks in open scripts
• Call Stack for managing calling order during debug session

15. Features
 Start Page
 Common tasks
 Recent files
 News
 Get Started

16. Features
 Start Page
 Tasks – start a script or module
 Recent Files – quickly open
recent scripts
 News – configure RSS feeds to
follow what‟s going in the
PowerShell community
• Add or select a configured feed
• Click on Feed tab added and
click an abstract to open the
article (limited to one at a time)
 Get Started – Starter topics to
help get you up and running

17. Features
 IDE is customizable
 Basic, Advanced and Custom layouts for selecting tool windows
 All tool windows including Console can be rearranged, joined,
pinned, unpinned to achieve the user optimal experience

18. Features
 Options
 Available from Home tab or Main Menu -> PowerShellPlus
Options button
 Provides access to common settings for:
• Startup
• Auto-Completion
• Console
• Editor
• User Settings
• QuickClick Library
• Email
• Collaboration
• Source Control
• Resources

19. Features
 Manage Snapins
 Supports 64-bit Snapins when using the 64-bit version of
PowerShell Plus and 32-bit Snapins when using 32-bit
version of PowerShell Plus
 Accessible via the Home tab, Manage group
 Check the ones that you would like to load and use
 Show which ones are pre-loaded by Profiles
 Display version information
 Choose if you want to persist the one you have selected to
load the next time you start PowerShell Plus
• Snap-in loaded by a Profile always take override this setting
so we don’t try to load them twice

20. Features
 Manage Modules
 Accessible via the Settings Menu
 Automates the discovery and importing process for you
• Show which ones are pre-loaded by Profiles
• Display version information
• Check the ones that you would like to load and use not
loaded by Profiles
• Choose if you want to persist the ones you have selected to
load the next time you start PowerShell Plus

21. Features
 Code Completion
 Get help on the Cmdlet and examples from the web
 Users can type in the “Verb” followed by a dash which will
display all “Nouns” available to them, works for
parameters, COM / .Net objects and WMI classes
 Also works for “$” variables, “.” for methods and properties,
and “” for file paths
 Displays Aliases for parameters
 Supports „ValidationSet‟ in Functions
 Works in both the Console and the Code Editor

22. Features
 Code Completion examples

23. Features
 Personal QuickClickTM Library
 Sample scripts for AD, SQL
Server, Exchange, SharePoint, etc.
 Outlook-style view to help you store and manage scripts
sets

24. Features
 Source Control
 Configure in Options
 Tool Window for working with files
• General functions: Connect, Disconnect,
Refresh, Run SCC client, Change
preferences, Get latest file revisions for
connection, Browse local workspace,
Change configuration
• File functions: Checkin/out, Undo
checkout, Get latest file revision, View
history, Properties, Open in editor

25. Features
 Source Control Caveats
 We provide core interface support for Microsoft SCC plugins for
common operations: Get, Checkin, Checkout, Undo, View History
• It’s the customers responsibility to install these plugins and review the 3rd
party documentation on their usage
 Configuration settings differ from plugin to plugin, we supply examples
for Perforce, TortoiseSVN, Visual SourceSafe, Team Foundation Server
in Learning Center
• Some experimentation required to get them working
 Dialogs initiated by the plugin are out of process (i.e. Preferences,
Connection, History, Property dialogs and any message boxes that may
occur when using them)
 You can only use 32-bit plugin in PSP 32-bit and 64-bit plugins in PSP
64-bit. When you run side-by-side it will make you switch the previously
selected plugin for other platform. There are not a lot of 64-bit plugins
available,

26. Features
 Remoting Configurations
 Reusable configurations define computers, remote settings
and user credentials used to Execute scripts remotely and
start/stop Interactive Sessions

27. Features
 Remoting Configurations
 Advanced search and select Computers using AD

28. Features
 Execute scripts remotely
 Saves the user from having to fill out all the parameters
when using Invoke-Command

29. Features
 Start/Stop Interactive Sessions
 Saves the user from having to fill out all the parameters
when using Enter-PSSession

30. Features
 Output results to Out-GridView
 Applies to local or remote execution
 Does not apply to Interactive Session

31. Features
 Mini-Mode
 Customers that are expert PowerShell users can switch
the console to Mini Mode and turn off all the UI „extras‟
• An Icon is placed in the notification tray and is used to get
back to full view (also can click X in upper right)
 Startup option setting can make this the initial start state

32. Features
 Publish to Module
 Search and select one or more scripts to convert to a
PowerShell module

33. Features
 Additional User Tools
 Clone Parameters
• Used to build Proxy functions by retrieving parameters of an
existing Cmdlet or Function
 Regex Expression Evaluator
• Test regular expression against any text
• Regular expressions are very handy in PowerShell
• http://www.regular-expressions.info/powershell.html
 GUID Creator
• Generate GUID for use in scripts and Module manifests

34. Features
 Learning Center

35. Features
 Learning Center
 Getting Started view walks the customer through the core
features
• Displayed when the application is launched but can be turned
off or re-launched from the Help menu
 Supports multiple keyword searching
 Reference help based on what is installed on computer
• Microsoft and 3rd party snapins, cmdlets, modules
• WMI installed classes
 Includes over 100 PowerShell Tips and links to more tips
on PowerShell.com and Mastering PowerShell eBook by
Tobias Weltner

36. Features
 Keyboard shortcuts are documented

37. Features
 Code Editor
 Create and debug PowerShell scripts including PS1
(Script), PSM1 (Modules), and PSD1 (Module Manifest)
 Edit additional file types including:
 HTML, XML, C#, VB.Net, Plain text, Batch files, VBScript and
SQL

38. Features
 Editing features
 Clicking on New in Main Menu or Quick Access Toolbar
 Click on “new” tab in Code Editor pane
 Double-click a .ps1 file on the desktop or in a folder or right-
click, select Open With -> PowerShell Plus Editor
 Right-click in QuickClick Library, select Edit or Paste Into Editor
 Type $psplus.CreateNewPSScript in Console
 Read-only designator in tab showing it‟s read-only, if under
Source Control it will automatically be checked out when edited
 Single-click Format Document to help with reformatting – rules
are documented in Code Editor -> Format Document topic
 Open in Containing folder (Windows Explorer)
 Reload from Disk to revert to on-disk copy

39. Features
 Find in All Files
 Find search text in specified starting directory, list matches
in results pane and click to open

40. Features
 Find/Replace options
 Find in Current and Opened option sends results to Find
Results tool window (see previous slide)

41. Features
 Open all previously opened files
 Options->Startup option
 Collapse/expand regions
 Collapse/expand just regions rather than all marked code
fold groups (Editor context menu, under Outlining)
 Encoding Support
 Support encoding types including Western European
(Windows), Unicode, Unicode (Big-Endian), Unicode
(UTF-8)
 Tooltip on Editor tab displays current encoding
 Options->Editor View for setting default Encoding

42. Features
 Code Editor Snippets and Code Signing

43. Features
 Centralized Proxy Configuration

44. Features
 Download Community Scripts
 Community Script Libraries can be searched and
downloaded from PowerShell.com, TechNet Script Center
and PoshCode.org
 Proxy and credentials can be supplied or you can use IE
configured proxy if set by your Enterprise Group Policy
 Multiple key words can be used for search
 One or more scripts can be selected from the search
results and downloaded into Editor or QuickClick Library
 Downloaded scripts marked as Blocked until reviewed and
can then be Unblocked to execute

45. Features
 Download Community Scripts

46. Features
 Submit Script to PowerShell.com
 Easy to use Wizard
 Launch from QuickClick Library or Code Editor

47. Features
 Server Explorer
 Management tree
 Object properties
 Task scripts can be bound or
unbound to object properties
 MyComputer and Sharepoint are
examples that use PowerShell
scripts to configure the tree
 SQL Server explorer is a
specialized version that uses
Microsoft SQL Server PowerShell
Provider to dynamically populate
the tree
 Example tasks included for
demonstration

48. Features
 Scripting Object Model
 What is it for?
• Customizing the Option Settings
• Automating operations within the IDE
• Create scripts that perform tasks that you do with the
PowerShellPlus user interface. For example, you can
add, remove, select or rename a PowerShellPlus Code
Editor tab
• Manipulate text of a script
• Perform Code Editor operations
• Create or manipulate Solution Sets in your personal
QuickClick Library
• Create or manipulate Remoting Configurations

49. Features
 Scripting Object Model Examples
 Changing an option
• $psplus.Options.Startup.StartInMiniMode = $false
• NOTE: Since PowerShell Profiles are managed by PowerShellPlus and
they are essentially script, you could put this into the PowerShellPlus
private profile to change startup behavior
 Add a new Solution Set (Library) and add to it
programmatically
• $psplus.SolutionSets.Add("Test solution",
"C:SolutionSetsMySolutionSet.xml")
• $psplus.SolutionSets.CurrentSolutionSet.AddEntry("FromFile
", "C:scriptsrichard.ps1“)
 Complete examples are in the Learning Center (see
SolutionSets, Remoting Configurations and Editor)

50. Documentation
 Release Notes
 Link in Installer, installed in application Documentation
directory
 Product page on Idera.com
 Contains common FAQs
 Additional documents
 Administrator's Guide to Windows PowerShell Remoting
 Managing SharePoint 2010 with PowerShell Plus
Professional Edition
• Located in application Documentation directory available on
Start Menu -> Idera -> PowerShellPlus

51. Troubleshooting
 User Settings
 XP, 2003: C:Documents and Settings{user}Local
SettingsApplication DataPowerShellPlus
 Vista, 2008: C:users{user}Local SettingsPowerShellPlus
 Trace Log
 In Logs directory of the User Settings location above
 Added additional logging details including a stack trace – if
we have a real field problem Idera can distribute a .PDB to
get exact line numbers