PowerShell is a mixture of a command line, a functional programming language, and an object-oriented programming language. PowerShell is based on Microsoft .NET, which gives it a level of open flexibility that was not available in Microsoft's scripting languages (such as VBScript or batch) before this.

PowerShell is an explorer's scripting language. With built-in help, command discovery, and with access to much of the .NET framework, it is possible to dig down through the layers.

This book is based on PowerShell Core 6.1 with references to PowerShell 5.1; some of the features that are discussed in this book may not be available in the earlier versions of PowerShell.

PowerShell Core may be installed side by side with Windows PowerShell. Preview versions of PowerShell Core can often be installed side by side with full releases of PowerShell Core.