WEBVTT

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>> Hello, everyone. I'm
instructor Gerri Roberts

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and this is
PowerShell Scripting.

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In this video, we're
going to learn

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about some additional
help items.

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We're going to learn
about the About Library,

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the ShowWindow command,

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and the Show-Command command.

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First of all, the About library.

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PowerShell actually has a
very robust About Library,

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and according to Microsoft,

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these are topics
that cover a ranges

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of concepts about PowerShell.

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Basically, these are
help files that help

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the user understand some
concepts within PowerShell.

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The output you get from the
about files is pretty similar

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to the -full switch that we did

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with the help commands
a couple of videos ago.

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It's more robust than
normal help files.

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For example, if we wanted to

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get information about
environment variables,

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we would use the Get-Help
space and then list

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the about file which is
about_Environment_Variables.

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Now, something to notice.

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The about files will
always start with about _,

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so whatever you're looking
up will start with about_.

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Now, the command
here will bring up

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the about file for our
environment variables,

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which you can see in
the picture over here,

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we piped it to

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a text file so you can
look at the information.

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Now, in some cases,

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it might be easier to
pipe to a text file so

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you could sit there and read
it or have it for later.

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In other cases, you
can go ahead and just

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put it on your PowerShell
window and read through it.

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Now, if you want to see all of

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the about files
that are available,

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you can type Get-Help
space about_ and wildcard.

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This will find all of
the about files by using

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about_ and a wildcard to

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find any files that
start with about_.

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Now, remember, all those files

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for the about files are about_.

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Or if you don't want
to look in PowerShell,

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you can find them on the
Microsoft Docs website.

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If you go to the Microsoft
Docs PowerShell website

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and look up about files,

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you'll be able to find
the article that lists

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all those files or
you can try typing

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this entire URL into

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your browser and you'll be
able to find it that way.

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Now, notice this is another

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en-us if you are in
a different country.

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Easiest way to find it is to go

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to the Microsoft Docs website,

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type in PowerShell,

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and then when you find
the PowerShell page,

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search for about file
on the PowerShell page.

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Another useful item is
the ShowWindow Command.

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-ShowWindow is actually a
switch parameter and it moves

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the output from the current to

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another one windows to
make it easier to read.

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For example here, we did

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get-help about_aliases and then

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we did the perimeter
for ShowWindow,

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and instead of showing

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all that information
in the current window,

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it pops up another window
to make it easier to read.

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It also gives you the bonus
of having a search feature,

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which if you look at the top

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of the ShowWindow window
you can see find.

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If you start typing
in something,

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it will look for it
just like you could

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find it in a Word
document or another item

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and you'll also be able to

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scroll through using
previous and next if

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it finds more than one
result for your search.

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Another useful command,
the -Show-Command.

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This is very useful because it

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allows you to pop
up a command into

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a graphical window so you

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can work with it a little

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bit easier than
just typing it out.

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When that pops up instead

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of having it look
like the ShowWindow,

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it's actually information
about the command.

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So you have a bunch of tabs,

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each tab is a perimeter
for that command.

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Any command parameter
that is required,

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so any of those that have to be

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done are marked
with an asterisk.

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Any changes that you
make in this window,

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you can run into

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your regular PowerShell window

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by clicking Run at the bottom.

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You can also copy any of these
changes by using copy at

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the bottom and that will copy

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your information
into the clipboard

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so you can look at it later.

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Updating help. Things do

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change from time to time so you

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may have to update
your help files.

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In order to do this,

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there's a couple of things.

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If you're online,
it's very simple,

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you just type update help,

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it'll run for a few
minutes and it'll pull

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all the different
changes from online

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for the Microsoft server
and update for you.

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If you are offline,

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unfortunately it's a
little more complicated.

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What you have to do
is you have to go to

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another computer
that is updated,

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use the save-help command
to save them to a drive or

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removable media so that saves

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all the updates to

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something you could bring
to the other computer.

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Then when you get to
the other computer

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and you put it in the media,

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you have to run update
help with a source

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path parameter pointing to
that media that you have,

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and what it'll do is
it'll sink the files from

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that media to your computer
to update your help.

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Post-assessment time.

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If you wanted to move the
output of a command to

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another window to make
it easier to read,

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which switch parameter
would you use?

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Would you togglewindow,

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ShowWindow,
Show-Command or Show?

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I'll give you a minute to go
ahead and think about it.

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It would actually be ShowWindow.

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Now, ShowWindow
moves the output of

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a command to another windows
and make it easier to read.

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Now, remember, Show-Command
moves the command

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itself to another window

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and shows you the parameters
for that command.

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That's why you would
choose ShowWindow.