PowerShell Skills

Updated in May 2025. This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. This comprehensive PowerShell course will equip you with the knowledge and skills necessary to automate tasks, manage system configurations, and perform more efficient administrative tasks. Throughout the course, you'll learn how to leverage PowerShell’s powerful scripting capabilities to streamline workflows and improve system management. By the end of the course, you'll have a solid foundation in PowerShell scripting and be ready to tackle real-world IT challenges with confidence. The course begins with a comprehensive introduction to PowerShell, starting with installation, configuration, and understanding the various execution policies. You will learn how to find and use commands, access the built-in help system, and set up an ideal development environment using Visual Studio Code. These foundational topics will prepare you to start automating tasks and managing your system configurations effectively. As the course progresses, you'll dive into essential scripting concepts like variables, arrays, hash tables, and arithmetic operators. You’ll learn the basics of flow control with operators, conditionals, and loops such as "If" statements, "Switch" statements, and "For" loops. By the end of the scripting basics section, you will be equipped to write basic scripts and solve complex problems using PowerShell. The final section of the course focuses on practical scripting applications. You’ll explore how to prompt for user input, archive files based on their modification date, and compare hash values to verify file integrity. These hands-on examples will allow you to practice your new skills in real-life scenarios, enabling you to automate critical tasks efficiently. This course is perfect for IT professionals, system administrators, and anyone interested in improving their PowerShell skills.