Windows PowerShell (or PS) is an extensible command-line shell and associated scripting language that helps IT professionals achieve greater control and productivity. It was released in 2006 and is currently available for Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and is included in Windows Server 2008 as an optional feature.

Windows PowerShell integrates with the Microsoft .NET Framework and provides an environment to perform administrative tasks by execution of cmdlets OR commandlets which are specialized .NET classes implementing a particular operation, scripts which are composition of cmdlets or executables which are standalone applications. All These task like accessing data in different data stores, like filesystem or registry, which are made available to the PowerShell runtime via Windows PowerShell providers.

Windows PowerShell also provides a hosting mechanism through which the Windows PS runtime can be used inside other applications, which can then inhance Windows PS functionality to implement certain operations, including those exposed via the graphical interface. This capability has been utilized by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and other Microsoft applications like “Microsoft SQL Server 2008″ to increase its management functionality through PowerShell cmdlets. In the future, graphical interface-based management applications on Windows will be layered on top of Windows PowerShell.i

Windows PowerShell includes its own extensive, console-based help, same as of man pages in Unix shells. The help topics include help for cmdlets, providers, and concepts in PowerShell. To see the help, use the Get-Help cmdlet.