Datasheet

UNDERSTAND THE BASICS OF POWERSHELL 23

Administering

Service Delivery

PART I

from

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924.aspx

. A er

you install the SDK, use the following command to create a self-signed certi cate:

makecert.exe -r -pe -n “CN=PowerShell Signing Cert” -ss MY -a sha1 -eku i

1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.3

You can then run the following PowerShell command to verify that the certi cate

was successfully created:

PS C:\> Get-ChildItem cert:\currentuser\my -codesigning

Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Security\Certificate::currentuser\my

Thumbprint Subject

---------- -------

DA747C75B468FCF2701FC844799B3DCE44B5F512 CN=PowerShell Signing Cert

Now that you’ve obtained your certi cate, you can use the

Set-

AuthenticodeSignature

cmdlet to sign your PowerShell script. You’ll need

to pass the certi cate object as a parameter in the cmdlet. You can do this by

assigning the certi cate to a variable and then referencing the variable in the

Set-AuthenticodeSignature

cmdlet. For example, if you wanted to sign

a script called

UpdateSiteTopology.ps1

, you would run the following

commands:

PS C:\> $certificate = Get-ChildItem cert:\currentuser\my -codesigning

PS C:\> Set-AuthenticodeSignature UpdateSiteTopology.ps1 $certificate

A er you sign the script, you’ll notice that a signature block has been added to the

end of the  le.  is block represents the encrypted hash. If you modify the script, be

sure to re-sign it so this encrypted hash value is updated.

Use Variables in a Script

You could write scripts to execute one command a er another, but PowerShell

scripts can be more than mere substitutes for batch  les. In order to take your

scripting to the next level and write more powerful scripts, you need to learn some

of the basics of scripting, starting with variables.

Variables are nothing more than a way to temporarily store data for later use. In

PowerShell, variables are easy to work with because they can hold any type of data,

such as text, numbers, or whole objects.

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