The PowerShell ISE also has collapsible regions, which is useful when working on large scripts.ĭon’t get too hung up on which IDE to use. You can see how PowerShell ISE and VS Code have syntax highlighting and line numbers, but Notepad does not. In the image below I’ve opened one of my scripts in the PowerShell ISE, Notepad, and VS Code.

Visual Studio Code is another option, and has a PowerShell extension that you can install. You can use any text editor you like (even Notepad), but an IDE that recognizes PowerShell code and does useful things like syntax highlighting, suggestions, and auto-complete will make your coding much easier. For PowerShell scripting I use the PowerShell ISE. By showing you how I write scripts, hopefully I can help you to see how you can easily write your own or modify other people’s.įirst, let’s get our tools set up. This script would be useful in scenarios where a customer has a database or spreadsheet of contacts that they want added to Exchange, and would save you a lot of time manually entering the details of each contact.

In this article I’ll take you step by step through the process I follow to create a PowerShell script, using the example of a PowerShell script that imports data from a CSV file and creates mail contacts in Exchange or Exchange Online. In particular, this post is for those of you who have ever left a comment or sent me an email asking how you can modify one of my scripts to suit your needs.

This post is for those of you who know that PowerShell scripting can be helpful, but don’t quite know how to create scripts to solve your problems. I wrote my own personal story of how I started learning PowerShell here. PowerShell is one of the most important skills for a Microsoft IT professional today.

How to write powershell scripts