That's the renamed Monad, which was meant to be a tool to allow automation, and gain control of tasks in Windows. It was removed because some virus was released for it even before it was included in the OS. I was just thinking about something like this a few days back. It'd be really exciting to automatically have the DSL connecter launch and connect to the ISP at startup. Right now, you'd need an external program to do that for you.

PowerShell is a fairly complex endeavor for Microsoft, which has previously focused its attention on the graphical interface while rival server software remains primarily command line based. The idea was to build a Unix-like shell for administrators that offers advanced scripting capabilities while remaining easy to program.

Windows PowerShell features 130 built-in utilities called "cmdlets" for completing common system administration tasks; simplified navigation of the operating system including drives, startup files, and registry; support for existing scripts and command line tools; and object manipulation capabilities.

All that is for the non-hardcore users like me, who'll still try and want to script a little to automate a few of their tasks. I'm writing about this because this is something that Windows is doing different, and for the first time I think. They've always made their systems look more stunning, make them visually appealing as well as hide system commands under the mask of menus and options so that people didn't mess up their system too bad. I hope PowerShell will give the power user enough control to manage the operating system the way he wants to, not the way Microsoft thinks its safe. This is probably their answer to Apple Script, and I hope its as easy to use and as powerful.

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How it will be?

Well, after reading this post, I went looking for the RC1 of PowerShell and entered the dev blog to know a little more about it. It was then stated by most of them that it will not come integrated in Vista.

As everyone knows the official name for the new display navigation in MS is called "The Ribbon" that works as a sidescrolling panel (or column) to call the commands and functions in Office in real time and is not persistent , or for short:

a preview look of the effects. this is also true with the OS itself. the ribbon not only will be in the widget stripe in the desktop display, it will be the funtional navigation of START in windows. meaning that the even if the Powershell is not integrated natively in Vista, the aproach of MS seems to be that the cmdlets inside powershell will be able to give you full control and automatization of Vista with already pre-established guidelines.

About it being the response to Apple Script, yes, but not only to Apple. I think it is a response to give the MS version of Linux like management of Windows. And becuase of that, i agree on the hardcore being the only ones using this. That doesn't takes the credit that MS is not only trying to be more bold, it is trying to play as nice as their corporate culture can allow it.

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