PowerShell for Automating Administration

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 course empowers IT administrators to automate routine and complex tasks using PowerShell. It begins with an introduction to installing software remotely on multiple computers, followed by a hands-on approach to developing PowerShell scripts that handle end-to-end software installation processes. As you progress, you'll dive into essential PowerShell automation concepts, learning how to manipulate taskbar settings, automate system logging, and manage CSV file operations effectively. The next part of the course focuses on administering and automating service restarts. You’ll explore commandlets that manage Windows services and develop scripts that automate planned restarts across multiple servers. Additionally, you will gain insights into a project where PowerShell scripts are customized to handle real-world administration tasks, including handling XML configuration files and creating a lab setup to deploy resources in the cloud. In the final sections, you will work on server validation, report consolidation, and enhancing your scripts for remote execution. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to create and manage robust scripts that automate various administrative functions, helping you save time and minimize errors. Prerequisites include basic PowerShell knowledge and experience with Windows administration. This course is tailored for IT professionals, system administrators, and DevOps engineers who want to automate repetitive administrative tasks. Prior experience with PowerShell and Windows administration is recommended, but not mandatory.