Power Shell is a Windows command-line shell designed for system administrators and power developers. The Windows Power Shell includes two applications: an interactive prompt (similar to the classic Command Prompt, but more powerful), and a scripting environment. These two applications can be used independently or in combination.

Windows Power Shell is an object-oriented environment which accepts and returns .NET Framework objects. The object orientation makes the environment far more powerful than classic Command Prompt. Advanced Power Shell users often accomplish many tasks with one line. The scripting environment allows a developer to completely replace the need to write console applications.

For data miners, Power Shell can be used to write scripts which access any program with an open API. SQL Server Data Mining (see http://www.sqlserverdatamining.com) is not an application, but a service which comes with licensed SQL Server. Power Shell can be used to both create data mining structures and models in Analysis Services, and also launch data mining queries for SQL Server Data Mining.

For more on Power Shell, see the Windows Power Shell Getting Started Guide at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa973757(VS.85).aspx

-- Mark Tabladillo - 21 Sep 2010