Reading and Writing Output

Working with output and data is the most common thing you'll be doing in PowerShell. From generating data for reports, to quickly reviewing a system's status, to the bulk-insertion of values into a database table: everything has to do with data and output.

We'll cover a lot of ground in this chapter and, with simple recipes, you'll see how to access the certificate stores, the registry on a Windows machine and the filesystem on any OS. You'll also learn how to properly work with variables.

In this chapter, we'll cover the following recipes:

• Working with output
• Storing data
• Read-only and constant variables
• Variable scoping
• The six streams
• Stream redirection
• Working with the filesystem provider
• Working with the registry provider
• Working with the certificate provider
• Creating your own provider
• NTFS alternate data streams