I thought it would be a great idea for someone (with actual skill to
do this, unlike me) to create a Windows Mobile provider for
Powershell. For those that don't have a WinMo PDA or phone, let me
give you a little background.

Right now, there is only one way to access the files on your PDA and
that's through a special Mobile Device object exposed in Explorer
under My Computer. You can do *nothing* via the command line, only by
this special object in the GUI. It would be extremely cool to be able
to script the manipulation of files on my device, and I see the
provider framework is right there ready to use. It's possible
the .NET back-end is already in place, given that MS does provide
access to the PDA already.

What do y'all think?

I absolutely agree that a Windows Mobile PowerShell provider would be very
usefull. Actually, I had the same basic idea about two years ago when
powershell was still in beta.

I was hoping that Microsoft would ship something like this together with
powershell 1.0 because IMHO the ActiveSync software is the biggest pile of
cr*p that has ever seen the surface of our planet. PowerShell could make
syncing my pocket pc MUCH easier. But as we all know now, PowerShell 1.0
doesn't even have an active directory provider, just the basic alias and
function providers etc.

Unfortunately, it seems that Microsoft waits for 3rd party vendors to
implement usefull PowerShell providers that will fix the short commings their
own technology. I really hope that more and more teams at Microsoft start
supporting PowerShell with new cmdlets/providers soon.

--
greetings
dreeschkind


"Hal Rottenberg" wrote:

> I thought it would be a great idea for someone (with actual skill to
> do this, unlike me) to create a Windows Mobile provider for
> Powershell. For those that don't have a WinMo PDA or phone, let me
> give you a little background.
>
> Right now, there is only one way to access the files on your PDA and
> that's through a special Mobile Device object exposed in Explorer
> under My Computer. You can do *nothing* via the command line, only by
> this special object in the GUI. It would be extremely cool to be able
> to script the manipulation of files on my device, and I see the
> provider framework is right there ready to use. It's possible
> the .NET back-end is already in place, given that MS does provide
> access to the PDA already.
>
> What do y'all think?
>
>

"dreeschkind" <dreeschkind@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1DDFD540-D2DF-4C03-BAA6-33E7F145A709@microsoft.com...
>I absolutely agree that a Windows Mobile PowerShell provider would be very
> usefull. Actually, I had the same basic idea about two years ago when
> powershell was still in beta.
>
> I was hoping that Microsoft would ship something like this together with
> powershell 1.0 because IMHO the ActiveSync software is the biggest pile of
> cr*p that has ever seen the surface of our planet. PowerShell could make
> syncing my pocket pc MUCH easier. But as we all know now, PowerShell 1.0
> doesn't even have an active directory provider, just the basic alias and
> function providers etc.
>
> Unfortunately, it seems that Microsoft waits for 3rd party vendors to
> implement usefull PowerShell providers that will fix the short commings
> their
> own technology.

IMHO, they were in a situation where they could either wait for others to
fill in these gaps, or wait for their own people to fill in these gaps. I
think they opted to release version 1 without some of these nice to have
items just in order to get it out there. Yes it has gaps in its coverage,
but it seems a good enough start. Would we all rather wait until a version
one could have been released with no gaps?

> I really hope that more and more teams at Microsoft start
> supporting PowerShell with new cmdlets/providers soon.

Hopefully some of those teams will see the benefits that the Exchange 2007
team saw in integrating powershell with the admin console. When I asked if
that was going to be a mandatory, or at least, strongly recommended
approach, I got the impression that the teams are a bit more independent
than that.

/Al

>
> --
> greetings
> dreeschkind
>
>
> "Hal Rottenberg" wrote:
>
>> I thought it would be a great idea for someone (with actual skill to
>> do this, unlike me) to create a Windows Mobile provider for
>> Powershell. For those that don't have a WinMo PDA or phone, let me
>> give you a little background.
>>
>> Right now, there is only one way to access the files on your PDA and
>> that's through a special Mobile Device object exposed in Explorer
>> under My Computer. You can do *nothing* via the command line, only by
>> this special object in the GUI. It would be extremely cool to be able
>> to script the manipulation of files on my device, and I see the
>> provider framework is right there ready to use. It's possible
>> the .NET back-end is already in place, given that MS does provide
>> access to the PDA already.
>>
>> What do y'all think?
>>
>>

On Jun 2, 7:45 pm, "Al Dunbar" <AlanD...@hotmail.com.nospaam> wrote:
> "dreeschkind" <dreeschk...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>
> news:1DDFD540-D2DF-4C03-BAA6-33E7F145A709@microsoft.com...
>
> >I absolutely agree that a Windows Mobile PowerShell provider would be very
> > usefull. Actually, I had the same basic idea about two years ago when
> > powershell was still in beta.
>
> > I was hoping that Microsoft would ship something like this together with
> > powershell 1.0 because IMHO the ActiveSync software is the biggest pile of
> > cr*p that has ever seen the surface of our planet. PowerShell could make
> > syncing my pocket pc MUCH easier. But as we all know now, PowerShell 1.0
> > doesn't even have an active directory provider, just the basic alias and
> > function providers etc.
>
> > Unfortunately, it seems that Microsoft waits for 3rd party vendors to
> > implement usefull PowerShell providers that will fix the short commings
> > their
> > own technology.
>
> IMHO, they were in a situation where they could either wait for others to
> fill in these gaps, or wait for their own people to fill in these gaps. I
> think they opted to release version 1 without some of these nice to have
> items just in order to get it out there. Yes it has gaps in its coverage,
> but it seems a good enough start. Would we all rather wait until a version
> one could have been released with no gaps?
>
> > I really hope that more and more teams at Microsoft start
> > supporting PowerShell with new cmdlets/providers soon.
>
> Hopefully some of those teams will see the benefits that the Exchange 2007
> team saw in integrating powershell with the admin console. When I asked if
> that was going to be a mandatory, or at least, strongly recommended
> approach, I got the impression that the teams are a bit more independent
> than that.
>
> /Al
>
>
>
>
>
> > --
> > greetings
> > dreeschkind
>
> > "Hal Rottenberg" wrote:
>
> >> I thought it would be a great idea for someone (with actual skill to
> >> do this, unlike me) to create a Windows Mobile provider for
> >> Powershell. For those that don't have a WinMo PDA or phone, let me
> >> give you a little background.
>
> >> Right now, there is only one way to access the files on your PDA and
> >> that's through a special Mobile Device object exposed in Explorer
> >> under My Computer. You can do *nothing* via the command line, only by
> >> this special object in the GUI. It would be extremely cool to be able
> >> to script the manipulation of files on my device, and I see the
> >> provider framework is right there ready to use. It's possible
> >> the .NET back-end is already in place, given that MS does provide
> >> access to the PDA already.
>
> >> What do y'all think?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Well dudes, you're in luck -- I just can't get enough of PowerShell,
and I'm not content to just work on PSCX, PSEventing and
PSSharePoint... I'm in the middle of working on PSMobile, so watch
this space! (it'll be up on codeplex in a few weeks in beta form)

Regards,

- Oisin

"Al Dunbar" wrote:
>
> IMHO, they were in a situation where they could either wait for others to
> fill in these gaps, or wait for their own people to fill in these gaps.
> I think they opted to release version 1 without some of these nice to have
> items just in order to get it out there. Yes it has gaps in its coverage,
> but it seems a good enough start. Would we all rather wait until a version
> one could have been released with no gaps?

I can understand that they were happy to get version 1 with all the basic
features out there and that a Windows Mobile provider probably does not have
the biggest priority for most of the target audience.
I was just *hoping* that there were more usefull providers in version 1 or
at least comming out every month after the release. I wasn't expecting full
coverage to be in a version 1 product. :-)

> Hopefully some of those teams will see the benefits that the Exchange 2007
> team saw in integrating powershell with the admin console. When I asked if
> that was going to be a mandatory, or at least, strongly recommended
> approach, I got the impression that the teams are a bit more independent
> than that.

I don't expect *all* teams to include PowerShell support in their products
soon. That is, I don't really need PowerShell support for Minesweeper or
Windows Movie Maker... ;-)
But I can imagine some *very* useful PowerShell scripts involving Windows
Mobile, Microsoft Office, Windows Live Messenger, Desktop Search, Task
Scheduler and many other Microsoft products (SideBar is already supported by
PowerGadgets which is really cool!).

--
greetings
dreeschkind

"Oisin Grehan" wrote:

> Well dudes, you're in luck -- I just can't get enough of PowerShell,
> and I'm not content to just work on PSCX, PSEventing and
> PSSharePoint... I'm in the middle of working on PSMobile, so watch
> this space! (it'll be up on codeplex in a few weeks in beta form)

Well, that is very good news!
Thanks for all your effort Oisin!

--
greetings
dreeschkind

On Jun 3, 8:41 am, dreeschkind <dreeschk...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:
> "Oisin Grehan" wrote:
> > Well dudes, you're in luck -- I just can't get enough of PowerShell,
> > and I'm not content to just work on PSCX, PSEventing and
> > PSSharePoint... I'm in the middle of working on PSMobile, so watch
> > this space! (it'll be up on codeplex in a few weeks in beta form)
>
> Well, that is very good news!
> Thanks for all your effort Oisin!
>
> --
> greetings
> dreeschkind

Given that I've only owned a Windows Mobile device for about 9 months
(I've got a htc tytn running wm6), what sort of things would you like
to see in it? Currently I've got filesystem/registry access working,
read-only.

I'd love to get some feedback on cmdlet/provider features/ideas.

- Ois

- Oisin

On Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:11:39 -0700, Oisin Grehan <oising@gmail.com>
wrote:

How about something that reads/backs-up SMS/Text messages? This
functionality is missing by default in ActiveSync so it would be a
useful addition.

(Obviously this will only apply to Phone Edition devices:-)

Also, I guess you'll cater for XP Hosts (with ActiveSync) and Vista
Hosts (with the Vista Sync Center)?

Can't wait to try your code!

Chris


>On Jun 3, 8:41 am, dreeschkind <dreeschk...@discussions.microsoft.com>
>wrote:
>> "Oisin Grehan" wrote:
>> > Well dudes, you're in luck -- I just can't get enough of PowerShell,
>> > and I'm not content to just work on PSCX, PSEventing and
>> > PSSharePoint... I'm in the middle of working on PSMobile, so watch
>> > this space! (it'll be up on codeplex in a few weeks in beta form)
>>
>> Well, that is very good news!
>> Thanks for all your effort Oisin!
>>
>> --
>> greetings
>> dreeschkind
>
>Given that I've only owned a Windows Mobile device for about 9 months
>(I've got a htc tytn running wm6), what sort of things would you like
>to see in it? Currently I've got filesystem/registry access working,
>read-only.
>
>I'd love to get some feedback on cmdlet/provider features/ideas.
>
>- Ois
>
>- Oisin

"dreeschkind" <dreeschkind@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:94F83CC2-E718-43E9-B84E-32DC57FD9607@microsoft.com...
> "Al Dunbar" wrote:
>>
>> IMHO, they were in a situation where they could either wait for others to
>> fill in these gaps, or wait for their own people to fill in these gaps.
>> I think they opted to release version 1 without some of these nice to
>> have
>> items just in order to get it out there. Yes it has gaps in its coverage,
>> but it seems a good enough start. Would we all rather wait until a
>> version
>> one could have been released with no gaps?
>
> I can understand that they were happy to get version 1 with all the basic
> features out there and that a Windows Mobile provider probably does not
> have
> the biggest priority for most of the target audience.

Hey, even ADSI didn't make the cut, to say nothing of remoting!

> I was just *hoping* that there were more usefull providers in version 1 or
> at least comming out every month after the release. I wasn't expecting
> full
> coverage to be in a version 1 product. :-)

Fair enough. I'm not sure what their update strategy is, or whether or not
additional providers can be supplied as separate entities, but I suspect we
are looking at a version 2.0 rather than versions 1.01a, 1.01b, 1.12c, and
etc.

>> Hopefully some of those teams will see the benefits that the Exchange
>> 2007
>> team saw in integrating powershell with the admin console. When I asked
>> if
>> that was going to be a mandatory, or at least, strongly recommended
>> approach, I got the impression that the teams are a bit more independent
>> than that.
>
> I don't expect *all* teams to include PowerShell support in their products
> soon. That is, I don't really need PowerShell support for Minesweeper or
> Windows Movie Maker... ;-)
> But I can imagine some *very* useful PowerShell scripts involving Windows
> Mobile, Microsoft Office, Windows Live Messenger, Desktop Search, Task
> Scheduler and many other Microsoft products (SideBar is already supported
> by
> PowerGadgets which is really cool!).

You are probably right. But you remind me of me at an earlier time when I
expected WSH was going to continue to be extended as the admin scripting
platform of choice!

/Al

On Jun 4, 1:11 pm, Oisin Grehan <ois...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Given that I've only owned a Windows Mobile device for about 9 months
> (I've got a htc tytn running wm6), what sort of things would you like
> to see in it? Currently I've got filesystem/registry access working,
> read-only.

Ois, this is awesome news, I can't wait to test this out. On the
ideas side, I think it would be awesome to have PIM data access. For
example:

25# Get-PSProvider *mob* | ft -auto

Name Capabilities Drives
---- ------------ ------
WindowsMobile Filter, ShouldProcess {htc_tytn}

26# cd htc_tytn:
htc_tytn:\
27# dir c* | ft name

Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\WindowsMobile::htc_tytn:\

Name
----
Calendar
Contacts

28# dir contacts | select-object name,workphone -first 2

Name WorkPhone
---- ---------
John Smith +1(404)555-1212
Jane Smith +1(770)555-1212

---
That should keep you busy for a while.