As I just completed the “Command Line” path in Cyber Security 101. Whilst progressing through the modules of the path, I constantly acknowledged considerably positive emotions. The shells acting as a middle man between me and the kernal, gives me a feeling of immense control over the hardware I’m tinkering with. The section before entering “Command Line”, discusses Windows, notably AD(Active Directory) fundamentals. The amount of clicks and folders to access when, for example creating a new group policy, made my head churn! I don’t doubt, with repetition a person would remember the steps to configure such a task, but with the command line. Powershell… These things are basically automated.

“Automation” is one of the core roles of Powershell, and the other shells discussed in the section. I personally had a base level understanding of the linux Operating system, but the amount of work done for you with a single sentence worth of prompts is, in my eyes magic! I wish I could consider myself a genius after implementing a few cmdlets, but the surface hasn’t even been touched yet. As a person who wants to be a master at a particular thing, rather than knowing bits of everything, I ask myself. Which one is the best option, to learn and completely understand? It’s not in doubt, a true spokesman of this occupation is averse in all that are in-question. But with my excitement, I tend to forget that XD.

Shell scripting with Bash had strong familiarities with python. The object-oriented approach of Powershell, makes it easier to automate complex tasks, such as the extensive button clicking of creating a new Group Policy Object. Each cmdlet within powershell returning functions and data encapsulated in a single object creates, simplicity and greatly easy accessability, the naming convention of modules makes it very convenient to filter out the commands you need.

Though the love for this topic is immense, I do believe the learning curve is tremendous. There’s a lot one needs to know, hence a lot to learn, and I understand that will take time. However I can acknowledge the little milestones put in place. It started off with powershell being incomprehensible, to understanding the general basis of the shell. A few basic commands on linux. mkdir, cd, ls, pwd. To knowing how to dissect files with specific extensions or words in them, scripting, executing a command in the background whilst simultaneously doing another command. Executing multiple tasks at the same time, piping!! Knowing where to find info, through prompts such as, –help, man, Get-Command, Get-Help, will speed up the process. It’s something I’m proud of.