I’ve been teaching PowerShell formally and informally for the last three years or so, and one of the trends I find coming up more and more, especially in companies that have their own in house development capability is the need to establish Standards for PowerShell developments, script rollout, signing, etc.

One of the MANY advantages that PowerShell has is the concept of Code Signing, and built in restricted execution policies – meaning that companies can choose to ONLY run signed production scripts across their enterprise. This dramatically limits the kind of exposure that companies used to face with Windows Script Host and VBS scripts.

Often the companies I teach don’t know where to start, and without having some kind of whitepaper to refer to this can be difficult.

Dmitry Sotnikov blogged about the release of a new whitepaper written by PowerShell MVP Jeffery Hicks, who’s one of the leading figures writing about PowerShell and it’s practical application. I especially love the TFM books he’s written on PowerShell 1.0 and 2.0 and recommend you grab a copy of the latest one if you’re in any way serious about using PowerShell.

The whitepaper explains the issue and suggests standardisation based on several examples and is should be added to the suggested reading list if you’re starting with or thinking of using PowerShell in your company.