Microsoft® Windows® PowerShell is a Microsoft .NET-connected environment designed for administrative automation. Windows PowerShell provides a new approach to building commands, composing solutions, and creating management GUI tools.

Windows PowerShell enables a system administrator to automate the administration of system resources by the execution of commands either directly or through scripts.

The Windows PowerShell SDK is written for command developers who require reference information about the APIs provided by Windows PowerShell. Command developers use Windows PowerShell to create both commands and providers that extend the tasks that can be performed by the Microsoft® Windows® PowerShell.

For more information about Windows PowerShell concepts, examples, and a tutorial about how to write cmdlets, providers, and hosting applications, see the Windows PowerShell Programmer's Guide.

For more information about installing Microsoft® Windows® PowerShell, including downloading samples, How to Install Windows PowerShell in the Windows PowerShell Programmer's Guide.

System.Management.Automation

This is the root namespace for Windows PowerShell. It contains the classes, enumerations, and interfaces required to implement custom cmdlets. In particular, the Cmdlet class is the base class from which all cmdlet classes must be derived. For more information about cmdlets, see Windows PowerShell Cmdlets in the Windows PowerShell Programmer's Guide.

System.Management.Automation.Provider

This namespace contains the classes, enumerations, and interfaces required to implement a Windows PowerShell provider. In particular, the CmdletProvider class is the base class from which all Windows PowerShell provider classes must be derived.

Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands

This namespace contains the classes for the cmdlets and providers implemented by Windows PowerShell. Similarly, it is recommended that you create a [YourName].Commands namespace for those cmdlets that you implement.

System.Management.Automation.Host

This namespace contains the classes, enumerations, and interfaces that the cmdlet uses to interact with the Host application user.

System.Management.Automation.Internal

This namespace contains the base classes used by other namespace classes. For example, the CmdletMetadataAttribute class is the base class for the CmdletAttribute class.

System.Management.Automation.Runspaces

This namespace contains the classes, enumerations, and interfaces used to create a Windows PowerShell Runspace. In this context, the Windows PowerShell runspace is the context in which one or more Windows PowerShell pipelines invoke cmdlets. That is, cmdlets work within the context of a Windows PowerShell runspace. For more information about Windows PowerShell runspaces, see Windows PowerShell Runspaces in the Windows PowerShell Programmer's Guide.