PowerShell is getting increasing attention and gaining followers each day. That is a good thing in my book. I saw a tweet about Citrix OctoBlu automation where Dave Brett ( @dbretty ) was using it to save money with a PowerShell script ( full post here ) to power on and off VMs. I reached out to him and asked if he would like a little help with his PowerShell script. To my delight, he happily accepted and this post is about how I transformed his scripts to take advantage of the full power of The Shell. Fair warning is in order, since I have never used or touched a OctoBlu solution. Starting scripts ( shutdownScript.ps1 ) ( StartupScript.ps1 ) What we would like to change First of, a PowerShell function should do one thing and do it well. My first goal was to split the function into two parts where we have one function that handles both the startup and the shutdown of the VM-guests. Secondly I would like to move the mail notification out of the function and ...