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Lab 1 – PowerShell Automation with Copilot

🏛️Scenario

An operations team needs a reusable PowerShell toolkit that audits disk usage, logs findings, and surfaces actionable alerts. Building on Lab 1, you will apply Copilot fundamentals to produce production-ready scripts that downstream labs (Python, YAML, and Ansible) will consume.

Learning Goals

  • Prompt Copilot to scaffold and refactor scripts.
  • Implement defensive error handling and structured logging.
  • Package scripts into reusable modules and translate outputs for downstream tooling.

Prerequisites

  • PowerShell 7+.
  • VS Code with PowerShell & Copilot extensions.
  • Test machine or container with mock drives.

Exercise 1 – Inline Completions & Ghost Text (20 min)

  • Create a new file named DiskAudit.ps1 inside the Lab1_PowerShell folder.

Inline Copilot (start typing a comment and let Copilot suggest the change).

  1. Copy the following Comment and paste in the script file:
#Generate a PowerShell script that lists disks, free space %, and flags volumes below 15% free.

  1. Pause typing and observe Copilot's ghost text suggestion; accept with Tab if appropriate

  2. From the toolbar select Run - Run without debugging or (F5) to Run the script

  3. Use GitHub Copilot to refactor the script to change the free space threshold from 15% to 20%.:

  4. Open Copilot Chat (Ctrl+I) and ask:

Change the free space to 20%
  • The goal is to learn how Copilot can help you refactor your script using inline suggestions.

Exercise 2 – Edit mode - Structured Logging & Error Handling

Use Edit mode - Open Copilot chat Ctrl+shift+i Make sure in are in Edit mode and stand on the script file DiskAudit.ps1

alt text

-Ask Copilot to:

 Add ComputerName parameter to the PowerShell script and use it for remote execution

 wrap the script in `Try/Catch` blocks.

Exercise 3 – Ask mode

  1. Open script file script.ps1 Do you know what this script does?
  2. Change copilot mode to ask mode -make sure your context is the script file

alt text

  1. Ask Copilot:
Explain in plain English what this PowerShell script does?
  1. Run the script and check if you see files in the SystemReport folder.

Exercise 4 – Agent mode

  1. Change to Agent mode

alt text

  1. Ask Copilot Agent:
Add detailed comments to this script.

Refactor and optimize this script.
  1. Review the changes and keep them.
  2. Make sure the script is running.
  3. Ask Copilot to help you persist results as JSON
persist all results from csv files to one JSON file
  1. Run the script and check if you see a json files with all the details in the SystemReport folder.

🔥Lab 1 is complete! Proceed to Lab 2 – Python Automation with Copilot.