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Now let's explore how modules get imported

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into your PowerShell session, both

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explicitly and also by using the auto‑load

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feature. There's a number of modules

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installed on a Windows system by default

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out of the box, and I'd like to spend a

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few minutes working with those before we

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look at installing and managing

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non‑default modules. You can use the

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command Import‑Module to explicitly import

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a module into this session. But before we

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do, let's check out the help quickly by

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running Get‑Help Import‑Module. You'll see

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here in the first syntax block that the

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only mandatory parameter we need to

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specify for the Import‑Module command to

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run is ‑Name. And additionally, it is

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positional, so we aren't required to use

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the name parameter, but we will to start

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with. Seems reasonably straightforward,

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right? Before I import a module, if I run

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Get‑Module, you'll see the modules that

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are imported into our current session. And

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remember, as we discussed in the last

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clip, this only shows us modules that have

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bean imported into this particular

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session. So let's import a module, and

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I'll do that by running Import‑Module

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‑Name BitsTransfer. That's all the help

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said that I need to specify, so we should

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be good. If I run Get‑Module again, you'll

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see that the BitsTransfer module is now

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loaded into this session and is ready for

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use. Now there's a command that I happen

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to know about named Get‑SmbShare that is

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not included in any of these modules that

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have been imported into this session so

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far. It is a command that's a part of a

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module named SMBShare. Because of the

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auto‑loading feature we spoke about

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previously, I do have the ability to just

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run the command, and, as the SMBShare

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module is sitting in one of those PS

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module paths, PowerShell will go and find

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which module the command is a part of and

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then import the module for me. Let's try

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it out. I'll run Get‑SmbShare, and the

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command executed, and I can see a list of

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shares on this machine. If I run

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Get‑Module again, you will notice that the

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module named SmbShare has automatically

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been loaded into my PowerShell session

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because I used a command that is included

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in that module. In a nutshell, that's how

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the auto‑load feature works. Again, let me

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just reiterate so this really hits home.

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Auto‑load won't work if the module is not

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sitting in one of the paths included in

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the PS module path variable. I hope with

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these examples, you've seen the power of

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having modules in the PS module path and

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the benefits it can provide. With that

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said, there may be times where you don't

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have the module stored in one of those

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paths, and you just want to load it in ad

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hoc from somewhere else on the file

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system. This can be achieved by specifying

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the full path to the folder that contains

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the module when running the Import‑Module

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command. You might want to do this if

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you're doing some testing of a development

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or test module and you just want to

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quickly load it into your session. I've

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got a web browser here, and I'm on a

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Github page that is the home for a

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PowerShell module created by a good friend

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of mine that allows you to query a popular

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data breach service named Have I Been

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Pwned, which, as an aside, is a great

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service created by another Pluralsight

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author named Troy Hunt. The PowerShell

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module itself is named Have I Been Pwned.

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Now this module is actually on the

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PowerShell Gallery, so I don't need to

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come to Github to get this module, and

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I'll show you in the next module in this

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course how to install from the Gallery.

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But I'm just using this as an example of

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maybe getting a dev or test branch of a

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module from somewhere like Github that you

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might want to try or test out. If I click

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on this code icon at the top, I can

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download a zip of this code repository

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down to my computer. Let's open that

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download location, and I'll unblock the

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file in the properties and then extract it

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and put it in the root of this downloads

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folder. I'll just rename that extracted

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folder to remove the ‑master. So now we've

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got this folder named haveibeenpwned and

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inside of that are all the script files

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that make up this module. I don't want to

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go too far into this, but let's take a

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look inside of this public folder and

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you'll see all of the commands for this

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module are stored there as discreet script

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files. So that's just a quick under the

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covers look at what it actually looks like

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inside of a module folder. Okay, so now

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we've got a PowerShell module in a path

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that is not listed in the PS module path

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variable because it's currently in my

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downloads folder. Let's go back to the

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PowerShell console and try doing an

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Import‑Module ‑Name haveibeenpwned, and

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we'll see what happens. And you'll notice

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it fails because PowerShell wasn't able to

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find a valid module file in any module

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directory. But I can explicitly import the

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module into this PowerShell session by

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running Import‑Module ‑Name and then

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specify the full path to the module

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folder, which in this case, is

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C:\Users\Matt\Downloads\haveibeenpwned.

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I'll run Get‑Module again and you can see

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the haveibeenpwned module is now imported

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into this session, and the commands are

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available for me to start using. Finally,

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let's explore one of the use cases we

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spoke about in the earlier theory clip

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where you can use Import‑Module to define

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a prefix for all commands included in a

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module. You may want to do this to avoid

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conflicts between commands in different

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modules that have the same name. I know of

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a default module named Scheduled Tasks, so

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let's run Import‑Module ScheduledTask and

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I'll specify the prefix parameter and

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we'll use a prefix of PS for Pluralsight.

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If I run get module, you'll notice the

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module has been imported successfully. And

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if you look closely at the commands, they

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all have a prefix of PS. So normally this

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first command would simply be

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Disabled‑ScheduledTask, but due to us

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importing the module with a prefix, to run

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this command now, we would need to run Disabled‑PSScheduledTask.