Long error messages: Yes, they can be a little strange at first. If they annoy you (or you want errors to cause a little less scrolling) you can set the "error view":

    $ErrorView = "CategoryView"

(unlike bash, whitespace is not significant)

As for learning PowerShell, if you lean towards online training, Microsoft Virtual Acedemy has a really good series of courses, even featuring Jeffrey Snover - who is surprisingly good at explaining stuff.

This is a good starting point:

https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/en-US/training-cours...

I usually prefer books/articles etc where I can set my own pace, but those online courses are really that good.

Otherwise links: * https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc281945(v=sql.1... * http://learn-powershell.net/

And let's not forget the very friendly community at http://powershell.org/ with articles such as this one: http://powershell.org/wp/2015/07/31/introduction-to-powershe...