Quest Software recently won Windows IT Pro's Breakthrough Product Award in the Best of TechEd IT Professionals 2008 award competition for PowerGUI, a free GUI and script editor for PowerShell. To help promote PowerGUI, Quest Software has announced the PowerPack Challenge, a competition in which contenders can test their Windows PowerShell skills using PowerGUI.

Getting into the spirit of the upcoming Olympics, the PowerPack Challenge is divided into two time periods, or sprints. The sprint dates are July 1 through August15 and August 16 through September 30. During the sprints, competitors need to write PowerShell scripts using Quest’s PowerGUI, then post them on its Web site. A panel of judges will select the winners, who will be awarded prizes at the conclusion of each sprint.

You don't need any Quest software to use PowerGUI. You just need to install it on a machine running Windows XP SP2 or later, or Windows 2003 SP1 or later; Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0; and Microsoft Windows PowerShell 1.0. For more information about PowerGUI, go to powergui.org/downloads.jspa. For more information about the PowerPack Challenge, go to powergui.org/powerpackchallenge.jspa.