AddPSSnapin

AddPSSnapin is a cmdlet in Windows PowerShell used to load a PowerShell snap-in into the current session. PowerShell snap-ins are collections of commands and functionalities that extend the capabilities of PowerShell. Before PowerShell 3.0, snap-ins were the primary way to add functionality, such as the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 or 2.0 components.

When a snap-in is added, its cmdlets, functions, variables, and aliases become available for use in the PowerShell session. This allows administrators to perform tasks that are not natively supported by PowerShell itself. For example, older versions of Exchange Server used snap-ins to manage Exchange objects.

To use AddPSSnapin, you typically provide the name of the snap-in as an argument. For instance, `Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Exchange.Management.PowerShell.SnapIn` would load the Exchange Management Shell snap-in. It is important to note that snap-ins are generally considered a legacy technology. In newer versions of PowerShell (3.0 and later), the preferred method for adding functionality is through PowerShell modules, which are loaded using the `Import-Module` cmdlet. Modules offer a more flexible and manageable approach to extending PowerShell's capabilities. Using Add-PSSnapin might require administrative privileges to install and register the snap-in on the system before it can be loaded into a session.