title: How to start a VM through Powershell
body: <p>I am looking for an automated way to start a virtual machine in Windows Powershell. Does anyone have any input on how I may accomplish this task?</p>
  
  <p>I have looked around and have been unsuccessful so far with finding a way to do so. </p>
  
  <p>I thought that this was a standard cmdlet form powershell, but I am beginning to think that I am wrong on that assumption.</p>
  
  <p>I have looked into using (If i am understanding this correctly) PowerCLIs <code>Start-VM</code> and am having issues saying that I am currently not connected to the server, but I don't believe I have a server to connect to (unless I am thinking about this the wrong way). I am just trying to do this locally right now to check to see if it is a valid VM to use.</p>
  
  <p><strong>--- EDIT ---</strong></p>
  
  <p>I am looking to do this with VMware, but really I could use Windows if that means doing this without spending any money.</p>
  
  <p>I am also using powershell 2.0 and it does not seem that Start-VM is an option for me to use unfortunately...</p>
  
  <p><strong>--- EDIT 2 ---</strong></p>
  
  <p>Can anybody further explain how WMI works? I am relatively new using powershell and I have never had to use WMI before.</p>
  
  <p>Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!</p>