PowerShell Beginners Guide ==== If you are new to PowerShell, this document will walk you through a few examples to give you some basic ideas of PowerShell. We recommend that you open a PowerShell console/session and type along with the instructions in this document to get most out of this exercise. Launch PowerShell Console/Session --- First you need to launch a PowerShell session by following the [Installing PowerShell Guide](./learning-powershell.md#installing-powershell). Getting Familiar with PowerShell Commands --- As mentioned above PowerShell commands is designed to have Verb-Noun structure, for instance Get-Process, Set-Location, Clear-Host, etc. Let’s exercise some of the basic PowerShell commands also known as **cmdlets**. **1. Get-Process**: displays the processes running on your system. By default, you will get data back similar to the following: ``` PowerShell PS C:\>Get-Process Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName ------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- ----------- 147 11 2108 9316 ...82 0.02 12 notepad 174 12 4276 1460 ...53 3.56 309 cmd 121 9 1580 3096 ...85 3.94 8620 svchost 2168 374 448940 321504 820 867.39 1209 iexplore … ``` Only interested in the instance of notepad that are running on your computer? Try this: ```PowerShell PS C:\> Get-Process -Name notepad Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName ------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- ----------- 147 11 2108 9316 ...82 0.02 12 notepad ``` Want to get back more than one process? Then just specify process names, separating with commas. For example, ```PowerShell PS C:\> Get-Process -Name notepad, iexplore Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) VM(M) CPU(s) Id ProcessName ------- ------ ----- ----- ----- ------ -- ----------- 1753 247 418220 194960 991 385.97 1748 iexplore 144 11 2152 9320 ...82 0.08 30004 notepad ``` **2. Clear-Host**: Clears the display in the command window ```PowerShell PS C:\> Get-Process PS C:\> Clear-Host ``` Type too much just for clearing the screen? Here is how the alias can help. **3. Get-Alias**: Improves the user experience by using the Cmdlet aliases To find the available aliases, you can type below cmdlet: ```PowerShell PS C:\> Get-Alias CommandType Name ----------- ---- … Alias cat -> Get-Content Alias cd -> Set-Location Alias cls -> Clear-Host Alias cp -> Copy-Item Alias clv -> Clear-Variable Alias gmo -> Get-Module Alias man -> help Alias rm -> Remove-Item Alias ls -> Get-ChildItem Alias type -> Get-Content … As you can see "cls" is an alias of Clear-Host. Now try it: PS C:\> Get-Process PS C:\> cls ``` **4. cd - Set-Location**: change your current working directory ```PowerShell PS C:\> Set-Location C:\test PS C:\test> ``` **5. ls or dir - Get-ChildItem**: list all items in the specified location ```PowerShell Get all files under the current directory: PS C:\test> Get-ChildItem Get all files under the current directory as well as its subdirectories: PS C:\test> dir -Recurse List all files with file extension "txt". PS C:\test> ls –Path *.txt -Recurse -Force ``` **6. New-Item**: Create a file ```PowerShell An empty file is created if you type the following: PS C:\test> New-Item -Path c:\test\test.txt Directory: C:\test Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a---- 7/7/2016 7:17 PM 0 test.txt ``` You can use the **-value** parameter to add some data to your file. For example, the following command adds the phrase "Hello World" as a file content to the test.txt. Because the test.txt file exists already, we use **-force** parameter to replace the existing content. ```PowerShell PS C:\test> New-Item -Path c:\test\test.txt -Value "Hello World!" -force Directory: C:\test Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a---- 7/7/2016 7:19 PM 12 test.txt ``` There are other ways to add some data to a file, for example, you can use Set-Content to set the file contents: ```PowerShell PS C:\test>Set-Content -Path c:\test\test.txt -Value "Hello World too!" ``` Or simply use ">>" as below: ``` # create an empty file "" > empty.txt # set "hello world!!!" as content of text.txt file "hello world!!!" > test.txt ``` The pound sign (#) above is used for comments in PowerShell. **7. type, cat - Get-Content**: get the content of an item ```PowerShell PS C:\>Get-Content -Path "C:\Test\test.txt" PS C:\>type -Path "C:\Test\test.txt" Hello World! ``` **8. rm, del - Remove-Item**: delete a file or folder This cmdlet will delete the file c:\test\test.txt: ```PowerShell PS C:\test> Remove-Item c:\test\test.txt ``` **9. Exit**: - to exit the PowerShell session, type "exit" ```PowerShell PS C:\test> exit ``` Need Help? ---- The most important command in PowerShell is possibly the Get-Help, which allows you to quickly learn PowerShell without having to surfing around the Internet. The Get-Help cmdlet also shows you how PowerShell commands work with examples. PS C:\>**Get-Help** You can use this cmdlet to get help with any PowerShell commands. PS C:\>**Get-Help -Name Get-Process** It shows the syntax and other technical information of the Get-Process cmdlet. PS C:\>**Get-Help -Name Get-Process -Examples** It displays the examples how to use the Get-Process cmdlet. If you use **-full** parameter, i.e., "Get-Help -Name Get-Process -Full", it will display more technical information. Discover All Commands Available on Your System ---- You want to discover what PowerShell cmdlets available on your system. Simple, just run "Get-Command" as below. PS C:\> **Get-Command** If you want to know whether a particular cmdlet exists on your system, you can do something like below: PS C:\> **Get-Command Get-Process** If you want to know the syntax of Get-Process cmdlet, type PS C:\> **Get-Command Get-Process -Syntax** If you want to know how to sue the get-process, type PS C:\> **Get-Help Get-Process -example** PowerShell Pipeline '|' ---- Sometimes when you run Get-ChildItem or "dir", you want to get a list of files in a descending order. To archive that, type: ```PowerShell PS C:\> dir | sort -Descending ``` Say you want to get the largest file in a directory ```PowerShell PS C:\> dir | sort -Property length -Descending | Select-Object -First 1 Directory: C:\ Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a---- 5/16/2016 1:15 PM 32972 test.log ``` How to Create and Run PowerShell scripts ---- - You can use ISE, VS Code, or any favorite editor to create a PowerShell script and save the script with a .ps1 file extension (helloworld.ps1 in the example) - To run the script, cd to your current folder and type .\helloworld.ps1 See [Running PowerShell Scripts Is as Easy as 1-2-3] [run-ps] for more details. [run-ps]:http://windowsitpro.com/powershell/running-powershell-scripts-easy-1-2-3 More Reading ---- Books & eBooks & Blogs & Tutorials - [Windows PowerShell in Action][in-action] by Bruce Payette - [Windows PowerShell Cookbook][cookbook] by Lee Holmes - [eBooks from PowerShell.org](https://powershell.org/ebooks/) - [eBooks List][ebook-list] by Martin Schvartzman - [eBooks from PowerShell.com][ebooks-powershell.com] - [Tutorial from MVP][tutorial] - Script Guy blog: [The best way to Learn PowerShell][to-learn] - [Understanding PowerShell Module][ps-module] - [How and When to Create PowerShell Module][create-ps-module] by Adam Bertram - Video: [Get Started with PowerShell Remoting][remoting] from Channel9 - Video: [PowerShell Remoting in Depth][in-depth] from Channel9 - [PowerShell Basics: Remote Management][remote-mgmt] from ITPro - [Running Remote Commands][remote-commands] from PowerShell Web Docs - [Samples for PowerShell Scripts][examples] - [Samples for Writing a PowerShell Script Module][examples-ps-module] - [Writing a PowerShell module in C#][writing-ps-module] - [Examples of Cmdlets Code][sample-code] [in-action]: https://www.amazon.com/Windows-PowerShell-Action-Second-Payette/dp/1935182137 [cookbook]: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596801519.do [ebook-list]: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/pstips/2014/05/26/free-powershell-ebooks/ [ebooks-powershell.com]: http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/ebookv2/default.aspx [tutorial]: http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/powershell/index.htm [to-learn]:https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2015/01/04/weekend-scripter-the-best-ways-to-learn-powershell/ [ps-module]:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd878324%28v=vs.85%29.aspx [create-ps-module]:http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/powershell-modules,2-846.html [remoting]:https://channel9.msdn.com/Series/GetStartedPowerShell3/06 [in-depth]: https://channel9.msdn.com/events/MMS/2012/SV-B406 [remote-mgmt]:http://windowsitpro.com/powershell/powershell-basics-remote-management [remote-commands]:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/core-powershell/running-remote-commands [examples]:http://examples.oreilly.com/9780596528492/ [examples-ps-module]:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd878340%28v=vs.85%29.aspx [writing-ps-module]:http://www.powershellmagazine.com/2014/03/18/writing-a-powershell-module-in-c-part-1-the-basics/ [sample-code]:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff602031%28v=vs.85%29.aspx