PowerShell Getting Started

Published: 2021-07-06

Intro

PowerShell can be used to codify Microsoft Windows environments. This post covers the basics of getting started with PowerShell.

Software

The following software was used in this post.

  • Windows - 10
  • PowerShell - 5.1.19041.1023

Cmdlets

Get a list of cmdlets

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Get-Command

Getting Help

Get help for a cmdlet

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help <cmdlet>

PowerShell ships with a minimal help system. To update the help system use the following cmdlet

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Udpate-Help

Aliases

Many common unix/linux commands are aliased to windows commands. The get a list of aliases use the Get-Alias cmdlet.

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Get-Alias

Finding the Version

To get the PowerShell Engine version, get the PSVersion key from the $PSVersionTable hash table.

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$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

# output

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
5      1      19041  1023