PowerShell is Microsoft’s replacement for cmd.exe, the venerable NT command shell. It breaks new ground, introducing a powerful but completely new syntax. (If you don’t have it yet, download it here).
Revolutionary but different, users new to PowerShell will often find themselves lost - not being able to figure out how to do simple things that they’ve been doing in other shells for the last 20 years. This cheat sheet should help.
PowerShell’s native commands are all based on a verb-noun syntax, for example, “get-childitem”. Command names are often quite verbose, so there is an extensive list of default aliases that help with common commands. The table below will give the alias, where available, as well as the native PowerShell command.
| Operation | cmd | PowerShell |
| Get a simple directory listing |
dir |
get-childitem alias: dir |
| Get a recursive directory listing |
dir /s |
get-childitem -recurse alias: dir -r |
| Get a wide directory list |
dir /w |
dir | format-wide alias: dir | fw |
| List built-in commands |
help |
get-command alias: help |
| Copy a file |
copy foo.txt bar.txt |
copy-item foo.txt bar.txt alias: copy foo.txt bar.txt |
| Move a file |
move foo.txt c:\ |
move-item foo.txt d:\ alias: move foo.txt d:\ |
| Rename a file |
ren foo.txt bar.txt |
rename-item foo.txt bar.txt alias: ren foo.txt bar.txt |
| Batch rename |
ren *.one *.two |
dir *.pdf | rename
-newname {$_.name -rep ".one",".two"}
|
| Set the current directory to d:\ |
d: cd \ |
set-location d:\ alias: cd d:\ |
| Clear the screen |
cls |
clear-host alias: cls |
| List only directories |
dir /ad |
dir | where { $_.MshIsContainer }
|
| Directory list, sorted by date |
dir /od |
dir | sort-object LastWriteTime |
| Directory list, sorted by date, descending order |
dir /o-d |
dir | sort-object LastWriteTime -desc |
| Show the current directory |
cd |
get-location alias: pwd |
| See a command’s help |
dir /? |
get-help get-command or: get-help get-command -detailed or: get-help get-command -full or: dir -? |
| List environment variables |
set |
dir env: |
| Delete a file |
del foo.txt |
remove-item foo.txt alias: del foo.txt |
| Find all *.txt files |
dir /s *.txt |
get-childitem -recurse -include *.txt alias: dir -r -i *.txt |
| Find all *.txt files containing a particular string |
findstr "foo" *.txt |
dir *.txt | select-string "foo" |
| Show a list of services |
net start |
get-service |
| Start a service |
net start MyService |
start-service MyService |
| Stop a service |
net stop MyService |
stop-service MyService |
| Show network shares |
net share |
gwmi Win32_Share |
| Show a list of running processes |
tasklist |
get-process alias: ps |
| Kill all notepad.exe processes |
taskkill /im notepad.exe /f |
ps notepad | kill |
A few PowerShell commands that you can’t easily do with the standard Windows shell:
| Operation | PowerShell |
| Set the current directory to a UNC path |
cd \\\\myserver\\\myshare |
| Get a list of event logs |
get-eventlog -list |
| View entries in a particular event log |
get-eventlog -newest 20 -logname System |
| Treat the registry like a filesystem |
cd hkcu: dir |
| Recursive directory, grouped by extension |
dir -r | group extension |
| Search for a file containing a string, recursive |
dir -r | select-string "foo" |
| List the 10 processes using the most memory |
ps | sort -p ws | select -last 10 |
| Count the results of a directory listing |
(dir).count |
| Count the results of a directory listing |
$f = Get-Content "myfile.txt"
foreach ($item in $f)
{do stuff with $item}
|
There’s a lot to PowerShell, and this only scratches the surface. This guide is meant to help you get going with some everyday commands, but be sure to read some of these great PowerShell blogs, and the PowerShell Script Center for more in-depth tips. (And here’s a good reference on PowerShell syntax).