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PowerShell/docs/learning-powerShell/powershell-beginners-guide.md
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Created Learn PowerShell
2016-07-12 13:21:15 -07:00
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
---
Follow the [Installing PowerShell](./learning-powershell.md "Installing PowerShell") instruction you can install the PowerShell and launch the PowerShell session.
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
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