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PowerShell – Getting Started

Use at your own risk. All guides and scripts are provided for educational purposes only. Always review and understand any code before running it — especially with administrative privileges. Test in a safe environment before using in production. Your system, your responsibility.

PowerShell is the modern command-line shell and scripting language for Windows. It replaced CMD as the primary administrative tool and is now cross-platform — it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you’re administering Windows servers or workstations, PowerShell is the tool to learn.

PowerShell vs CMD

Feature CMD PowerShell
Output type Plain text Objects
Scripting Basic batch files Full scripting language
Pipeline Text only Object pipeline
Remote management Limited Built-in (PSRemoting)
Cross-platform No Yes (PowerShell 7+)
Active Directory No Full support

CMD still works and some tools require it, but PowerShell can do everything CMD does and much more.

PowerShell versions

  • Windows PowerShell 5.1 — built into Windows 10/11, always available
  • PowerShell 7+ — cross-platform, actively developed, recommended for new work

Install PowerShell 7:

winget install Microsoft.PowerShell

Or download from github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell.

Check your version:

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

Opening PowerShell

  • Search: Press Win+S, type PowerShell
  • Right-click Start menu: “Windows PowerShell” or “Terminal”
  • Run as Administrator: Right-click → “Run as administrator” (required for many system commands)
  • Windows Terminal: Best experience — see the Windows Terminal guide

Basic navigation

PowerShell uses familiar Unix-like aliases for common commands:

Command Alias What it does
Get-Location pwd Show current directory
Set-Location cd Change directory
Get-ChildItem ls, dir List files and folders
New-Item mkdir (folders) Create files or folders
Remove-Item rm, del Delete files or folders
Copy-Item cp, copy Copy files
Move-Item mv, move Move or rename files
Get-Content cat, type Show file contents
Clear-Host clear, cls Clear the terminal 
# Navigate to your home directory
cd ~

# List all files including hidden
ls -Force

# Create a folder
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\Projects\MyProject"

# Create a file
New-Item -ItemType File -Path "readme.txt"

Understanding cmdlets

PowerShell commands are called cmdlets (pronounced “command-lets”). They follow a Verb-Noun naming pattern:

Get-Process       # Get information about processes
Stop-Process      # Stop a process
Start-Service     # Start a service
Set-Location      # Set (change) location
New-Item          # Create a new item
Remove-Item       # Remove (delete) an item

This consistent naming makes PowerShell predictable — once you know the verbs, you can guess command names.

Common verbs:

Verb Purpose
Get- Retrieve information
Set- Change a setting
New- Create something
Remove- Delete something
Start- Start a service/process
Stop- Stop a service/process
Invoke- Run something
Test- Test/check something

Getting help

PowerShell has built-in documentation:

# Get help for a command
Get-Help Get-Process

# Show examples
Get-Help Get-Process -Examples

# Full detailed help
Get-Help Get-Process -Full

# Update help files (run as admin)
Update-Help

# Find commands related to a topic
Get-Command -Noun Service
Get-Command -Verb Get

# Explore what an object looks like
Get-Process | Get-Member

The pipeline

PowerShell’s pipeline passes objects between commands, not just text. This makes filtering and processing much more powerful than CMD.

# Get all processes, sort by CPU usage, show top 10
Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 10

# Get all services that are stopped
Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Stopped"}

# Get files larger than 100MB
Get-ChildItem C:\ -Recurse | Where-Object {$_.Length -gt 100MB}

# Export to CSV
Get-Process | Export-Csv -Path processes.csv -NoTypeInformation

# Format as a table
Get-Service | Format-Table Name, Status, StartType

Variables 

# Assign a variable
$Name = "Patrik"
$Port = 8080

# Use the variable
Write-Host "Hello, $Name"
Write-Host "Port: $Port"

# Command output to variable
$Processes = Get-Process
$DiskUsage = (Get-PSDrive C).Used

# Arrays
$Servers = @("server01", "server02", "server03")

# Hash tables (like dictionaries)
$Config = @{
    Server = "192.168.1.10"
    Port   = 3389
    User   = "admin"
}

Setting up your PowerShell profile

Your PowerShell profile is a script that runs every time you open PowerShell — like .zshrc on macOS/Linux.

Find your profile path:

$PROFILE

Create or edit it:

notepad $PROFILE

Example profile:

# Useful aliases
Set-Alias ll Get-ChildItem
Set-Alias which Get-Command

# Functions
function mkcd {
    param($Path)
    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $Path | Out-Null
    Set-Location $Path
}

function uptime {
    (Get-Date) - (gcim Win32_OperatingSystem).LastBootUpTime
}

# Custom prompt showing current directory
function prompt {
    $path = (Get-Location).Path
    "PS $path> "
}

# Welcome message
Write-Host "PowerShell $($PSVersionTable.PSVersion)" -ForegroundColor Cyan

Save and reload:

. $PROFILE

Execution policy

By default, Windows blocks running PowerShell scripts as a security measure.

Check current policy:

Get-ExecutionPolicy

Allow running local scripts (recommended for personal use):

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Policies:

  • Restricted — no scripts allowed (default)
  • RemoteSigned — local scripts OK, downloaded scripts need a signature
  • Unrestricted — all scripts allowed (not recommended)

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