TestRepo/PowerShell_Guide.md

Windows PowerShell Guide & Cheat Sheet

A practical guide for new users learning Windows PowerShell.

This document covers:

• Basic PowerShell concepts
• Command discovery
• Navigation and file management
• Processes and services
• Networking commands
• Pipelines and filtering
• Script execution
• Best practices
• A quick reference cheat sheet

PowerShell is object-based, meaning commands return structured objects instead of plain text, making automation and filtering far more powerful than traditional shells.

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Table of Contents

• 1. Getting Started
• 2. Discovering Commands
• 3. Navigation
• 4. Files and Folders
• 5. Processes
• 6. Services
• 7. System Information
• 8. Networking Commands
• 9. Event Logs
• 10. The PowerShell Pipeline
• 11. Filtering and Selecting Data
• 12. Script Execution
• 13. Basic Scripting
• 14. Useful Aliases
• 15. Troubleshooting Commands
• 16. Best Practices
• 17. Quick Cheat Sheet

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1. Getting Started

Open PowerShell from the Start menu by searching PowerShell.

Run as Administrator when performing system tasks.

Check PowerShell Version

$PSVersionTable

Command Structure

PowerShell commands follow the format:

Verb-Noun

Examples:

Get-Process
Get-Service
Set-Location
New-Item
Remove-Item

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2. Discovering Commands

Get help for a command

Get-Help Get-Service

Show examples

Get-Help Get-Service -Examples

Show detailed help

Get-Help Get-Service -Detailed

Update help files

Update-Help

Find commands

Get-Command *service*
Get-Command *event*

Inspect objects

Get-Service | Get-Member

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3. Navigation

Current location

Get-Location

Change directory

Set-Location C:\Temp
cd C:\Temp

Go up a directory

cd ..

Home directory

cd ~

List files

Get-ChildItem

Aliases:

dir
ls

Show hidden files

Get-ChildItem -Force

Recursive listing

Get-ChildItem -Recurse

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4. Files and Folders

Create folder

New-Item -Path C:\Temp\TestFolder -ItemType Directory

Create file

New-Item -Path C:\Temp\test.txt -ItemType File

Copy files

Copy-Item C:\Temp\file.txt C:\Backup\

Copy folder recursively

Copy-Item C:\Temp\Folder C:\Backup\ -Recurse

Move file

Move-Item C:\Temp\file.txt C:\Archive\

Rename

Rename-Item file.txt newfile.txt

Delete

Remove-Item file.txt

Delete folder

Remove-Item Folder -Recurse -Force

Read file

Get-Content file.txt

Tail logs

Get-Content log.txt -Tail 50

Watch logs

Get-Content log.txt -Wait

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5. Processes

Get-Process
Get-Process notepad
Start-Process notepad
Stop-Process -Name notepad
Stop-Process -Id 1234 -Force

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6. Services

Get-Service
Get-Service spooler
Start-Service spooler
Stop-Service spooler
Restart-Service spooler

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7. System Information

Get-ComputerInfo
Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem
Get-CimInstance Win32_BIOS
Get-CimInstance Win32_ComputerSystem
Get-Disk
Get-Volume

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8. Networking Commands

Get-NetIPAddress
Get-NetAdapter
Get-DnsClientServerAddress
Test-Connection google.com
Test-NetConnection google.com -Port 443
Resolve-DnsName google.com

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9. Event Logs

Get-EventLog -List
Get-EventLog -LogName System -Newest 20
Get-WinEvent -LogName System -MaxEvents 20
Get-WinEvent -LogName System | Where-Object LevelDisplayName -eq "Error"

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10. The PowerShell Pipeline

Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending
Get-Service | Where-Object Status -eq Running

Get-Process |
Select-Object Name, Id, CPU |
Export-Csv processes.csv -NoTypeInformation

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11. Filtering and Selecting Data

Get-Service | Select-Object Name, Status
Get-Process | Where-Object CPU -gt 100
Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending
Get-Process | Select-Object -First 10
(Get-Service).Count

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12. Script Execution

Get-ExecutionPolicy
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
.\script.ps1
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File script.ps1

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13. Basic Scripting

Variables

$name = "Server01"

If example

if ($name -eq "Server01") {
    Write-Host "Match found"
}

Loop

$services = "spooler","w32time"

foreach ($service in $services) {
    Get-Service $service
}

Function

function Get-ServiceStatus {
    param ($Name)
    Get-Service $Name
}

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14. Useful Aliases

Alias Command

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dir Get-ChildItem ls Get-ChildItem cd Set-Location pwd Get-Location cat Get-Content cp Copy-Item mv Move-Item rm Remove-Item ps Get-Process cls Clear-Host

Get-Alias

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15. Troubleshooting Commands

Get-Service | Where-Object Status -eq Running

Get-Service |
Where-Object {
 $_.StartType -eq "Automatic" -and $_.Status -ne "Running"
}

Get-Volume
Get-WinEvent -LogName System -MaxEvents 50
Get-NetTCPConnection -State Listen
Test-NetConnection server01 -Port 3389

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16. Best Practices

Use full command names

Prefer:

Get-ChildItem

Instead of:

ls

Test dangerous commands

Remove-Item C:\Temp\OldLogs\* -WhatIf

Prefer CIM over WMI

Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem

Log sessions

Start-Transcript C:\Temp\powershell.log
Stop-Transcript

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17. Quick Cheat Sheet

Navigation

Get-Location
Set-Location C:\Temp
Get-ChildItem

Files

New-Item -ItemType File test.txt
Copy-Item test.txt C:\Backup\
Remove-Item test.txt

Processes

Get-Process
Stop-Process notepad

Services

Get-Service
Restart-Service spooler

Networking

Get-NetIPAddress
Test-NetConnection google.com -Port 443
Resolve-DnsName google.com

Help

Get-Help Get-Service
Get-Command *network*
Get-Member

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Recommended Learning Path

1. Learn Get-Help
2. Understand pipelines
3. Learn Where-Object and Select-Object
4. Practice system queries
5. Start writing small scripts
6. Automate real admin tasks

PowerShell becomes powerful when commands are combined into automation pipelines.