Powershell on the Way to Work–Part 2

Gimme a second here, just have to park the car for a moment and get out my coffee.   Rush hour is crazy today.

If I remember correctly we introduced you to a new Console called Powershell.   Really.  Just that.  A Shell.  Yeah we’re pretty certain it may bring about World Peace someday but we’re going to stick to the basics.

Last time we run a Cmdlet (CoMmanD-LET) called

GET-COMMAND

To give us a list of available Cmdlets in Powershell.  But then I changed the landscape on everybody and added something to it to only show me the available Cmdlets

GET-COMMAND –CommandType Cmdlet

So how did I know I could do that?

Within Powershell is a Help system.  It works a bit like the DOS and CMD.EXE one did where you would say “HELP” and put the Console Command afterwards.  But in Windows Powershell it’s called

GET-HELP

I can type

GET-HELP GET-COMMAND

and it will show me the parameters of that Cmdlet.

Keying in

GET-HELP GET-COMMAND –detailed

or

GET-HELP GET-COMMAND –full

Will give me far more detailed information on it or the Full wallop that particular Cmdlet.   Just like in DOS I can use MORE and start pausing all of those goodies on the screen.

GET-HELP GET-COMMAND –full | MORE

But most Powershell Cmdlets have the ONE thing the ITPro needs.   Real world examples of how they can be used.   For the GET-COMMAND Cmdlet if I type

GET-HELP GET-COMMAND –examples

Will give you samples of how GET-COMMAND can be used.  Play with GET-COMMAND with some of the examples.  Get comfortable.  Relax

Did you blink?  Guess what.  You’re already using the basics of Windows Powershell and may not have realized it.   Nice eh?

Next time we’ll try some of the other Cmdlets to see what they offer us as the IT PRo.

Until next time, go ahead and play.  It looks like traffic is clearing up and I’m back on the highway.

Go ahead get your hands dirty

Sean Kearney
Twitter: @energizedtech
www.powershell.ca