In this article let us learn few basic cmd-lets. As mentioned in the first series of the article, PowerShell is very user friendly tool.You need not remember the whole command for any instance, PowerShell has the feature of auto-completion. Just type few letters in the command and press tab . PowerShell returns all the commands starting with that word and you can choose the command you want to execute.

If you are not sure about the command, its syntax and usage, you can always use PowerShell help instantly.

get-help <commandname> — briefs you about the command

get-help <commandname> -detailed  — provides detailed information and usage of the command

get-help <commandname> -examples — just provides the usage with examples

get-help <*database*> — use wild card to search for the commands with a string match

PowerShell also contains list of aliases for few cmdlets/functions. Few examples are given below.

fl – Format-List

ft – Format-tab

% – For each

clc – clear content

cls – clear screen

clear – clear host

To view the list of all aliases, functions and cmdlets available in PowerShell, just open powershell and type get-command |more which returns you with all details.

Few simple commands

Show-Eventlog – Opens up event viewer for local computer

Clear – Eventlog – Clears an event log specified

Stop-Computer – Shutdown the computer specified

Test-Connection – Tests connection to a remote computer (alias for ping)

You can also convert the files to a desired format using below conversion commands ConvertFrom-CSV, ConvertTo-CSV, ConvertTo-HTML, ConvertTo-XML etc. Find out more commands using get-help *convert*

In the next articles let us learn how to import different modules, install /add different roles and features to a server.

Link to first article about PowerShell

Link to 2nd article about PowerShell