Using Help in PowerShell

First off, always update your Help using Update-Help

It is recommended to update help at least once a month.

Using PowerShell’s built-in Help system is pretty much all you need to be an effective user of the scripting language. Below is an example of its use.

If you wanted to display a list of all commands that are of the cmdlet type:

First use help Get-Command and notice you can use the -CommandType option with several parameters (Alias, Function, Filter, Cmdlet, etc…). In this case you’ll want to use Cmdlet:

If you run Get-Command -CommandType Cmdlet you’ll get a LONG list of every cmdlet. Use the dropdown below to see the full list:

The result of Get-Command -CommandType Cmdlet

The anatomy of a command

Aliases: Nicknames for commands

PowerShell commands can get long and tedious, so an alias can be used to shorten your typing time. For example, if you are constantly typing Get-Process, you could use gps instead.

To get an alias for any PS command use the following syntax:

Get-Alias -Definition “Get-Process”

For a full list of all Aliases visit my page PowerShell: Commands and Their Aliases

Positional Parameters