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Ultimate ๐Ÿ”ต๐Ÿ’ป๐Ÿ“œPowerShell Scripting Guide: 20 Must-Know Commands for Efficient Automation

Get started with PowerShell to simplify automation, system management, and productivity improvements.

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โ€ข3 min read
Ultimate ๐Ÿ”ต๐Ÿ’ป๐Ÿ“œPowerShell Scripting Guide: 20 Must-Know Commands for Efficient Automation
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๐Ÿ”น Azure Hybrid Cloud Engineer | DevOps Designing, automating, and scaling secure infrastructure across on-prem and Azure and AWS cloud infra.

โ˜๏ธ๐Ÿ”ง Skilled in IaC (Terraform), CI/CD (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps), scripting (PowerShell, Bash), and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)

๐Ÿณโš™๏ธ Passionate about bridging the gap between legacy systems and modern cloud-native solutions

๐Ÿ’ก๐Ÿš€ On a mission to automate everything and simplify the complex.

PowerShell scripting is a versatile and powerful tool for automating tasks and managing systems. It combines the speed of the command line, the flexibility of scripting, and the power of a full programming language. Hereโ€™s a detailed insight into PowerShell scripting, including at least 20 essential commands, with a touch of emoji to make it more engaging:

  1. Get-Help ๐Ÿ“š: Provides detailed help about PowerShell cmdlets and concepts. Use Get-Help <cmdlet-name> to learn more about a specific command.

  2. Get-Command ๐Ÿ”: Lists all available cmdlets, functions, workflows, and aliases installed on your system. Use Get-Command <cmdlet-name> to find specific commands.

  3. Get-Process ๐Ÿ–ฅ๏ธ: Retrieves a list of all processes running on your system. Use Get-Process to monitor system performance.

  4. Stop-Process โŒ: Stops one or more running processes. Use Stop-Process -Name <process-name> to terminate a process.

  5. Get-Service ๐Ÿ”ง: Lists all services on your system. Use Get-Service to check the status of services.

  6. Start-Service โ–ถ๏ธ: Starts a stopped service. Use Start-Service -Name <service-name> to start a service.

  7. Stop-Service โน๏ธ: Stops a running service. Use Stop-Service -Name <service-name> to stop a service.

  8. Set-ExecutionPolicy ๐Ÿ”’: Changes the user preference for the PowerShell script execution policy. Use Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned to allow local scripts to run.

  9. Get-Content ๐Ÿ“„: Reads the content of a file. Use Get-Content <file-path> to display file contents.

  10. Set-Content โœ๏ธ: Writes or replaces the content in a file. Use Set-Content <file-path> -Value <text> to write text to a file.

  11. Add-Content โž•: Appends content to a file. Use Add-Content <file-path> -Value <text> to add text to a file.

  12. Get-Item ๐Ÿ“‚: Retrieves an item from a specified location. Use Get-Item <path> to get details about a file or directory.

  13. Copy-Item ๐Ÿ“‹: Copies an item from one location to another. Use Copy-Item <source> -Destination <destination> to copy files or directories.

  14. Move-Item ๐Ÿšš: Moves an item from one location to another. Use Move-Item <source> -Destination <destination> to move files or directories.

  15. Remove-Item ๐Ÿ—‘๏ธ: Deletes an item. Use Remove-Item <path> to delete files or directories.

  16. Get-ChildItem ๐Ÿ“: Retrieves the items and child items in a specified location. Use Get-ChildItem <path> to list files and directories.

  17. New-Item ๐Ÿ†•: Creates a new item. Use New-Item -Path <path> -ItemType <type> to create files or directories.

  18. Invoke-Command ๐Ÿ–‡๏ธ: Runs commands on local or remote computers. Use Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock { <commands> } to execute commands.

  19. Get-EventLog ๐Ÿ“œ: Retrieves the events from event logs on local or remote computers. Use Get-EventLog -LogName <log-name> to view event logs.

  20. Export-Csv ๐Ÿ“Š: Converts objects into a series of CSV strings and saves them in a file. Use Export-Csv -Path <file-path> -NoTypeInformation to export data to a CSV file.

PowerShell scripting is highly versatile and can be used for a wide range of tasks, from simple file manipulations to complex system administration tasks. By mastering these commands, you can automate repetitive tasks, manage system configurations, and improve your productivity.

Happy scripting! ๐Ÿ˜Š