This article formerly titled as 'Powershell Frequently Used Commands. Even though the article is titled pwsh it draws back on the topic of Powershell as well.'
Please be aware of notation below in command outlines. $ represents a command and rests of the lines following that line are output. Powershell is superset of traditional command prompt. Hence, all usual binaries still run on powershell for example, takeown.
This section is for my personalized shell; please feel free to skip it.
Since move to pwsh this has changed to this (sorry for replacing simple Console, but it uses an inconvenient Env:WinDir/ symbolic link),
pwsh -NoExit D:\pwsh\Init.ps1
For Machine Learning customized shell, I try adding an arg,
pwsh -NoExit D:\pwsh\Init.ps1 ML
clear-host is equivalent to cls
Get-Location instead of pwd`
ls, cat, popd, pushd etc still work
Write-Host is equivalent to echo. For example,
echo 'hello'
works just fine.
ps is equivalent to Get-Process or to List processes or doing tasklist.
Stop-Proccess instead of taskkill
Example of starting pwsh with an initiazation script or calling a script with an arg,
Start-Process pwsh -ArgumentList '-NoExit', 'Init-App.ps1 foo' -ErrorAction 'stop'
above, foo is argument.
Start is an alias of Start-Process
Here are some handy cmds,
Start DevEnv /Edit, Stream-Converter.ps1
Start TeamViewer
Start CVpn-Client
Start Atom
where I link CVpn-Client to C:\Program Files (x86)\Cisco\Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client\vpnui.exe,
and, atom is usually linked to C:\Users\atiq\AppData\Local\atom\atom.exe
Syntax for microsoft store apps,
Start Microsoft-Edge:https://google.com
Start Skype:
For passing arguments to an application we can either add it right after the app name with a seperating space,
Start Notepad++ file_path
Or, specify it in ArgumentList,
Start Notepad++ -ArgumentList file_path
However, it's tricky if passed argument for example, file_path above contains a space character.
To make it work, we need to double quote them ref,
Start Notepad++ -ArgumentList "`"D:\Cool Soft\my awesome file.txt`""
Filter files containing name pattern,
gci -filter '*word*'
Create directory,
New-Item c:\scripts\Windows PowerShell -type directory
Create file,
New-Item c:\scripts\new_file.txt -type file
Turn hibernation off (run from elevated PS),
powercfg.exe /h off
Open Power Options Window,
Show-ControlPanelItem -Name "Power Options"
List Power plans,
$ powercfg list
Existing Power Schemes (* Active)
-----------------------------------
Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (Balanced) *
Power Scheme GUID: 433299bd-efc0-474e-a61e-4a940c85e632 (Timers off (Presentation))
Power Scheme GUID: 496d75e1-8cba-4d72-b778-535d67c976ea (Airplane)
How to export Balanced plan (we copy paste id from output of above command),
powercfg -Export D:\Efficient_BP.pow 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
automate importing registry (requires privilege) ref,
reg import 'D:\Soft\reg files soft settings\app_paths\KeePass.reg'
Handy cmds follow, ref to access sys properties,
Show-ControlPanelItem -Name System
Names supported by Show-ControlPanelItem,
For, Sound mouse etc we do,
Ping hosts,
Test-Connection -Count 64 google.com
Test-Connection -Count 1024 google.com
host bing.com does not reply to ICMP requests anymore, hence it's not worth trying Test-Connection bing.com.
if help modules are outdated this updates it,
Update-Help
More network related cmdlets or commands are at wifi cmd article
Get list of running processes (unique),
Get-Process | Select-Object -Unique Path
When Windows Explorer or taskbar has trouble,
Stop-Process -Name explorer
Rename Machine,
Rename-Computer -NewName JohnPC -Restart
Event Log,
Show-EventLog
Show console host info,
$ Get-Host
Name : ConsoleHost
Version : 6.2.3
InstanceId : cddce532-924c-4a66-a671-bbea53caf430
UI : System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostUserInterface
CurrentCulture : en-US
CurrentUICulture : en-US
PrivateData : Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost+ConsoleColorProxy
DebuggerEnabled : True
IsRunspacePushed : False
Runspace : System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.LocalRunspace
How to uninstall store application i.e., skype
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.SkypeApp | Remove-AppxPackage
Get Software List,
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product -Filter "Name = 'Java 8 (64 bit)'"
How to uninstall application,
$app = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product -Filter "Name = 'Java 8 (64-bit)'"
$app.Uninstall()
Get list of services currently running,
Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Running"}
Start a service,
Start-Service -Name VPNAgent
Stop one,
Stop-Service -Name VPNAgent
These basic stuffs might come handy,
Passing all arguments, untouched to another script,
$saArgs = $args[0 .. ($args.Count)]
& "$Env:HOME\ss.ps1" $saArgs
This part also demonstrates how to use some datatype libraries in commands.
Example 1, how do we find ascii number of a bunch of characters?
$ [int[]][char[]] 'abcd'
97
98
99
100
Additionally, to find ascii number of single char,
$ [int][char] 'z'
122
Moroever we can call Array.Sort in following way,
$a = [int[]] @(9,5)
[Array]::Sort($a)
Because these literatls i.e., 'xxx' in powershell is considered as string literal like python.
$ 'z'.gettype()
IsPublic IsSerial Name BaseType
-------- -------- ---- --------
True True String System.Object
Example usage of .net math library, using old friend the power method,
[Math]::Pow(2,13)
Or finding a square root,
[Math]::Sqrt(9)
nll or empty related where $ConfigName is an example variable,
[string]::IsNullOrEmpty($ConfigName)
[string]::IsEmpty($ConfigName)
[string]::Empty($ConfigName)
substring example,
if ($loc.EndsWith("\")) {
return $loc.Substring(0, $loc.Length-1)
}
which is fine to be replaced with,
if (($lastindex = [int] $loc.lastindexof('\')) -ne -1) {
return $loc.Substring(0, $lastindex)
}
Using Net Framework Library,
$ [Environment]::OSVersion
Platform ServicePack Version VersionString
-------- ----------- ------- -------------
Win32NT 10.0.18362.0 Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.18362.0
$ [Environment]::OSVersion.Version
Major Minor Build Revision
----- ----- ----- --------
10 0 18362 0
Additionally, we can do this inspecting hal.dll,
$ [Version](Get-ItemProperty -Path "$($Env:Windir)\System32\hal.dll" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).VersionInfo.FileVersion.Split()[0]
Major Minor Build Revision
----- ----- ----- --------
10 0 18362 356
To delete all contents of USB drive (this is dangerous as it deletea all contents and files/dirs from a drive),
Remove-Item -force l:\*
On pwsh,
$ $profile
DocumentsDir\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
On Powershell (Windows),
$ $profile
DocumentsDir\\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
Access history file,
$ (Get-PSReadlineOption).HistorySavePath
Say you have a script named Bluetooth.ps1 that uses Windows features. Hence, it requires Powershell.
Powershell -NoProfile -File Bluetooth.ps1 On
Set execution policy for current user ref,
Set-Executionpolicy Unrestricted -scope CurrentUser
In old days, that used to be enough. If you get following,
PowerShell 6.2.3
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
https://aka.ms/pscore6-docs
Type 'help' to get help.
Security warning
Run only scripts that you trust. While scripts from the internet can be useful, this script can potentially harm your computer. If you trust this script, use the Unblock-File cmdlet to allow the script to run without this warning
message. Do you want to run D:\Doc\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1?
[D] Do not run [R] Run once [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "D"): R
Loading personal and system profiles took 4862ms.
Try unblocking,
Unblock-File D:\Doc\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
In worst situation, in corporate environments if that still does not work,
File D:\Doc\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 cannot be loaded. The file D:\Doc\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 is not digitally signed. You cannot run this script on the current system. For more information about running scripts and setting execution policy, see about_Execution_Policies at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.
At line:1 char:3
+ . 'D:\Doc\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1'
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : SecurityError: (:) [], PSSecurityException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess
we can apply bypass changing Registry,
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell -Name ExecutionPolicy -Value ByPass
In environments like school computers that are running SINC Site, bypassing in Process scope can be useful,
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process
Following are new pwsh variables,
EnabledExperimentalFeatures {}
IsCoreCLR True
IsLinux False
IsMacOS False
isSinglePS True
IsWindows True
LASTEXITCODE 0
psConsoleType
The shell modified following previously known Powershell variables,
OutputEncoding
PROFILE
PSCommandPath
PSEdition
PSHOME
To change Window ize we change buffer size first, because Window Size depends on it.
$cUI = (Get-Host).UI.RawUI
$b = $cUI.BufferSize
$b.Width = $width
$b.Height = $history_size
$cUI.BufferSize = $b
# change window height and width
$b = $cUI.WindowSize
$b.Width = $width
$b.Height = $height
$cUI.WindowSize = $b
There's oneliner to do it as well,
(Get-Host).UI.RawUI.BufferSize = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.Size -Property @{Width=$width; Height=$history_size}
(Get-Host).UI.RawUI.WindowSize = New-Object System.Management.Automation.Host.Size -Property @{Width=$width; Height=$height}
To change the title of the console we do,
$cUI.WindowTitle = $title
rest of the contents yet to be appended..