Chapter 1 Quick Reference

Open table as spreadsheet

To	Do This
Use an external command-line utility	Type the name of the command-line utility while inside Windows PowerShell
Use multiple external command-line utilities sequentially	Separate each command-line utility with a semicolon on a single Windows PowerShell line
Obtain a list of running processes	Use the Get-Process cmdlet
Stop a process	Use the Stop-Process cmdlet and specify either the name or the process ID as an argument
Model the effect of a cmdlet before actually performing the requested action	Use the -whatif argument
Instruct Windows PowerShell to startup, run a cmdlet, and then exit	Use the PowerShell command while prefixing the cmdlet with the ampersand sign and enclosing the name of the cmdlet in curly brackets
Prompt for confirmation before stopping a process	Use the Stop-Process cmdlet while specifying the -confirm argument

Chapter 2: Using Windows PowerShell Cmdlets

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Overview

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

Understand the basic use of Microsoft Windows PowerShell cmdlets
Use Get-Command to retrieve a listing of cmdlets
Configure search options
Configure output parameters
Use Get-Member
Use New-Object

The inclusion of a large amount of cmdlets in Windows PowerShell makes it immediately useful to network administrators and others who need to perform various maintenance and administrative tasks on their Windows servers and desktop systems. In this chapter, we review several of the more useful cmdlets as a means of highlighting the power and flexibility of Windows PowerShell. However, the real benefit of this chapter is the methodology we use to discover the use of the various cmdlets. All the scripts mentioned in this chapter can be found in the corresponding scripts folder on the CD.

Understanding the Basics of Cmdlets

In Chapter 1, Overview of Windows PowerShell, we learned about using the various help utilities available that demonstrate how to use cmdlets. We looked at a couple of cmdlets that are helpful in finding out what commands are available and how to obtain information about them. In this section, we describe some additional ways to use cmdlets in Windows PowerShell.

Tip

Typing long cmdlet names can be somewhat tedious . To simplify this process, type enough of the cmdlet name to uniquely distinguish it, and then press the Tab key on the keyboard. What is the result? Tab Completion completes the cmdlet name for you. This also works with argument names and other things you are entering. Feel free to experiment with this great time-saving technique. You may never have to type get-command again!

Because the cmdlets return objects instead of “string values,” we can obtain additional information about the returned objects. The additional information would not be available to us if we were working with just string data. To do this, we can use the pipe character () to take information from one cmdlet and feed it to another cmdlet. This may seem complicated, but it is actually quite simple and, by the end of this chapter, will seem quite natural. At the most basic level, consider obtaining a directory listing; after you have the directory listing, perhaps you would like to format the way it is displayed-as a table or a list. As you can see, these are two separate operations: obtaining the directory listing, and formatting the list. The second task will take place on the right side of the pipe.

Using the Get-ChildItem Cmdlet

In Chapter 1, we used the dir command to obtain a listing of all the files in a directory. This works because there is an alias built into Windows PowerShell that assigns the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to the letter combination dir.

Just the Steps

Obtaining a directory listing In a Windows PowerShell prompt, enter the Get-ChildItem cmdlet followed by the directory to list. Example:

get-childitem C:\

In Windows PowerShell, there actually is no cmdlet called dir , nor does it actually use the dir command. The alias dir is associated with the Get-ChildItem cmdlet. This is why the output from dir is different in Windows PowerShell than in the CMD.exe interpreter. The alias dir is used when we use the Get-Alias cmdlet to resolve the association, as follows :

PS C:\> get-alias dir CommandType Name Definition ----------- ---- ---------- Alias dir Get-ChildItem

If you use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to obtain the directory listing, it will obtain a listing the same as dir because dir is simply an alias for Get-ChildItem . This is shown here:

PS C:\> get-childitem C:\ Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\ Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- d---- 7/2/2006 3:14 PM audioBOOK d---- 11/4/2006 4:57 AM Documents and Settings d---- 2/6/2006 4:49 PM DsoFile d---- 9/5/2006 2:30 PM fso d---- 11/30/2006 2:08 PM fso1 d---- 7/21/2006 6:08 AM fso2 d---- 12/2/2005 5:41 AM German d---- 9/24/2006 1:54 AM music d---- 12/10/2006 6:54 AM mytest d---- 12/13/2006 8:30 AM OutlookMail d-r-- 11/20/2006 6:44 PM Program Files d---- 7/16/2005 2:52 PM RAS d---- 1/30/2006 11:30 AM smartPhone d---- 11/2/2006 1:35 AM Temp d---- 8/31/2006 9:48 AM Utils d---- 1/30/2006 11:10 AM vb05sbs d---- 12/5/2006 8:01 AM WINDOWS -a--- 12/8/2006 7:24 PM 22950 a.txt -a--- 12/5/2006 8:48 AM 23902 alias.txt -a--- 7/16/2005 1:39 PM 0 AUTOEXEC.BAT -a--- 11/7/2006 3:09 PM 3988 bar.emf --r-s 8/27/2006 9:37 PM 211 boot.ini -a--- 12/3/2006 7:36 AM 21228 cmdlets.txt -a--- 12/13/2006 9:44 AM 273612 commandHelp.txt -a--- 12/10/2006 7:34 AM 21228 commands.txt -a--- 7/16/2005 1:39 PM 0 CONFIG.SYS -a--- 12/7/2006 3:14 PM 8261 mySheet.xls -a--- 12/7/2006 5:29 PM 2960 NetDiag.log -a--- 12/5/2006 8:29 AM 16386 notepad -a--- 6/3/2006 2:11 PM 102 Platform.ini -a--- 12/7/2006 5:29 PM 10670 tshoot.txt -a--- 12/4/2006 9:09 PM 52124 VistaResKitScripts.txt

If you were to use Get-Help and then dir , you would receive the same output as if you were to use Get-Help Get-ChildItem . In Windows PowerShell, the two can be used in exactly the same fashion.

Just the Steps

Formatting a directory listing using Format-List In a Windows PowerShell prompt, enter the Get-ChildItem cmdlet followed by the directory to list followed by the pipe character and the Format-List cmdlet. Example:

get-childitem C:\  format-list

Formatting output with the Format-List cmdlet

Start Windows PowerShell by using Start Run Windows PowerShell . The PowerShell prompt will open by default at the root of your Documents And Settings.
Use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to obtain a directory listing of the C:\ directory.
```
get-childItem C:\
```
Use the Format-List cmdlet to arrange the output of Get-ChildItem.
```
get-childitem format-list
```
Use the -property argument of the Format-List cmdlet to retrieve only a listing of the name of each file in the root.
```
get-childitem C:\  format-list -property name
```
Use the property argument of the Format-List cmdlet to retrieve only a listing of the name and length of each file in the root.
```
get-childitem C:\  format-list -property name, length
```

Using the Format-Wide Cmdlet

In the same way that we use the Format-List cmdlet to produce an output in a list, we can use the Format-Wide cmdlet to produce a more compact output.

Just the Steps

Formatting a directory listing using Format-Wide In a Windows PowerShell prompt, enter the Get-ChildItem cmdlet followed by the directory to list followed by the pipe character and the Format-Wide cmdlet. Example:

get-childitem C:\  format-wide

{% if main.adsdop %}{% include 'adsenceinline.tpl' %}{% endif %}

Formatting output with the Format-Wide cmdlet

Start Windows PowerShell by using Start Run Windows PowerShell . The PowerShell prompt will open by default at the root of your Documents And Settings.
Use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to obtain a directory listing of the C:\Windows directory.
```
get-childitem C:\Windows
```
Use the -recursive argument to cause the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to walk through a nested directory structure, including only .txt files in the output.
```
get-childitem C:\Windows -recurse -include *.txt
```

A partial output from the command is shown here:

Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Driver Cache Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 11/26/2004 6:29 AM 13512 yk51x86.txt Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Help\Tours\mmTo ur Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 807 intro.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 407 nav.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 747 segment1.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 772 segment2.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 717 segment3.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 633 segment4.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 799 segment5.txt

Use the Format-Wide cmdlet to adjust the output from the Get-ChildItem cmdlet. Use the - columns argument and supply a parameter of 3 to it. This is shown here:
```
get-childitem C:\Windows -recurse -include *.txt format-wide -column 3
```

Once this command is run, you will see an output similar to this:

Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Driver Cache yk51x86.txt Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Help\Tours\mmTo ur intro.txt nav.txt segment1.txt segment2.txt segment3.txt segment4.txt segment5.txt Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\F ramework\v1.1.4322\1033 SetupENU1.txt SetupENU2.txt Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\F ramework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 eula.1025.txt eula.1028.txt eula.1029.txt eula.1030.txt eula.1031.txt eula.1032.txt eula.1033.txt eula.1035.txt eula.1036.txt eula.1037.txt eula.1038.txt eula.1040.txt eula.1041.txt eula.1042.txt eula.1043.txt eula.1044.txt eula.1045.txt eula.1046.txt eula.1049.txt eula.1053.txt eula.1055.txt eula.2052.txt eula.2070.txt eula.3076.txt eula.3082.txt

Use the Format-Wide cmdlet to adjust the output from the Get-ChildItem cmdlet. Use the property argument to specify the name property, and group the outputs by size . The command shown here appears on two lines; however, when typed into Windows PowerShell, it is a single command and needs to be on the same line:
```
get-childitem C:\Windows -recurse -include *.txt format-wide -property name -

groupby

length -column 3
```
A partial output is shown here. Note that although three columns were specified, if there are not three files of the same length, only one column will be used:
```
Length: 13512 yk51x86.txt Length: 807 intro.txt Length: 407 nav.txt Length: 747 segment1.txt
```

Just the Steps

Formatting a directory listing using Format-Table In a Windows PowerShell prompt, enter the Get-ChildItem cmdlet followed by the directory to list followed by the pipe character and the Format-Table cmdlet. Example:

get-childitem C:\  format-table

Formatting output with the Format-Table cmdlet

Start the Windows PowerShell by using Start Run Windows PowerShell . The PowerShell prompt will open by default at the root of your Documents And Settings.
Use the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to obtain a directory listing of the C:\Windows directory
```
get-childitem C:\Windows
```
Use the -recursive argument to cause the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to walk through a nested directory structure, include only .txt files in the output.
```
get-childitem C:\Windows -recurse -include *.txt
```
Use the Format-Table cmdlet to adjust the output from the Get-ChildItem cmdlet. This is shown here:
```
get-childitem C:\Windows -recurse -include *.txt format-table
```

The command results in the creation of a table, as follows:

Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Driver Cache Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 11/26/2004 6:29 AM 13512 yk51x86.txt Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Help\Tours\mmTo ur Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 807 intro.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 407 nav.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 747 segment1.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 772 segment2.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 717 segment3.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 633 segment4.txt -a--- 8/4/2004 8:00 AM 799 segment5.txt Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\F ramework\v1.1.4322\1033 Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 3/6/2002 2:36 PM 38 SetupENU1.txt -a--- 3/6/2002 2:36 PM 38 SetupENU2.txt

Use the -property argument of the Format-Table cmdlet and choose the name, length, and last-write-time properties. This is shown here:
```
get-childitem C:\Windows -recurse -include *.txt format-table -property name, length, lastwritetime
```

This command results in producing a table with the name, length, and last write time as column headers. A sample of this output is shown here:

Name Length LastWriteTime ---- ------ ------------- yk51x86.txt 13512 11/26/2004 6:29:00 AM intro.txt 807 8/4/2004 8:00:00 AM nav.txt 407 8/4/2004 8:00:00 AM segment1.txt 747 8/4/2004 8:00:00 AM segment2.txt 772 8/4/2004 8:00:00 AM segment3.txt 717 8/4/2004 8:00:00 AM segment4.txt 633 8/4/2004 8:00:00 AM

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