PowerShell 7 - Essentials

Hello koalas,

This article is about the essentials things to know about PowerShell 7. I hope you'll enjoy reading it.

History of PowerShell

Before to be named as PowerShell, it was called "Monad".

PowerShell has been built at the top of .NET Framework.

PowerShell is an object-oriented/centered language. It works with objects and pipeline.

The scripting language is interactive. You can use the autocompletion system to help you writing faster and more efficiently your code.

Why PowerShell is important to know?

• PowerShell can manage anything from anywhere and is multiplatform (Windows, Linux, Mac)
• PowerShell can manage local systems and services
• PowerShell can connect to the cloud (ex: Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS)
• PowerShell is a powerful automation language
• PowerShell is consistency
• PowerShell provides documentation (ex: Get-Help)
• PowerShell can import modules (extensions)

What are the differences between PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7?

As you can see above, PowerShell 7 is the one to learn and go ahead with.

PowerShell 7 has the big advantage to be able to work on Linux and MacOS as well.

PowerShell 7 also can load modules (commands) from PowerShell 5.1 if some commands are missing with the latest version.

Important: PowerShell Core 7 can be installed along Microsoft PowerShell 5.1. Both versions can work at the same time on the same machine.

Terminology

Naming convention

PowerShell has a naming convention: Verb-Noun (always a dash (-) between verb and noun)

The verbs are from the .NET Standard. You can see the full list with the command:

Get-Verb

The nouns are singular version of the word you use. It also can be prefixed to facilitate the understanding.

Get-WinEvent
Get-WindowsUpdate

Basic commands

Check PowerShell Version ($PSVersionTable)

Command	$PSVersionTable
Description	Shows information about the version of PowerShell.
Example	$PSVersionTable
Output

Launch a PowerShell 5.1 session

Command	powershell.exe
Description	Launches a new Powershell 5.1 session.
Example	powershell.exe $PSVersionTable
Output

Launch a PowerShell 7 session

Command	pwsh
Description	Launches a new PowerShell 7 session.
Example	pwsh $PSVersionTable
Output

Open the official PowerShell documentation website from Microsoft

Command	start https://aka.ms/powershell
Description	Goes to the official PowerShell documentation from Microsoft.
Example	start https://aka.ms/powershell
Output

Get current credentials (whoami)

Write text to a file (echo >)

Command	echo "Your text" > filePath
Description	Write text to a file.
Example	echo "First line" > MyTextFile.txt
Output

Append text to a file (echo >>)

Command	echo "Your text" >> filePath
Description	Append text to a file.
Example	echo "Second line" >> MyTextFile.txt
Output

Clear the screen of the shell, the terminal (cls)

Command	cls or Clear-Host
Description	Clear the screen (of your shell/terminal).
Example	cls Clear-Host
Output

Create a directory, a folder (mkdir)

Command	mkdir, md, or New-Item -ItemType Directory
Description	Create a directory, a folder.
Example	mkdir "YourFolderName1" md "YourFolderName2" New-Item -ItemType Directory -Name "YourFolderName3"
Output

Delete, remove a directory, a folder (rmdir)

Run an application from the shell, terminal

Calculate with PowerShell

Get-Command

Command	Get-Command
Description	Get all commands on your system.
Example	Get-command -Verb Get -Noun win*
Output

Get-Command -CommandType

List processes (ps, Get-Process)

Command	ps or Get-Process
Description	List processes on your computer.
Example	ps *explorer* Get-Process *explorer*
Output

Show-Command

Command	Show-Command
Description	Show a Window with all the commands present on your system. You also can use fields to create your command and then use the "Run" or "Copy" button at the bottom of the Window.
Example	Show-Command
Output

That's it for this article! I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Keep learning,
Didier