For system administration and task automation, Windows PowerShell is an excellent tool. Knowing the best Windows PowerShell commands will increase your productivity. In this blog post, we’ll explore the most popular PowerShell commands that are most frequently used and that every user should be familiar with. We will go over the usage and functionality of each command. You’ll be prepared to integrate the top Windows PowerShell commands into your own procedures by the blog’s end.
Command Prompt vs. PowerShell
Many users have typically utilized the Command Prompt when it comes to Windows automation and scripting to do things like managing files, launching applications, and more. While Microsoft just released PowerShell to make scripting and automation simpler, the Command Prompt has always been a potent tool. So, how exactly does Windows PowerShell operate?
A command line shell and scripting language created specifically to administer Windows computers are called Windows PowerShell. Built on the Microsoft.NET Framework, PowerShell offers strong management and administrative features.
Installing the Windows PowerShell cmdlet library is a prerequisite for using Windows PowerShell. Some Windows versions include this library as a feature or as a Windows Update. By launching a Command Prompt window and entering PowerShell after the library has been installed, you may begin using Windows PowerShell.
The main difference between PowerShell and Command Prompt is the programming language that each uses. The PowerShell scripting language is much more robust and adaptable than the batch commands used by the Command Prompt to launch and manage operations. This enables significantly more extensive automation and scripting.
PowerShell also provides a variety of cmdlets (command-lets), which make it simple to automate routine system management operations. You may manage user accounts, copy files, launch services, and view event logs, for instance, using cmdlets. Both the command-line version of PowerShell and the GUI-based Windows PowerShell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment) support these cmdlets.
In comparison to the traditional Command Prompt, PowerShell offers a far more efficient and powerful approach to managing Windows computers. For Windows system administrators and developers looking for a productive approach to script and automate their operations, it is swiftly becoming as the go-to solution.
How to open PowerShell
Understanding how to open PowerShell, a crucial component of Windows, can be quite helpful. Happily, running PowerShell on Windows is really simple.
Simply entering “powershell” into your start menu’s search bar will start PowerShell. Once you do that, a new window with the PowerShell logo and a blue background will open. Additionally, you can launch PowerShell by clicking Windows key + R and typing “powershell”
How to Get all the commands:
The Get-Command command can be used to fetch imported commands from previous sessions as well as PowerShell modules. To only get commands that have been imported into the current session, use the ListImported option. Without any further options, Get-Command obtains all of the installed cmdlets, functions, and aliases from the system.
Get-Command which uses the exact name of the command, without wildcard characters, automatically imports the module that contains the command so that you can use the command immediately. To enable, disable, and configure the automatic importing of modules, use the $PSModuleAutoLoadingPreference preference variable.
How to Get help for a command PowerShell
The Get-Help cmdlet gives details on Windows PowerShell concepts and actions, such as workflows, providers, aliases, scripts, and CIM commands.
To get help for a Windows PowerShell command, type “Get-Help” and the command name, for example, “Get-Help Get-ChildItem.” To display a list of all the help topics on your computer, type “Get-Help *”. You can either show the entire help topic or use the parameters of the Acquire-Help cmdlet to get particular topical components such as syntax, parameters, or examples.
How to change directories in PowerShell
When accessing the file system, PowerShell’s ability to change directories is crucial. It is simple to do, but knowing a few commands will make moving about faster. Use the “cd” command followed by the path to the directory you wish to change to in PowerShell to change directories. You can access the Documents folder in learnoffsec’s user profile by entering “cd C:\Users\learnoffsec\Documents”
You can also use relative paths, which will take you to a directory relative to your current location. For example, typing “cd ..” will take you up one level in the directory hierarchy. You can also type “cd ..\FolderName” to move up one level and then enter a specific folder.
How to view files and folders in PowerShell
The PowerShell command “Get-ChildItem” can be used to explore a directory’s contents. The files and subdirectories that are available in the directory you are presently in will be displayed by this command. Simply write “Get-ChildItem” and any additional options or switches you want to use after that to use this command. For example, you would use “Get-ChildItem -Force” to view all files in a directory.
How to create new files and folders in PowerShell
Making new files and folders is simple in Windows PowerShell. All that is required to create a new folder is the command “md” followed by the name of the folder you want to create. To make a new file, enter the “ni” command along with the desired file name.
How to copy and paste into PowerShell
Copying and pasting in PowerShell is not too difficult, The Copy-Item cmdlet copies an item within the same namespace from one location to another. It can copy a file to a folder, but not to a certificate drive.
The objects being copied are not cut or removed by this function. The PowerShell provider that exposes the item determines the specific things that the cmdlet can copy. For instance, it can copy registry keys and entries from the registry drive as well as files and directories from the file system drive.
The same command can use this cmdlet to copy and rename things. Enter the new name for the item in the Destination parameter’s value to rename it. Use the Rename-Item cmdlet to rename an item rather than copy it.
For example, copies the file learnoffsec-file.txt to the C:\Users\learnoffsec\Desktop\ directory.
For example, copy the files in bulk using the “*” symbol.
How to rename files in PowerShell
Renaming files in Windows PowerShell is a simple task. First, navigate to the folder containing the file or files you want to rename. Once there, enter the command Rename-Item learnoffsec-file.txt -NewName rename-learnoffsec-file.txt and press Enter. This will rename any file or files in the directory that have “learnoffsec-file.txt” in their name, replacing it with “rename-learnoffsec-file.txt”.
How to search for files in PowerShell
The Get-ChildItem cmdlet allows locating files in Windows PowerShell simply and can be used to do that. You can search for particular files by name, type, size, date modified, and other parameters using the Get-ChildItem cmdlet. The -Path and -Filter options are required for this cmdlet to function.
You can provide the folder location where you want to search using the -Path argument. The file name or pattern you want to search for can be specified using the -Filter parameter. For example, you may use the command below to locate all.txt file in your Documents folder:
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\learnoffsec\Documents" -Filter *.txt
This command will search through the Documents folder and return a list of any .txt files that it finds.
How to zip and unzip files in PowerShell
PowerShell makes it simple to compress and uncompress files to free up disk space and speed up file sharing. One or more files are compressed by zipping into a single, smaller file known as a “zip” file. The act of taking a zip file and removing the original files from it is known as unzipping. We’ll go over how to zip and unzip files in PowerShell in this tutorial.
PowerShell requires the Compress-Archive cmdlet to zip files. You can use this cmdlet’s many options to define which files should be compressed, where the result should be saved, and more. The command will create a zip file containing all the requested files once it has been executed.
To unzip files in PowerShell, you will use the Expand-Archive cmdlet. This cmdlet takes a parameter for the source zip file, and then optionally another parameter for the destination folder to unzip the files into. Once executed, it will extract all the files from the zip into the destination folder.
How to view and kill processes in PowerShell
Getting the list of processes and services, for processes Get-Process and For services Get-Service
To stop a process, Stop-Process –Name name-of-process, to stop a particular instance of the process and confirm Stop-Process –Id id-of-process –Confirm -PassThru
How to view network information in PowerShell
Analyzing network data is possible using PowerShell, which is one of its advantages. You can use the following command in PowerShell to view network information: Get-NetIPAddress
The Get-NetIPAddress | Format-Table command will return a list of all the network addresses that are currently active on the system in tabulated format.
The Get-NetIPAddress -AddressFamily IPv4 to view specific information about a network address.
How to view system information in PowerShell
In PowerShell, you can view system information by using the Get-ComputerInfo PowerShell cmdlet. The following examples show how to get the system type, processor type, operating system name, version information, and more information.
We can also make a pretty look using some properties, like -Property “*user”, -Property “*directory”, -Property “*version”, and more,
Summary:
The most common PowerShell commands were discussed in this post, along with the reasons why utilizing them in particular situations is more advantageous. We talked about managing files and folders, copying and pasting, using compressed and expanded archives, and getting help and getting child items, among other things. We’ll return with some PowerShell features that reduce its functionality in forthcoming blog posts (PowerShell for Offensive Security).