PowerShell Cheat Sheet
A searchable, printable PowerShell reference — cmdlets, the pipeline, variables, files, loops, functions, objects and administration. Free.
Getting help & discovery
12Get-Help Get-Process
Show help for a cmdlet
Get-Help Get-Process -Examples
Show usage examples for a cmdlet
Get-Help Get-Process -Full
Show the full help including parameters
Get-Help about_Functions
Read a conceptual about_ topic
Update-Help
Download the latest help files
Get-Command -Noun Process
List cmdlets that act on a noun
Get-Command -Verb Get
List cmdlets using a given verb
Get-Command *service*
Search commands by wildcard name
Get-Process | Get-Member
List the properties and methods of objects
Get-Alias ls
Show what command an alias resolves to
Get-Alias -Definition Get-ChildItem
List all aliases for a cmdlet
$PSVersionTable
Show the PowerShell version and edition
Variables & types
13$x = 5
Assign a value to a variable
[int]$n = '42'
Declare a strongly typed variable
$null
The null / empty value
$true; $false
Boolean literals
$arr = @(1, 2, 3)
Create an array
$arr += 4
Append an element to an array
$arr[0]; $arr[-1]
Index first and last array elements
$hash = @{ Name = 'Ann'; Age = 30 }
Create a hashtable
$hash['Name']; $hash.Name
Read a hashtable value by key
$env:PATH
Read an environment variable
$env:MY_VAR = 'value'
Set an environment variable for the session
Get-Variable
List all defined variables
[math]::Round(3.14159, 2)
Call a static .NET method
Pipeline & filtering
12Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.CPU -gt 10 }
Filter objects by a condition
Get-Process | ? CPU -gt 10
Filter with the ? alias and simplified syntax
Get-Process | ForEach-Object { $_.Name }
Run a script block for each object
Get-Process | % { $_.Kill() }
Iterate with the % alias
Get-Process | Select-Object Name, Id
Keep only specific properties
Get-Process | Select-Object -First 5
Take the first N objects
Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending
Sort objects by a property
Get-Process | Group-Object Company
Group objects by a property
Get-Process | Measure-Object CPU -Sum
Aggregate numeric values (sum, average)
Get-ChildItem | Select-Object -Unique
Return distinct objects
1..5 | ForEach-Object { $_ * 2 }
Pipe a range through a transform
Get-Process | Out-GridView
Send results to an interactive grid
Files & paths
13Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Logs
List items in a directory (alias ls/dir)
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter *.log
List matching files recursively
Get-Content .\file.txt
Read a file line by line
Get-Content .\file.txt -Tail 20
Read the last N lines of a file
Set-Content .\file.txt -Value 'Hi'
Write (overwrite) text to a file
Add-Content .\file.txt -Value 'Hi'
Append text to a file
Copy-Item a.txt b.txt
Copy a file or directory
Move-Item a.txt .\dir\
Move or rename an item
Remove-Item a.txt -Force
Delete a file or directory
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path .\dir
Create a new file or directory
Test-Path .\file.txt
Check whether a path exists
Get-Location
Show the current directory (alias pwd)
Set-Location C:\Temp
Change the current directory (alias cd)
Strings & text
12'Hello World' -match 'World'
Test a string against a regex
'Hello' -replace 'l', 'L'
Replace text using a regex
'a,b,c' -split ','
Split a string into an array by regex
'a-b-c'.Split('-')
Split using the .NET String method
'a', 'b' -join ', '
Join array elements into a string
Select-String -Path *.log -Pattern 'error'
Grep-style search across files
'{0} of {1}' -f 3, 10
Format a string with placeholders
' hi '.Trim()
Strip leading and trailing whitespace
'Hello'.ToUpper()
Convert a string to uppercase
'Hello'.Substring(0, 3)
Extract a substring by index and length
'Hello'.Contains('ell')
Test whether a string contains text
'Hello'.Length
Get the number of characters
Loops & conditionals
12if ($x -gt 0) { 'pos' } elseif ($x -eq 0) { 'zero' } else { 'neg' }
Branch with if / elseif / else
switch ($x) { 1 { 'one' } default { 'other' } }
Match a value against cases
foreach ($i in $arr) { $i }
Iterate over a collection
for ($i = 0; $i -lt 5; $i++) { $i }
Counted loop with an index
while ($x -lt 10) { $x++ }
Loop while a condition is true
do { $x++ } while ($x -lt 10)
Loop at least once, then test
$x -eq 5; $x -ne 5
Equal and not-equal comparisons
$x -gt 5; $x -lt 5
Greater-than and less-than comparisons
$x -ge 5; $x -le 5
Greater/less-than-or-equal comparisons
'abc' -like 'a*'
Wildcard match comparison
@(1, 2, 3) -contains 2
Test array membership
break; continue
Exit or skip the current loop iteration
Functions & scripts
12function Get-Sum { param($a, $b) $a + $b }
Define a function with parameters
Get-Sum -a 2 -b 3
Call a function with named arguments
function Test { param([int]$n = 1) }
Typed parameter with a default value
param([Parameter(Mandatory)]$Name)
Require a parameter to be supplied
return $value
Return a value from a function
function F { [CmdletBinding()] param() }
Make an advanced function (common params)
Write-Verbose 'msg' -Verbose
Emit a verbose message stream
Write-Output $result
Send an object to the pipeline
Write-Error 'failed'
Write to the error stream
.\script.ps1 -Arg value
Run a script file with arguments
. .\functions.ps1
Dot-source a script into the session
try { } catch { $_ } finally { }
Handle terminating errors
Objects & properties
12Get-Process | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name
Return raw property values, not objects
(Get-Process).Name
Access a property on each object
Get-Process | Select-Object Name, @{ Name = 'MB'; Expression = { $_.WS / 1MB } }
Add a calculated property
[PSCustomObject]@{ Name = 'Ann'; Age = 30 }
Build a custom object
$obj | Add-Member -NotePropertyName Tag -NotePropertyValue 'x'
Attach a property to an object
$obj.PSObject.Properties.Name
List an object's property names
$obj | Format-Table -AutoSize
Display objects as an aligned table
$obj | Format-List *
Display all properties as a list
$obj | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 5
Serialize an object to JSON
Get-Content data.json | ConvertFrom-Json
Parse JSON into objects
$obj | Export-Csv out.csv -NoTypeInformation
Export objects to a CSV file
Import-Csv data.csv
Read a CSV file into objects
Processes & services
12Get-Process
List running processes (alias ps)
Get-Process -Name chrome
Get processes by name
Stop-Process -Name notepad -Force
Terminate a process
Start-Process notepad.exe
Launch a new process
Get-Service
List Windows services
Get-Service -Name wuauserv
Get a service by name
Start-Service -Name wuauserv
Start a stopped service
Stop-Service -Name wuauserv
Stop a running service
Restart-Service -Name wuauserv
Restart a service
Set-Service -Name wuauserv -StartupType Manual
Change a service start mode
Get-EventLog -LogName System -Newest 20
Read recent classic event-log entries
Get-WinEvent -LogName Application -MaxEvents 20
Query modern event logs
Remoting & jobs
12Enter-PSSession -ComputerName Srv01
Start an interactive remote session
Exit-PSSession
Leave an interactive remote session
Invoke-Command -ComputerName Srv01 -ScriptBlock { Get-Service }
Run a command on a remote host
$s = New-PSSession -ComputerName Srv01
Create a persistent remote session
Invoke-Command -Session $s -ScriptBlock { hostname }
Reuse an existing remote session
Remove-PSSession $s
Close and remove a remote session
Start-Job -ScriptBlock { Get-Process }
Run a command as a background job
Get-Job
List background jobs and their state
Receive-Job -Id 1 -Keep
Retrieve the output of a job
Wait-Job -Id 1
Block until a job completes
Stop-Job -Id 1; Remove-Job -Id 1
Stop and remove a background job
Get-Process | Start-ThreadJob { $input }
Run lightweight in-process thread jobs
Modules & packages
12Get-Module
List currently loaded modules
Get-Module -ListAvailable
List all installed modules
Import-Module Pester
Load a module into the session
Remove-Module Pester
Unload a module from the session
Find-Module -Name PSReadLine
Search the gallery for a module
Install-Module PSReadLine -Scope CurrentUser
Install a module from the gallery
Update-Module PSReadLine
Update an installed module
Uninstall-Module PSReadLine
Remove an installed module
Get-ExecutionPolicy
Show the current script execution policy
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
Allow signed and local scripts to run
Get-PSRepository
List configured package repositories
$PROFILE
Path to the current user profile script
No entry matches “:q”.
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