Windows Power Shell Basics

You must be using command shell but are not satisfied with many limitations with this shell. One of the limitations is not able to input or output objects in or out of the applications. Now you are gifted with one more shell by Microsoft which is Power Shell. It also has a new scripting language, which is called Power Shell Scripting.

It must be remembered that Windows Power Shell has been built on .net. So you can deal with objects i.e. it can process and return objects as well compared to earlier tools which could only return text.

Windows Power Shell introduced the concept of cmdlet. These are small program designed to perform simple task. They can be combined to perform complex tasks. The tasks may be accessing directories and files, registries, digital certificates etc.

The good thing is that you can use the existing tools like Net and Reg.exe being in the environment of Power Shell. Various Cmd.exe commands are supported inside Windows Power Shell Environment.





The names of cmdlet(s) are very easy to remember. It is always Verb followed by hyphen and then a noun afterwards. The examples are ‘Get-Help’.

We can get help about any cmdlet by using Get-Help. The format is as follows:
Get-Help get-help -detailed

One thing to remember is that Windows Power Shell is not case-sensitive.