Dante's Knowledge Base

A collection of guides and tutorials by Dante.

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PowerShell 🧙

The modern shell built on .NET. Cmdlets follow a Verb-Noun naming pattern, and everything is an object you can pipe around.

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1. Opening It

Way	How
Windows Terminal	Press Win + X → Terminal (profile: PowerShell)
Start menu	Search “PowerShell” or “Terminal”
From CMD	Type powershell (Windows PowerShell 5.1) or pwsh (PowerShell 7)

Tip: Most Bash/CMD habits still work because of built-in aliases: ls, cd, cat, pwd, rm, cp, mv, ps.

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2. Cmdlet Basics

Get-Command            # list available commands
Get-Command *process*  # search commands by name
Get-Help Get-Process                 # built-in help
Get-Help Get-Process -Examples       # with examples
Get-Help Get-Process -Online         # opens docs in browser

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3. Navigation

Get-Location      # show current path (alias: pwd)
Set-Location C:\Users\Dante\Documents   # change folder (alias: cd)
cd ..             # go up one level
cd ~              # go to your home folder (same as cd $HOME)
Set-Location D:\  # switch drives works directly

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4. Files & Folders

Get-ChildItem                    # list files (aliases: ls, dir)
Get-ChildItem -Force             # include hidden/os files
Get-ChildItem -Recurse           # list recursively
Get-ChildItem *.log              # filter by name pattern
Get-ChildItem | Sort-Object Length -Descending

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path C:\new\folder   # mkdir
New-Item -ItemType File -Path notes.txt            # create empty file

Copy-Item a.txt b.txt            # copy (alias: cp, copy)
Copy-Item -Recurse src dst       # copy folder tree
Move-Item a.txt docs\            # move (alias: mv)
Rename-Item old.txt new.txt      # rename (alias: ren)
Remove-Item a.txt                # delete (alias: rm, del)
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force folder

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5. Reading Files

Get-Content file.txt            # print file (aliases: cat, type)
Get-Content file.txt -Tail 20   # last 20 lines, like tail -n 20
Get-Content app.log -Wait       # follow a log live, like tail -f
Get-Content file.txt -Head 10   # first 10 lines

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6. The Pipeline (the superpower)

Everything PowerShell returns is an object, and | passes it along:

# Top 5 processes by CPU
Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 5

# Files bigger than 1 MB
Get-ChildItem | Where-Object Length -gt 1MB

# Running services
Get-Service | Where-Object Status -eq Running

# Nicely formatted tables and full detail
Get-Process | Format-Table Name, CPU, WorkingSet
Get-Process | Format-List *

Common pipeline cmdlets: Where-Object (filter), Select-Object (pick columns / -First N), Sort-Object, ForEach-Object, Format-Table / Format-List.

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7. Aliases

Get-Alias                      # list every alias
Get-Alias ls                   # show what 'ls' really does
New-Alias ll Get-ChildItem     # create your own

Common built-ins: ls/dir = Get-ChildItem, cd = Set-Location, cat/type = Get-Content, pwd = Get-Location, ps = Get-Process, cp = Copy-Item, mv = Move-Item, rm/del = Remove-Item, cls/clear = Clear-Host, ping = Test-Connection.

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8. Variables & Environment

$name = "Dante"              # create a variable
Write-Host "Hello $name"     # print it
echo $name                   # Write-Output shortcut

$env:Path                    # show PATH environment variable
$env:Path += ";C:\myapp\bin" # append to PATH (session only)
Get-ChildItem Env:           # list all environment variables
$HOME                        # your user folder
$PSVersionTable              # PowerShell version info

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9. Networking

Test-Connection google.com          # ping (alias: ping)
Test-Connection -Count 4 8.8.8.8
Resolve-DnsName google.com          # DNS lookup (like nslookup)
Get-NetIPAddress                    # your IP configuration
Get-NetAdapter                      # network adapters
ipconfig                            # native commands still work too

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10. Processes & Services

Get-Process                    # all processes
Get-Process notepad            # find by name
Get-Process -Id 1234           # find by PID
Stop-Process -Name notepad -Force   # kill by name
Stop-Process -Id 1234 -Force        # kill by PID
Restart-Service sshd                # services work the same way

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11. History & Profile

Get-History             # session command history
h                      # shortcut for Get-History
Invoke-History 5        # re-run entry #5
$PROFILE                # path to your PowerShell profile
notepad $PROFILE        # edit it (create it first if missing)

For safety, run without a step first:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force .\old -WhatIf   # preview, not delete

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12. Handy Keys

Keys	Action
↑ / ↓	Previous / next command
Ctrl + R	Reverse search through history
Tab	Autocomplete (menu with repeated presses)
Ctrl + C	Interrupt current command
F8	Cycle through matching history
Ctrl + L	Clear screen

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See also: Command Prompt, Bash (Linux & macOS), Cross-Shell Cheat Sheet

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