PowerShell Command Reference

This cheat sheet provides a quick reference for essential PowerShell commands, covering various aspects of system administration and scripting. PowerShell is a powerful task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language built on the .NET framework.

File Management Commands

Efficiently manage files and directories using these PowerShell cmdlets.

Command	Description
Get-ChildItem	List files and directories in a specified location.
Get-Content <file>	Retrieve and display the content of a text file.
Set-Content <file> <content>	Write or replace the content of a file.
New-Item <file>	Create a new file.
New-Item <directory> -ItemType Directory	Create a new directory.
Remove-Item <file>	Delete a file.
Remove-Item <directory> -Recurse	Delete a directory and its contents recursively.
Rename-Item <file> <new_file>	Rename a file or directory.
Copy-Item SOURCE DEST	Copy a file from a source to a destination.
Copy-Item SOURCE DEST -Recurse	Copy a directory and its contents recursively.
Move-Item SOURCE DEST	Move a file or directory from one location to another.

Process Management Commands

Monitor and control running processes on your system.

Command	Description
Get-Process	List all currently running processes.
Stop-Process -Name <process>	Terminate a specific process by its name.
Start-Process <process>	Launch a new process or application.
Wait-Process -Name <process>	Pause script execution until a specified process has finished.

Service Management Commands

Manage Windows services, including starting, stopping, and configuring them.

Command	Description
Get-Service	List all installed Windows services.
Start-Service <service>	Start a stopped service.
Stop-Service <service>	Stop a running service.
Restart-Service <service>	Stop and then start a service.
Set-Service <service> -StartupType Automatic	Configure a service to start automatically when the system boots.
Set-Service <service> -StartupType Manual	Configure a service to start only when manually initiated.
Set-Service <service> -StartupType Disabled	Prevent a service from starting.

User Management Commands

Administer local user accounts and group memberships.

Command	Description
Get-LocalUser	List all local user accounts on the machine.
New-LocalUser <user>	Create a new local user account.
Remove-LocalUser <user>	Delete an existing local user account.
Set-LocalUser <user> -Password <password>	Set or change the password for a local user.
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group Administrators -Member <user>	Add a specified user to the local Administrators group.
Remove-LocalGroupMember -Group Administrators -Member <user>	Remove a specified user from the local Administrators group.

Network Management Commands

Retrieve network configuration details.

Command	Description
Get-NetIPAddress	Display IP address configuration for network interfaces.
Get-NetAdapter	List all network adapters on the system.

Windows Updates Management

Install and manage Windows updates using PowerShell.

Command	Description
Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate	Install the PSWindowsUpdate module for managing Windows Updates.
Get-Command -Module PSWindowsUpdate	List all available commands within the PSWindowsUpdate module.
Get-WUInstall	Download and install available Windows updates.

Windows Features Management

Install or uninstall Windows features and roles.

Command	Description
Get-WindowsFeature	List all available Windows features and their installation status.
Install-WindowsFeature <feature>	Install a specified Windows feature.
Uninstall-WindowsFeature <feature>	Uninstall a specified Windows feature.

Remote Computer Management

Connect to and execute commands on remote machines.

Command	Description
Enter-PSSession -ComputerName <name> -Credential <user>	Establish an interactive PowerShell remoting session to a remote computer.
Exit-PSSession	Close the current PowerShell remoting session.
Invoke-Command -ComputerName <name> -ScriptBlock { <command> }	Execute a specified command or script block on one or more remote computers.
Invoke-Command -ComputerName <name> -FilePath <script>	Execute a script file located on the local machine against a remote computer.

For more in-depth information on PowerShell, refer to the official Microsoft PowerShell documentation.