You may have discovered a fresh command-line environment in Windows since Windows 7 PowerShell. PowerShell is a major and more brawny command-line shell and scripting terminology than the Command Prompt is, offering Windows system administrators a utile command-line surroundings.
PowerShell is more elaborated than the orthodox Command Prompt, but it’s also really brawnier. The Command Prompt was dramatically substandard to shells available for Linux and other Unix-like systems, but PowerShell contends favourably with the shells usable for other platforms.
How PowerShell Differs From the Command Prompt?
PowerShell is really a bit different from the Command Prompt. It puts into use various commands, known as cmdlets in PowerShell. Several system administration tasks like handling the registry to WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) are displayed via PowerShell cmdlets, while they are not approachable from the Command Prompt.
PowerShell puts into use something called pipes, just as Linux and other Unix-like systems do. Pipes permit you to send the output of one cmdlet to the input of some other cmdlet, using various cmdlets in succession to alter the same data. Unlike Unix-like systems, which can only tube streams of characters, PowerShell tubes objects between cmdlets. This permits PowerShell to part more difficult data between cmdlets.
PowerShell is not merely a shell you utilize. It’s a powerful scripting environment that can be used to make complex scripts for handling Windows systems more easily than you could with the Command Prompt.
The Command Prompt is basically just a bequest surrounding took forward in Windows; an surrounding that replicates all of the different DOS commands you would discover on a DOS system. It is distressingly fixed, can’t approach many Windows system administration characteristics, is more tough to write complex scripts with, and so on. PowerShell is a fresh environment for Windows system administrators that permits them to utilize a more recent command-line environment to handle Windows.
When would you use PowerShell?
So you’re an ordinary Windows user, when would you want to utilize PowerShell? Well, if you seldom utilize the Command Prompt and trigger it up to execute the periodic ping or ipconfig command, you’ll likely never require to touch PowerShell.
Nonetheless, PowerShell can be more powerful command-line surrounding than the Windows command prompt. However, PowerShell isn’t just like the Linux terminal — it’s a little more tough, and the ordinary Windows user will not see many profits from playing with it.
System administrators will want to study PowerShell so they can handle their systems more expeditiously. If you require to code a script to automatize different system administration tasks, you should perform it with PowerShell.
PowerShell Equivalents of Common Commands
Many general Command Prompt commands ranging from ipconfig to cd will run in the PowerShell environment. This is because PowerShell comprises of “aliases” that indicate these old commands at the exact new cmdlets, executing the new cmdlets when you type in the old commands. We’ll go over a some common Command Prompt commands and their equivalents in PowerShell anyway merely to provide you an idea of how PowerShell’s syntax is different.
Change a Directory:
DOS: cd
PowerShell: Set-Location
List Files in a Directory:
DOS: dir
PowerShell: Get-ChildItem
Rename a File:
DOS: rename
PowerShell: Rename-Item
To view if a DOS command has an alias, you can utilize the Get-Alias cmdlet. For example, Get-Alias cd displays you that cd is really running the Set-Location cmdlet.