PowerShell Cheat Sheet — Commands, Scripting, and Common Tasks

Get-ChildItem              # List files (alias: ls, dir)
Get-ChildItem -Recurse     # Recursive
Get-ChildItem *.log        # Filter by extension
Set-Location C:\Projects   # Change directory (alias: cd)
Get-Location               # Current directory (alias: pwd)

New-Item -Path file.txt -ItemType File
New-Item -Path mydir -ItemType Directory
Copy-Item file.txt backup.txt
Move-Item file.txt archive/
Remove-Item file.txt
Remove-Item mydir -Recurse -Force
Get-Content file.txt                    # Read file (alias: cat)
Set-Content file.txt "Hello"            # Write file
Add-Content file.txt "More text"        # Append
Test-Path file.txt                      # Check if exists

# Search in files (like grep)
Select-String -Path *.log -Pattern "error"
Select-String -Path *.cs -Pattern "TODO" -Recurse

# Filter objects
Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.CPU -gt 100 }
Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Length -gt 1MB }
Get-Service | Where-Object Status -eq "Running"

# Select specific properties
Get-Process | Select-Object Name, CPU, Id | Sort-Object CPU -Descending

# First/last N
Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 10

# Format output
Get-Process | Format-Table Name, CPU, Id -AutoSize
Get-Process | Format-List *

# Count
(Get-ChildItem *.log).Count

# Export
Get-Process | Export-Csv processes.csv
Get-Process | ConvertTo-Json | Set-Content processes.json

Get-Process                          # List processes
Get-Process -Name "node"             # Find specific
Stop-Process -Name "node"            # Kill by name
Stop-Process -Id 1234                # Kill by PID

Get-Service                          # List services
Start-Service -Name "wuauserv"       # Start service
Stop-Service -Name "wuauserv"        # Stop service
Restart-Service -Name "wuauserv"     # Restart

$env:PATH                            # Read
$env:MY_VAR = "value"                # Set (session only)
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("MY_VAR", "value", "User")  # Permanent
Get-ChildItem Env:                   # List all

# Variables
$name = "Alice"
$count = 42
$items = @("a", "b", "c")
$hash = @{ Name = "Alice"; Age = 30 }

# If/else
if ($count -gt 10) { "Big" } else { "Small" }

# Loops
foreach ($item in $items) { Write-Output $item }
1..10 | ForEach-Object { $_ * 2 }
while ($true) { Start-Sleep 1; break }

# Functions
function Get-Greeting($name) {
    return "Hello, $name!"
}
Get-Greeting "Alice"

try {
    Get-Content "missing.txt" -ErrorAction Stop
} catch {
    Write-Error "Failed: $_"
} finally {
    Write-Output "Cleanup"
}