Command prompt which is provided by Microsoft windows is always a popular tool among the advanced Windows user and administrators. It can increase your efficiency and speed of using the windows command. Like to open Windows word, you probably have to click on Start menu > Go To Programs > Go To MS Office > select Microsoft word shortcut. Alternatively If you have Command prompt already open you can simply type “Winword” Or press Windows +R and then type “Winword” in Run type box. I am sure once you try this method you will stop using the Start menu as it is much faster way of opening MS Word.
Windows Powershell Command
So how it happens, basically “winword.exe” is the core application file which is launched when you click o MS Word shortcut in your start menu. Same thing you can launch by typing the executable filename on command prompt. Run prompt does the same thing when we type an executable filename, it invokes command prompt and then execute the command and closes the Command prompt as well.
Now you know how and why Command prompt is faster than anything else in windows and that is why advanced users heavily use it. But if you are a Linux user, I am sure you never liked the command prompt of Windows compared to Linux Shell. Reason ? Linux shell is much more powerful then Windows Shell. It has so many command available and it can do so many task, that MS Windows shell seems like a child in front of it with its limited availability of functions.
If you liked the Linux shell so much then there is something Microsoft has developed in last few years which will make you like Microsoft windows as well. It is called Powershell. Powershell is a new command interface first announced by Microsoft in 2006, For XP and Vista user it is available to download and install separately for free, however it comes preinstalled with windows 7.
Microsoft has developed it as Task Automation framework, but when you work with it, you will feel that it is much like Unix Shell. Not only it works like that, it’s cmdlet(specially aliases) syntax are also very much similar. It is built on top of .Net framework and integrated with. To work with Powershell you need Microsoft .Net 2.0 Installed on your machine. However Windows 7 has .Net 3.5 Preinstalled.
Powershell can use and execute any of following 4 types of command –
1. Executable programs (binary files) like any other shell or command prompt.
2. Script files, written with native Powershell commands. These script have extension .ps1
3. ‘cmdlets’ Just like commands in older version of shell, these are .NET programs written as native commands.
4. Powershell based functions.
Cmdlets are specific programs which are designed to perform a specific task. Cmdlets have name like A verb and A Noun separated by a dash, so that you can easily recognize what it is designed for by its name (e.g. Get-Help). Each command let has a single function but you can combine them to perform complex jobs using pipes, just like old Unix Pipes. Powershell also recognize older shell command, they have simply created alias to their cmdlets to recognize old commands which does the same job. For your convenience we have given a list of cmdlets.
List of Cmdlets for Windows Powershell
Add-Content Add-History Add-Member Add-PSSnapin Clear-Content Clear-Item Clear-ItemProperty Clear-Variable Compare-Object ConvertFrom-SecureString Convert-Path ConvertTo-Html ConvertTo-SecureString Copy-Item Copy-ItemProperty Export-Alias Export-Clixml Export-Console Export-Csv ForEach-Object Format-Custom Format-List Format-Table Format-Wide Get-Acl Get-Alias Get-AuthenticodeSignature Get-ChildItem Get-Command Get-Content Get-Credential Get-Culture Get-Date Get-EventLog Get-ExecutionPolicy Get-Help Get-History Get-Host Get-Item Get-ItemProperty Get-Location Get-Member Get-PfxCertificate Get-Process Get-PSDrive Get-PSProvider Get-PSSnapin Get-Service Get-TraceSource Get-UICulture Get-Unique Get-Variable Get-WmiObject Group-Object Import-Alias Import-Clixml Import-Csv Invoke-Expression Invoke-History Invoke-Item Join-Path Measure-Command Measure-Object Move-Item Move-ItemProperty New-Alias New-Item New-ItemProperty New-Object New-PSDrive New-Service New-TimeSpan New-Variable Out-Default Out-File Out-Host Out-Null Out-Printer Out-String Pop-Location Push-Location Read-Host Remove-Item Remove-ItemProperty Remove-PSDrive Remove-PSSnapin Remove-Variable Rename-Item Rename-ItemProperty Resolve-Path Restart-Service Resume-Service Select-Object Select-String Set-Acl Set-Alias Set-AuthenticodeSignature Set-Content Set-Date Set-ExecutionPolicy Set-Item Set-ItemProperty Set-Location Set-PSDebug Set-Service Set-TraceSource Set-Variable Sort-Object Split-Path Start-Service Start-Sleep Start-Transcript Stop-Process Stop-Service Stop-Transcript Suspend-Service Tee-Object Test-Path Trace-Command Update-FormatData Update-TypeData Where-Object Write-Debug Write-Error Write-Host Write-Output Write-Progress Write-Verbose Write-Warning
If you looking for more information on Powershell you can visit – Microsoft Powershell Resource
We will try to cover more of Powershell in coming days for home users like you.