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PowerShell for Beginner Users

Author(s): Byrch
Last Updated: 07-30-2025

Recommended Prerequisites (click to expand)

None – This guide is for complete beginners. Some familiarity with Windows is helpful.

What is a Commandlet (Cmdlet)?​

A cmdlet (pronounced command-let) is a small, single-function command built into PowerShell.
Cmdlets are different from traditional commands because they:

  • ALWAYS return objects (not just text).
  • Use a consistent verb-noun naming convention.
  • Can be combined together using pipelines (|).

Examples:

Get-Help        # Displays help info
Get-Process     # Lists running processes
Stop-Process    # Stops a process

Tip: Cmdlets are case-insensitive. Get-Process and get-process work the same.

To see all available cmdlets:

Get-Command

PowerShell can navigate your system like the command prompt, but with more features.

Basic navigation commands:​

  • Get-Location (or pwd) → Shows your current directory.
  • Set-Location <path> (or cd <path>) → Change directory.
  • Get-ChildItem (or ls) → List files/folders in the current directory.

Example:

Get-Location
Set-Location C:\Windows
Get-ChildItem

Using relative paths:

cd ..      # Move up one directory
cd .\Logs  # Move into Logs folder

Basic Scripting​

PowerShell allows you to write scripts with the .ps1 file extension.

Creating and running a script​

  1. Open Notepad or Powershell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment).
  2. Write your PowerShell commands.
  3. Save as myscript.ps1.
  4. Run it in PowerShell: 
    .\myscript.ps1

Important: You may need to change the execution policy to allow scripts:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned

Variables​

$name = "CyberPatriot"
Write-Output "Hello, $name!"

Conditionals​

if ($true) { Write-Output "It runs!" }

Loops​

# Loop that counts till 5
for ($i = 1; $i -le 5; $i++) {
    Write-Output "Number: $i"
}

File Operations​

PowerShell makes file management straightforward:

Creating and reading files​

New-Item -Path . -Name "notes.txt" -ItemType "File"   # Create file
Set-Content notes.txt "This is CyberPatriot!"         # Write text
Get-Content notes.txt                                 # Read file

Copying, moving, and deleting files​

Copy-Item notes.txt C:\Backups
Move-Item notes.txt C:\Backups
Remove-Item C:\Backups\notes.txt

Working with directories​

New-Item -Name "Reports" -ItemType "Directory"
Remove-Item Reports -Recurse -Force

Working with many files recursively​

Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Force -File

Pipelines (Power of PowerShell)​

You can pass the output of one cmdlet to another using |:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Force -File | Where-Object {$_.Extension -eq ".mp3"}

This command finds all the files in the current directory with the extension *.mp3

Fun Commands (Power of PowerShell)​

You can find the checksum of a file using:

Get-FileHash -Algorithm MD5 -Path "/file/path/here"

Want to secure a plaintext string? You can use the following to convert it to encrypt and store strings securely (this will come in handy later):

"mypassword" | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force

Don't know what a command-let does? You can view the parameters and other capabilties using another command-let:

Show-Command Get-LocalUser