Common Server CMDlets

Process (Replacing your task manager)

Get all processes

get-process

If you are a linux fan

get-alias ps,kill

Stop a specifc process

get-process -name notepad | stop-process
ps notepad | kill

Browse Files (Replacing your explorer)

A lot of aliases faking windows and linux bash shell

get-alias dir,ls,move,mv,del,rm,cd,copy,cp

Get Files

get-childitem

Get Files Recursive

get-childitem -Recurse
get-childitem -Recurse -Depth 2

Get Files with filter

get-childitem -Recurse -filter "*.txt" -path c:\d

Get Complete path

get-childitem -Recurse -filter "*.txt" -path c:\d | select fullname

Making a path (recursive)

New-Item -ItemType Directory  "c:\hello\word\path" -erroraction SilentlyContinue

Testing, joining, splitting a path with test-path, join-path, split-path (exists)

$directory = "c:\hello\word\path"
if( Test-Path -PathType Container -path $directory ) {
    write-host "Directory exists $directory"
    $file = join-path -path $directory -childpath "myfile.txt"

    echo "" > $file
    if ( test-path -pathtype leaf  -path $file) {
        write-host "File $file also exists"

        split-path -Leaf $file
        split-path -Parent $file
    }
}

Common directories

Special folders: User Main, User Desktop, User Documents, User Appdata System32 folder, Program Files, System application data (mostly c:\programdata)

[System.Enum]::GetValues([System.Environment+SpecialFolder])

[System.Environment]::GetFolderPath("UserProfile")
[System.Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop")
[System.Environment]::GetFolderPath("MyDocuments")
[System.Environment]::GetFolderPath("ApplicationData")

[System.Environment]::GetFolderPath("System")
[System.Environment]::GetFolderPath("ProgramFiles")
[System.Environment]::GetFolderPath("CommonApplicationData")

Complete Overview.aspx)

Getting your volumes

get-volume

Services (Replacing services.msc)

Getting the services

get-service

Stopping services

get-service -Name WSearch | stop-service

Starting services

get-service -Name WSearch | start-service

Disabling services as admin

get-service -Name WSearch | Select starttype
get-service -Name WSearch | Set-Service -StartupType disabled
get-service -Name WSearch | Select starttype
get-service -Name WSearch | Set-Service -StartupType automatic
get-service -Name WSearch | Select starttype

Registry (Replacing regedit)

Powershell represent a lot of objects like drives (registry inclusive)

get-drive

However, use get-childitem to query subdirectory

Get-ChildItem HKCU:\Software

But to query properties, use get-item

Get-Item HKCU:\Software\RegisteredApplications

Get-Item HKCU:\Software\RegisteredApplications | Get-ItemProperty
Get-Item HKCU:\Software\RegisteredApplications | Get-ItemProperty -name Firefox

Directly get the properties

Get-ItemProperty -Path HKCU:\Software\RegisteredApplications -Name firefox
Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path HKCU:\Software\RegisteredApplications -Name firefox

Creating items (run as admin)

$coursesettings = new-item -ItemType Directory HKLM:\SOFTWARE\PowerStartCourse\
$newsetting = $coursesettings | New-ItemProperty -Type String -Name "level" -Value "Expert"
$coursesettings | get-item

Stuff running at boot

$runatboot = Get-Item -path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
$paths = $runatboot.GetValueNames() | % { $n = $_;new-object -type psobject -property @{Name=$_;ExecPath=(get-itempropertyvalue -path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run -name $n)}}

See if the Veeam Agent for Windows is/was installed

$agentpath = (Get-ItemPropertyValue -path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Endpoint Backup\'  -Name installdir -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
if ($agentpath -ne $null -and (test-path -type container $agentpath)) {
    write-host "Agent is or was installed under $agentpath"
    $configurator = get-childitem -path $agentpath -filter "Veeam.Agent.Configurator.exe"
    if ($configurator -ne $null) {
        write-host "Did find configurator $configurator"
    }
}

Environment variables

list all environment variables with get-childitem

get-childitem env:

get a specific value with the $env prefix

$env:path

for example splitting the path

$env:path -split ";"

or getting the powershell module path

$env:PSModulePath -split ";"

some wizard stuff to know your profile module path

$env:PSModulePath -split ";" | ? { $_ -match ([System.Environment]::GetFolderPath("UserProfile") -replace "\\","\\") }

you can also use dotnet, which gives you more control

$envvariables = [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariables()
foreach ($key in $envvariables.Keys) { 
    $v = $envvariables[$key]
    write-host ("{0,-30} {1}" -f $key,$v)
}

especially interesting if you want to set

[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable
[System.Enum]::GetValues([System.EnvironmentVariableTarget])

Common Server Cmdlets