Tools

PowerShell Cheat Sheet — Commands for Windows Developers

PowerShell passes objects, not text, through its pipeline. These are the commands and patterns developers use most, with the Bash equivalents in mind.

Put it into practice with the matching tool.

Test a -match pattern →

Navigation and files

Get-Location (pwd)Current directory

Set-Location path (cd)Change directory

Get-ChildItem (ls, dir)List files; -Recurse for subfolders, -Force for hidden

Get-Content file (cat)Read a file; -Tail 20 -Wait to follow it

Set-Content f -Value "x" -Encoding utf8Write a file

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force dirCreate a directory (like mkdir -p)

Copy-Item / Move-Item / Remove-Itemcp / mv / rm (-Recurse for folders)

Test-Path pathDoes a file or folder exist?

Pipeline and objects

| Where-Object { $_.Length -gt 1MB }Filter objects (alias ?)

| Select-Object Name, LengthPick properties; -First 5 like head

| Sort-Object Length -DescendingSort by a property

| ForEach-Object { $_.Name }Run code per item (alias %)

| Measure-Object -LineCount lines (like wc -l)

| Get-MemberShow an object's properties and methods

Select-String "TODO" -Path *.tsSearch text in files (like grep)

Variables and syntax

$name = "Ana"Assign a variable

"Hello $name" / 'literal $name'Double quotes expand; single quotes do not

$env:PATHRead an environment variable

$env:NODE_ENV = "production"Set one for this session

-eq -ne -gt -lt -like -matchComparison operators

cmd1; if ($?) { cmd2 }Run cmd2 only if cmd1 succeeded (&& in PowerShell 7)

`Escape character and line continuation

Processes and system

Get-Process nodeList processes by name (ps)

Stop-Process -Name nodeKill processes (kill)

Get-NetTCPConnection -LocalPort 3000Find what is using a port

Invoke-WebRequest url -OutFile fDownload a file (like curl -o)

Invoke-RestMethod urlCall an API and parse JSON automatically

(Get-Command node).SourceWhere a command lives (which)

Data and help

Get-Content f.json | ConvertFrom-JsonParse JSON into objects

$obj | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 5Serialise objects to JSON

Import-Csv f.csv / Export-CsvRead and write CSV as objects

Get-Help cmd -ExamplesShow usage examples

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSignedAllow local scripts to run

Related guides

Regular Expressions: A Beginner's Guide

More cheat sheets

Git →Cron →Bash / Linux →Docker →npm →Vim →