PowerShell commands cheat sheet
I'm much more comfortable using Bash over PowerShell, but there are definitely times that you need to use command line on Windows. So I keep a small, but growing list of my most commonly used cmdlets, their Linux-like aliases, and other must-know commands.
Table of Contents
Cmdlets & Linux Equivalents
PowerShell cmdlets have aliases identical to their equivalent Linux commands, here’s the most common:
| Command | Alias | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Get-Location | pwd | Show current directory |
Set-Location | cd | Change to another directory |
Get-Content | cat | Output contents of a file |
New-item | touch | Create a new file |
Copy-Item | cp | Copy a file |
Move-Item | mv | Move a file to new location |
Remove-Item | rm | Delete a file |
Get-ChildItem | ls | Output a list of directory contents |
New-Item -ItemType Directory | mkdir | Create new directory |
Advanced Commands
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
shutdown /r /fw /f /t 0 | Reboot into BIOS immediately |
ipconfig /flushdns | Flush DNS resolver cache (do this when having DNS issues) |
ipconfig | Display TCP/IP basic information (append /all for full info) |
getmac /v | List MAC addresses of all network adapters |
powercfg /energy | Power efficiency diagnostics report |
powercfg /batteryreport | Battery life diagnostics report |
sfc /scannow | Scan system and repair any integrity violations |
tasklist | List all running processes and their process IDs |
taskkill /f /pid 12345 | Kill a running task (specify process ID) |