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Let me begin with a brief overview of how PowerShell help works.

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All of the help files you need are packaged with PowerShell modules.

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Now a module is a self‑contained unit that includes related commands,

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formatting files, help, and other files.

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Now most help is package in an XML format called MAML, M‑A‑M‑L.

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Now I tell you that more is a way of background information.

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You won't need to manually do anything with these XML files.

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PowerShell itself ships with a number of modules,

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as well as other types of help files that we're going to look at later.

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Now the nice part is that you don't have to do anything.

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PowerShell automatically loads the modules and help files

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when you start using these commands.

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When you start a PowerShell session, you get a lot of them automatically,

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and help is included for you.

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All you need to do is use them.

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And you don't need any special software or apps.

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If you have a PowerShell prompt,

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you can find and get all the help you need with a few simple commands.

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In PowerShell, commands follow a very simple verb‑noun naming convention.

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The verb comes from a standard list and are actions that you do all the time,

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such as get, stop, start, remove.

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The noun is the singular version of the thing that you

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want to take an action on or with.

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So it shouldn't be too surprising that the command to Get‑Help information is,

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in fact, called Get‑Help.

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Now just remember the dash in the name.

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When referencing commands in PowerShell, we don't say Get dash Help typically.

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It's Get‑Help.

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The dash is implied.

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This is something that trips up a lot of people who are new to PowerShell.

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As you'll see when I get to the demo, most of the time,

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we're going to use a command called help.

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Now,

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this is really nothing more than a simple PowerShell function

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that wraps around the Get‑Help command, making it easier to use.

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Help and Get‑Help under the hood really do the same thing.

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The only difference is how they display the information.

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Again, you'll see this when I get to the demo.

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And if you're coming from the Linux world or just

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want to be a little bit different, you can use the alias man.

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Now it's important for you to understand though that this

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isn't running the Linux man command.

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This is simply an alternative way to run the help command.

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Even though I told you a few minutes ago that PowerShell ships with help files,

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this isn't entirely true.

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Microsoft ships with a subset of help content.

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Think of them as stubs.

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And while the help may not necessarily be complete,

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it does include enough information for more experienced users.

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Now I think Microsoft has a long‑term goal here to deliver more

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streamline products with the bare essentials,

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relying on you to add the other bits and pieces that you need or want.

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And you can think of PowerShell help as following this model.

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For example,

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because you shouldn't be logged on to servers that you

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actively lease on a regular basis, you really don't need the full,

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complete PowerShell help on those servers.

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Your management model should be to do everything you need from your desktop.

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That's where you want the full help.

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The help files don't have a huge footprint,

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but every little bit of savings helps.

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So there's really very little reason to update help on your servers.

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Do it on your desktop.

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Now what this means for you though is that on new Windows 10

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installations or new PowerShell 7 installs,

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you'll want to update the local help content.

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Now this isn't something you need to do all the time.

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There is no mechanism enforcement right now in PowerShell to

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let you know when help should be updated.

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Nothing to tell you that Microsoft has new help or a new

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package waiting for you to download,

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at least not at the time I'm doing this course.

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Personally, I update help once a month, really more out of habit than anything.

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You can decide how often or when you want to update help.

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I'll show you how to update and even to save help if

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you're working in a team environment.

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Now you may be wondering after all of this, why does all of this matter?

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And it matters because PowerShell is under active development.

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New releases are coming out a few times a year.

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With each new release, there may be new commands.

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There may be new parameters.

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Or sometimes parameters are deprecated or removed.

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The help should reflect those changes. PowerShell help may also be

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updated to correct mistakes or expand content.

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You have to get in the habit of reading help all the time and rereading it.

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Back in the V1 days, we had maybe a few hundred commands.

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Now I can learn help for a few hundred commands. However,

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on a new laptop installation I'm working on for another project, I did

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a quick look at the number of PowerShell commands,

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and there were over 1600. On my primary desktop, there were over 5,000 commands.

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Now there's no way I can learn and memorize and I doubt you can either.

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So I have to rely on the help documentation. When I teach live classes, I stress

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the importance of reading the help. I tell students I'll help them with these

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exercises provided they have read the help first.

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Inevitably, I'll have a student that will ask for help on a problem,

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and I'll come over and I'll ask hey, did you read the help?

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And of course, they'll say no, sorry,

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I didn't didn't read the help. So I have them read

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the help, and more often than not, once they read the help,

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they can complete the exercise because they find the answer that I

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am hoping they would find by reading the help.

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Now personally, I've run into this same situation.

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I remember, you know,

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awhile ago banging my head trying to get a piece of code to work using a

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command that I thought I knew, a command that I'd used for years.

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Fine.

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I couldn't get it to work.

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So I went back and decided I'm going to go back and look at the help.

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And there was, it just slapped me right in the face.

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There was a parameter that was added at some point to the command

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that I missed or never realized was there. Maybe it was there all

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along, and I just never realized it.

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As you'll see, the help content can be overwhelming,

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and so don't even try to memorize it.

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The important thing is to try to learn how to use it and to find what

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you need because there may be a parameter that doesn't click with you

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when you look at help the first time.

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But maybe 6 months from now, you'll look at the help and go oh,

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there's that parameter that I need. That will solve my problem,

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and that's what happened to me. Only by looking at help again will

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you be able to find what you need. I had a student tell we once in

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the class that they were a little, you know,

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put off by my drilling and insistence on them to read and use help.

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But after the second day of class, he realized what I was trying to teach them.

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He could see how it was affecting the other students

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in the classroom and realized oh, now I get why this is so important.

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He totally bought in.

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And from there, it was a much easier classroom because he

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got into the habit of reading the help. And that's what I hope you get into the habit to as well.