1 00:00:01,140 --> 00:00:03,410 There's nothing special about running a command in 2 00:00:03,410 --> 00:00:07,140 PowerShell once you know what you want to run. 3 00:00:07,140 --> 00:00:10,140 Type the command at the PowerShell prompt and press Enter. 4 00:00:10,140 --> 00:00:13,540 I bet you can guess what this command's going to do based on the name. 5 00:00:13,540 --> 00:00:17,240 PowerShell runs the command and displays the results. 6 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:21,840 Now in the Windows world, PowerShell commands are not case sensitive. 7 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:23,710 I'll come back to this when I get to the demo, 8 00:00:23,710 --> 00:00:27,290 but I'm going to encourage you to take advantage of tab completion 9 00:00:27,290 --> 00:00:30,720 and other console tricks to quickly bring up the command or 10 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,240 PowerShell expression that you want to run. 11 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,420 PowerShell does not mean a lot of typing of you're smart about how you work. 12 00:00:37,420 --> 00:00:41,040 Many commands can be customized through parameters. 13 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:44,210 These help you refine your command so that it does 14 00:00:44,210 --> 00:00:46,440 exactly what you need it to do. 15 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:49,160 You should read the help for a command to learn about the 16 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:51,700 different parameters and how they operate, 17 00:00:51,700 --> 00:00:55,040 but it's very easy to add them to your command. 18 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:56,620 You can use tab completion. 19 00:00:56,620 --> 00:01:02,340 Start typing the parameter name like ‑dri, and press Tab. 20 00:01:02,340 --> 00:01:06,420 PowerShell will cycle through all parameters that begin with those letters. 21 00:01:06,420 --> 00:01:11,540 Now in some commands, you can also tab complete possible parameter values. 22 00:01:11,540 --> 00:01:14,370 Another option is to use keyboard shortcuts that are 23 00:01:14,370 --> 00:01:16,730 part of the PSReadline module. 24 00:01:16,730 --> 00:01:19,570 These commands come automatically installed in PowerShell. 25 00:01:19,570 --> 00:01:22,040 You'll see these when I get to the demo. 26 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:25,060 A few quick words about PowerShell command parameters. 27 00:01:25,060 --> 00:01:29,390 These too follow a convention, which makes them easy to learn. 28 00:01:29,390 --> 00:01:33,150 All parameter names start with a dash, so in this example, 29 00:01:33,150 --> 00:01:37,240 you would type or tab complete ‑DriveLetter. 30 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,740 After the parameter name, you press the space bar, 31 00:01:40,740 --> 00:01:42,720 then type the parameter value. 32 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:45,680 Now as I mentioned just a moment ago, in some cases, 33 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:48,210 you might even be able to tab complete the values. 34 00:01:48,210 --> 00:01:50,940 It really never hurts to try. 35 00:01:50,940 --> 00:01:54,500 There are also a few other parameter features that you might encounter. 36 00:01:54,500 --> 00:01:58,830 Now even though I told you about typing the parameter name, 37 00:01:58,830 --> 00:02:01,260 sometimes you don't even have to do that. 38 00:02:01,260 --> 00:02:03,420 So here's a great example. 39 00:02:03,420 --> 00:02:07,370 The Get‑Service command has a parameter called name. 40 00:02:07,370 --> 00:02:11,380 That lets you specify the names of the services that you want to see. 41 00:02:11,380 --> 00:02:12,300 However, 42 00:02:12,300 --> 00:02:15,700 you don't have to include the parameter name. If you 43 00:02:15,700 --> 00:02:20,460 type the command as I've done here, PowerShell will assume that the values, 44 00:02:20,460 --> 00:02:25,140 bits, winrm, and spooler, belong to the name parameter. 45 00:02:25,140 --> 00:02:30,050 The name parameter is called positional, or we refer to it as a positional. 46 00:02:30,050 --> 00:02:33,640 You don't have to type the parameter name. 47 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:36,690 Some commands have mandatory parameters. 48 00:02:36,690 --> 00:02:41,840 These are parameters that at least require you to enter some value. 49 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,880 These parameters are easy to identify because if you forget something, 50 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:49,340 PowerShell will prompt you for the missing values. 51 00:02:49,340 --> 00:02:52,030 You'll also learn that many commands, like Get‑Service, 52 00:02:52,030 --> 00:02:55,940 have a default behavior so you don't really have to do anything. 53 00:02:55,940 --> 00:02:56,520 In fact, 54 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:58,970 you should be able to run just about any command 55 00:02:58,970 --> 00:03:04,340 simply by typing the command name, especially if it is a get command. 56 00:03:04,340 --> 00:03:09,040 If there is a mandatory parameter, PowerShell will simply prompt you for a value. 57 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:12,540 Otherwise, it will run the command with the default settings. 58 00:03:12,540 --> 00:03:15,600 By the way, if the parameter can take multiple values, 59 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:20,110 like the names of services here, separate the values with commas. 60 00:03:20,110 --> 00:03:25,820 All PowerShell cmdlets and most functions have a set of common parameters. 61 00:03:25,820 --> 00:03:28,640 One such parameter is ‑Verbose. 62 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:34,140 Now you can try to include it with any PowerShell command. 63 00:03:34,140 --> 00:03:37,390 If the verbose option has been coded into the command, 64 00:03:37,390 --> 00:03:40,040 you'll see extra information. 65 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:43,840 This can be very helpful when troubleshooting why a command doesn't work. 66 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,000 However, not every command takes advantage of this feature. 67 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,840 You really won't know if it does until you try. 68 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,340 Now you won't break anything, so just give it a shot. 69 00:03:53,340 --> 00:03:58,240 Another common parameter is ‑WhatIf. This parameter has a very special use 70 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:04,780 case. You can see the result right here from using ‑WhatIf. When using ‑WhatIf, 71 00:04:04,780 --> 00:04:07,990 the command doesn't actually do anything. Instead, 72 00:04:07,990 --> 00:04:11,690 PowerShell shows you what it would have done if you ran the command 73 00:04:11,690 --> 00:04:16,540 without ‑WhatIf. So this is a great way to check yourself. 74 00:04:16,540 --> 00:04:19,870 This parameter is supposed to be used in any cmdlet that 75 00:04:19,870 --> 00:04:22,430 changes something, like starting a service, 76 00:04:22,430 --> 00:04:25,340 removing a file, or killing a process. 77 00:04:25,340 --> 00:04:27,390 Although you will encounter cmdlets that probably 78 00:04:27,390 --> 00:04:29,490 should support this parameter but don't. 79 00:04:29,490 --> 00:04:35,000 And in those situations, there's really nothing you can do about it other than be careful.