Some Useful PowerShell Commands

1. Reads a line of input from the console. Prompt user to input a value for a variable

$Name = Read-Host -Prompt 'Input your Name '

 

2. Inserting blank lines or new empty line in PowerShell Console or write message on PowerShell Console

write-host "`n"
or
write-host "My name is $Name"

 

3. Assigning string value to variable with the input from user inserted in it. Make sure it is within double quotes.

$path = "C:\users\$Name"

 

4. Check whether folder/file exists or not

If(!(test-path $path))
{
   write-host "$path does not exist"
}

 

5. Create new file or folder if it doesn’t exist

$path = "C:\users\$Name"
If(!(test-path $path))
{
      New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $path
}

or

$path = "C:\users\$Name\test.txt"
If(!(test-path $path))
{
     New-Item -Path $path -ItemType "file"
}

 

6. Update System Environment variable values permanent from within PowerShell Console.

$path = "C:\users\$Name"

$oldpath = (Get-ItemProperty -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment' -Name PATH).path

#append $path value to $oldpath
$newpath = “$oldpath;$path”

#update the $newpath value to system environment value
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment' -Name PATH -Value $newPath

 

7. Download exe using http url and save the file in folder

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.21.0/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl.exe -OutFile "C:\tmp\kubectl.exe"

 

8. Download a zip file and unzip it in specified folder

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://curl.se/windows/dl-7.77.0_2/curl-7.77.0_2-win64-mingw.zip -OutFile "C:\tmp\curl-7.77.0.zip"
 Expand-Archive -LiteralPath "C:\tmp\curl-7.77.0.zip" -DestinationPath "C:\tmp\curl-7.77.0"

 

9. Write content into a file or update data to a file

$path = "C:\users\testuser"
Set-Content -Path $path\test.txt -Value "This is new Text file"

 

10. Update data to a file which has double quotes on it. Wrap data in double quotes then the single quote will be inserted in file.

$path = "C:\users\testuser"
Set-Content -Path $path\test.txt -Value "This is ""Double Quote"" value in new Text file"