L1. PowerShell Setup: pwsh, Windows PowerShell, and Help

What PowerShell Is

PowerShell is both an interactive shell and a scripting language built around .NET objects. Unlike a traditional text shell, commands usually pass structured objects through the pipeline. That means you can filter by properties, sort by dates, export clean CSV or JSON, and automate admin work without parsing fragile text.

There are two names you must keep separate:

Microsoft's current install documentation covers Windows, macOS, and Linux. The modern executable is pwsh; Windows PowerShell 5.1 remains available on Windows for compatibility.

Install and Verify

On Windows, the simplest route is normally winget:

winget install --id Microsoft.PowerShell --source winget
pwsh
$PSVersionTable

On macOS, Homebrew is common:

brew install --cask powershell
pwsh

On Linux, use the Microsoft package instructions for your distribution. Avoid random curl-pipe-install snippets for production machines; package-manager installs are easier to patch and audit.

Your First Commands

Get-Command -Noun Process
Get-Help Get-Process -Examples
Get-Process | Select-Object -First 5

PowerShell cmdlets use a Verb-Noun naming pattern. The verb tells you the action, and the noun tells you the resource. Get-Process, Stop-Service, and Export-Csv are easier to discover than short aliases when you are writing scripts for other people.

Lab

1. Open pwsh.
2. Run $PSVersionTable.PSVersion.
3. Run Get-Command -Verb Get | Select-Object -First 10.
4. Run Get-Help about_PowerShell_exe.
5. Create a notes file named powershell-lab.md and record your version, operating system, and install method.

Sources

• Microsoft Learn: Install PowerShell on Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Microsoft Learn: What's new in PowerShell 7.5