Understanding the help system

This section will cover the use of help in Windows PowerShell. The help topic for a particular command or conceptual help can assist an administrator who is new to Windows PowerShell or using a particular set of cmdlets to understand its syntax and usage.

The Help parameter (?)

The -? parameter with a cmdlet will display Windows PowerShell help for the cmdlet:

The Get-Help cmdlet

The Get-Help cmdlet displays help information about PowerShell cmdlets. Some of the examples are discussed as follows.

The following example gives you the help files from the PowerShell help system one page at a time:

PS C:\>get-help * | more

If you know the alias of the cmdlet you are trying to get help for, use the —detailed parameter for full help:

PS C:\>get-help gps -detailed

If you are not sure of the exact parameter but remember the initial letter, use the following to get help:

PS C:\>get-help get-process -parameter i*

This lists all the parameters of the cmdlet get-process:

PS C:\>get-help get-process -Parameter *

This provides help with the syntax of the select-object cmdlet:

PS C:\>(get-help select-object).syntax

There are other properties of the help object such as input types, module name, examples, and more. If you are looking to find all the properties and methods of help object type called get-help <cmdlet-name> | get-member, for example, PS C:\> get-help get-Service | get-member.