In this how-to guide, I'll outline the basic PowerShell cmdlets I believe everyone should know. If you're a beginner, these commands will be new to you. If you're a tech-savvy user, you may learn ...

Get-Basics PowerShell uses a consistent syntax for all of its commands — in fact, PowerShell commands are actually called cmdlets, because they’re much more than simple DOS-style actions.

A script is a collection of those commands in a .ps1 file. A .ps1 file contains a script executed by PowerShell, such as the basic Get-Help command.

Figure 2. PowerShell can display basic operating system information. Incidentally, the Get-CimInstance cmdlet can display far more operating system information than what we are using here.

Don't just stick with the commands that Microsoft provides -- extend the commands in PowerShell.

This course has three hours of content covering everything from basic PowerShell commands to managing users and groups within Active Directory.

Windows PowerShell ISE is a GUI-based application. You can use it to wite, run, and edit multiple scripts and commands in different tabs.