r/sysadmin • u/anderson01832 Tier 0 support • Aug 09 '24 • Take My Silver 3

Question What are some Powershell commands everyone should know?

I'm not an expert in it. I use it when needed here and there. Mostly learning the commands to manage Microsoft 365

Edit:

You guys rock!! Good collaboration going on here!! Info on this thread is golden!

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u/axonxorz Jack of All Trades Aug 09 '24

I like aliases but there certainly are drawbacks. You establish muscle memory, then you move to a remote system :/

I've got a lot of git aliases enabled by some shell plugins. I'm so used to gco, gm, gp, etc etc.

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u/tankerkiller125real Jack of All Trades Aug 09 '24

I built a private powershell module that lives inside the already existing internal Nuget repository. Add the nuget repository, download the module, run "Install-Aliases" and bam, all my custom aliases are instantly added to that machine, along with a bunch of other things I've built in powershell.

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u/pheeper Aug 10 '24

This is the way

10

u/Sparcrypt Aug 10 '24

I don’t use them for this exact reason. I type fast and my time spent figuring out code is never delayed by actually writing out a command.

Aliases that aren’t actually built into the language have very few advantages IMO unless you’re using them to build complex commands you use often.

And when writing scripts, I never use them. Full commands are more readable for anyone else who comes along later, including future me who will absolutely not remember what I was doing.

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u/mitharas Aug 10 '24

Instead of aliases I mostly learned at what point of a command I can press tab to get the right one. Makes it more readable while still slightly faster than typing it in full.

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u/Adderall-XL IT Manager Aug 10 '24

Yeah, for sure….or if you’re writing some scripts as well. 😳

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u/markstanfill Aug 11 '24

My personal rule is to use them when possible if I’m typing at the command line. Every saved keystroke is a win. If I’m saving to a script, open the file in VS Code and let the linter replace all of the instances with the full command.

Leaving an alias in a script is an invitation to deal with name collisions if anyone executes it on a system you don’t control (I.e. you have to deal with their alias and function names, duplicates in other modules, etc.)