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PowerShell Tutorial

Master Windows PowerShell from basics to advanced scripting. Learn cmdlets, pipelines, automation, and system administration.

PowerShell is a cross-platform task automation solution from Microsoft, combining a command-line shell, a scripting language, and a configuration management framework. It runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, making it essential for modern system administration, cloud management, and DevOps workflows.

In this series of 17 hands-on tutorials, you will start from scratch — installing PowerShell, running your first command, and understanding the object-based pipeline. From there, you will progress through variables and data types, operators, control flow (if/else, switch, loops), functions and scripts, error handling with try/catch, working with structured data formats (JSON, CSV, XML), regular expressions, and file system management. Every tutorial includes real-world examples you can copy, paste, and run immediately, plus exercises with solutions so you can practice what you learn.

What You'll Learn

  • Getting Started
  • Core Concepts
  • Scripting
  • Working with Data
  • Regex

17 tutorials · Beginner to advanced · Free with no registration

Quick Start

Getting Started with PowerShell

New to PowerShell? This section helps you set up your environment and learn the fundamentals.

Section 1. Getting Started

Start here to learn the PowerShell basics.

  • —Introduction to PowerShell – Discover what makes PowerShell unique — an object-oriented shell and scripting language built on .NET. Understand its history, editions, and why it is the modern standard for Windows automation.
  • —Installing PowerShell – Install PowerShell 7 on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Configure your terminal, set up VS Code integration, install useful modules, and customize your PowerShell environment.

Section 2. Core Concepts

  • —Cmdlets and Commands – Understand the Verb-Noun naming convention, discover commands with Get-Command, master Get-Help, and learn parameter usage.
  • —Aliases, External Commands, and Providers – Learn PowerShell aliases for productivity, run external programs, and explore Providers for unified access to registry, environment, and more.
  • —The PowerShell Pipeline – Master the object-based pipeline — the heart of PowerShell. Learn to filter, sort, select, group, measure, format, and export data with Where-Object, Select-Object, Sort-Object, and more.
  • —Variables and Data Types – Learn PowerShell variables, .NET types, string manipulation, number operations, and boolean values.
  • —Collections and Custom Objects – Master PowerShell arrays, hashtables, PSCustomObject, automatic variables, and variable scope for effective scripting.
  • —Operators – Learn PowerShell arithmetic, comparison, and logical operators — the building blocks for expressions and conditions.
  • —Advanced Operators – Master PowerShell 7+ operators: ternary, pipeline chain, null-coalescing, range, type conversion, redirection, bitwise, and assignment operators.

Section 3. Scripting

  • —Control Flow – Master conditional statements (if/elseif/else, switch) and counted iteration (for, foreach) in PowerShell.
  • —Loops and Iteration Patterns – Master PowerShell loops: while, do-while, do-until, break, continue, and practical control flow patterns for real-world automation.
  • —Functions and Scripts – Learn to write PowerShell functions with parameters, validation, CmdletBinding, and advanced function features.
  • —Script Files, Scope, and Modules – Package PowerShell functions into script files, understand variable scope, organize code into modules, and distribute your tools.
  • —Error Handling – Handle errors gracefully in PowerShell. Master try/catch/finally, terminating vs non-terminating errors, ErrorAction, $Error, throw, trap, custom error records, and defensive coding patterns.

Section 4. Working with Data

  • —Files and Folders – Master file system operations in PowerShell. Navigate directories, create and manipulate files, read and write content, search with Select-String, manage permissions, and work with paths.
  • —Working with Data – Import, transform, and export data in PowerShell. Master CSV, JSON, XML, Excel, databases, REST APIs, and build data processing pipelines.

Section 5. Regex

  • —Regular Expressions – Master pattern matching in PowerShell. Learn regex syntax, -match operator, Select-String, [regex] class, named captures, and practical text processing patterns.