To list directories and files in PowerShell, use Get-ChildItem. On its own, it lists every folder and file in the current location. Add -Directory for folders only, -File for files only and -Recurse to include subfolders. Here it is on a sample Projects folder I created for this article: Output: The Mode column tells you … Read more
Windows doesn’t record who last modified a file. NTFS keeps the time of the last change, but not the user, so to check who modified a file with PowerShell you need file auditing turned on before the change happens. Below I show what you can get right away (the time, the owner and Office’s own … Read more
To delete files older than 30 days with PowerShell, list the files with Get-ChildItem, keep the ones whose LastWriteTime is before a cutoff date, and pipe them to Remove-Item. Run it with -WhatIf first: Output: In a real script, set the cutoff with (Get-Date).AddDays(-30). I used a fixed date and a sample folder so the … Read more
To find files modified after a date in PowerShell, pipe Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse to Where-Object and compare LastWriteTime with the date: Output: LastWriteTime is the “Date modified” column in File Explorer. I used a sample folder with fixed dates, and I ran every example in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1, with the same results. … Read more
To list hidden files in PowerShell, run Get-ChildItem with the -Hidden switch. It returns only the items that have the Hidden attribute: Use -Force instead to see hidden and normal items together. Below I show both, how to read the Mode column, how to get hidden files only, search subfolders and unhide a file. For … Read more
To fix “running scripts is disabled on this system” in PowerShell, set the execution policy to RemoteSigned for your account. It doesn’t need admin rights: The error means the effective policy is Restricted, which is the default on Windows client PCs. Below I reproduce it, check every policy scope, and show fixes from a single … Read more
To get the type of an object or variable in PowerShell, call its GetType() method. .Name gives the short name and .FullName the full .NET name: Output: To test for a type instead of reading it, use the -is operator, covered below. I ran every example in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1, with the … Read more
To round a number to 2 decimal places in PowerShell, use [Math]::Round($number, 2). To display it with exactly two decimals, use the format operator, ‘{0:N2}’ -f $number, or .ToString(‘0.00′): Output: They look the same here, but they don’t return the same kind of value, and they don’t always round the same way. I ran every … Read more
Measure-Object calculates the count, sum, average, maximum and minimum of numbers or of a property. Pipe the values to it and pick the statistics you want: Output in Windows PowerShell 5.1: PowerShell 7 shows the same numbers plus an empty StandardDeviation row. I ran every example in PowerShell 7.6 and Windows PowerShell 5.1 and note … Read more
To pass variables to a PowerShell script, declare them in a param() block at the top of the script, then pass values by name when you run it: Every example below uses one sample script, so you can copy it and follow along. I tested each call in PowerShell 7 and Windows PowerShell 5.1. Declare … Read more