PowerShell where-object starts with

In this PowerShell tutorial, we will explore how to use Where-Object to filter objects that either start with a specific string or do not start with a certain string.

To filter objects in PowerShell that start with a specific string, you can use the Where-Object cmdlet with the -like operator and a wildcard character, for example, Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Name -like “log” } to find items starting with “log”. Conversely, to filter out objects that do not start with a certain string, use -notlike, such as Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Name -notlike “log” } to exclude items beginning with “log”.

Table of Contents

To filter objects that have properties starting with a certain string in PowerShell, you can use the -like operator with the wildcard character * in Where-Object. The -like operator is used for pattern matching.

Here’s an example that filters a list of files in a directory to only include those that start with “log” with PowerShell Where-Object:

Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "log*" }

In this example, Get-ChildItem retrieves all items in the current directory, and Where-Object filters to include only items where the Name property starts with “log”.

PowerShell where-object does not start with

Conversely, if you want to filter objects that do not start with a specific string in PowerShell, you can still use the -like operator but negate the condition with -not or !.

Here’s how to get all files that do not start with “log” using PowerShell Where-Object:

Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Name -notlike "log*" }

This command will return all items except those whose Name starts with “log”.

Examples of PowerShell where-object starts with and does not start with

Let’s look at some practical examples of using Where-Object with the “starts with” and “does not start with” logic.

Example 1: Filtering Services

Suppose you want to check which services on your machine start with the letter “w”. You can use the following command:

Get-Service | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "w*" }

This will list all services that have names beginning with “w”.

Example 2: Excluding Certain Processes

If you’re interested in viewing all processes except those that start with “svchost”, you can use:

Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.Name -notlike "svchost*" }

This will provide a list of all running processes, excluding any instance of “svchost”.

Example 3: Searching for Specific File Types

Looking for all PowerShell script files in a directory that start with “config”? Use this command:

Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "config*.ps1" }

This will return all .ps1 files starting with “config”.

Example 4: Excluding Files with Certain Extensions

If you want to get all files in a directory but exclude those with the .tmp extension, you could use:

Get-ChildItem | Where-Object { $_.Extension -notlike ".tmp" }

Example 5: Finding Users in an Organization

If you are working with a list of users and want to find all users whose usernames start with “admin”, the command might look like this:

Get-ADUser -Filter * | Where-Object { $_.SamAccountName -like "admin*" }

Note that this example assumes you have the Active Directory module loaded in PowerShell.

Example 6: Filtering Out System Accounts

To get a list of all user accounts that do not start with “NT”, which often indicates a system account, you can use:

Get-ADUser -Filter * | Where-Object { $_.SamAccountName -notlike "NT*" }

Conclusion

The Where-Object cmdlet is incredibly essential for PowerShell scripting. By using the -like and -notlike operators, you can easily filter objects based on whether their properties start with or do not start with specific strings. Remember to use wildcards (*) to define the part of the string that can vary.

In this PowerShell tutorial, I have explained how to work with PowerShell where-object starts with, and PowerShell where-object does not start with.