What is Cmdlet? What is the difference between Cmdlets and PowerShell commands?

When working with Windows PowerShell, you may have come across the term cmdlet and find it a bit confusing. What is Cmdlet? Is it completely different from a command in PowerShell or is it simply another name? Join TipsMake.com to find the answer in the following article!

What is Cmdlet?

The cmdlet (pronounced "command-let") is a lightweight Windows PowerShell script that performs a function.

A command, in this context, is the specific order from the user to the computer operating system or an application to perform a service, such as displaying all files or running programs.

Although Windows PowerShell includes over 200 basic short cmdlets, admins can also write their own cmdlets and share them.

Cmdlet has the extension .ps1 . Each cmdlet has a help file, which can be accessed by typing:

 Get-Help -Detailed

Detailed view of the cmdlet help file including description of cmdlet, command syntax, description of parameters and an example illustrating the use of cmdlet.

What is Cmdlet? What is the difference between Cmdlets and PowerShell commands? Picture 1 — Cmdlet in PowerShell

Common basic cmdlets

Common basic cmdlets include:

Cmdlet

Function

Get-Location

Select the current directory

Set-Location

Change the current directory

Copy-Item

Copy the file

Remove-Item

Remove a file or directory

Move-Item

Move a file

Rename-Item

Rename the file

New-Item

Create a new empty file or folder

Cmdlet is different from the usual commands?

Cmdlet differs from commands in other command-shell environment as follows:

Cmdlets are examples of .NET Framework classes and are not standalone executables.
Cmdlet can be made from several dozen lines of code.
Cmdlets usually do not themselves parse, present errors or format the output. The parsing, error presentation and output format are handled by Windows PowerShell Runtime.
Cmdlets handle input objects from the pipeline (data flow moving through cmdlets) instead of from text streams, and cmdlets usually distribute objects as outputs to the pipeline.
Cmdlet handles one object at a time.

Cmdlet

Jessica Tanner

Update 15 February 2020

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