Windows
- PowerShell Tip from the Trenches: Searching for Text in Files
As a sysadmin, I often find myself digging through logs, config files, and scripts to troubleshoot issues or verify configurations. One of the most useful PowerShell one-liners in my daily toolkit is this:
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Your\Directory" -Recurse -File | Select-String -Pattern "YourSearchText"This command recursively scans all files in the specified directory and searches for the string
"YourSearchText". It’s incredibly handy when you’re hunting down error messages, checking for legacy code, or verifying that certain settings are applied across multiple files. - Powershell Change The Extension Of All Files In A Folder
Someone had to change the extension of some files in order to send them or upload them to share. That’s fine but there’s so many of them! It will take forever to rename them all manually. There must be an easier way. Let’s look at how to use PowerShell to change the extension of all files in a folder:
Open PowerShell:
- Press
Win + Xand select “Windows PowerShell” from the menu. - Alternatively, you can search for “PowerShell” in the Start menu and open it.
Navigate to the Target Folder:
- Press
- Download a file from the web using PowerShell
The
Invoke-WebRequestcommand in PowerShell is very powerful and can be used to do much more then downloading a file. Check out the Invoke-WebRequest documentation page to learn more.Download a file from the web (http, https)
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://192.168.100.123:3000/myzipfile.zip" -OutFile "C:\Documents\myzipfile.zip"The above command well download a file from the web (in this case a local ip address) and save if under your Documents folder.
Need to Extract a zip file?
Check out Expand-Archive in PowerShell
- How to unzip a file in PowerShell?
Have a .zip file and need to extract its entire contents using Powershell? No problem, it’s built in!
Since PowerShell version 5+, there is an Expand-Archive command built in:
Expand-Archive -Path myzipfile.zip -DestinationPath C:\extract\to\hereNot sure which version of PowerShell you have?
$PSVersionTable.PSVersionFind more information:
man Expand-ArchiveNeed to Create a zip file?
Check out Compress-Archive in PowerShell
- How to zip file(s) in PowerShell?
Have some files and need to create a zip archive using Powershell? No problem, it’s built in!
Since PowerShell version 5+, there is an Compress-Archive command built in:
Compress-Archive running in PowerShell Compress-Archive -Path file.txt, file2.txt -CompressionLevel Fastest -DestinationPath C:\compress\to\here\myzipfile.zipNote: There’s a 2 GB max file size limit due to a limitation of the underlying API.
Not sure which version of PowerShell you have?
