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.

A few real-world uses:

• Searching logs for specific errors
• Auditing scripts for hardcoded credentials or IPs
• Verifying config files for deprecated settings

Quick, powerful, and easy to drop into any routine check or investigation.

Try it with different patterns or add -List to Select-String to return only the first match per file — super useful when you’re only interested in whether something exists at all.