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How to use the PowerShell documentation

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Welcome to the PowerShell online documentation. This site contains cmdlet reference for the following versions of PowerShell:

  • PowerShell 7.3
  • PowerShell 7.2 (LTS-current)
  • PowerShell 5.1

Finding articles and selecting a version

There are two ways to search for content in Docs. The simplest way is to use the filter box under the version selector. Just enter a word that appears in the title of an article. The page displays a list of matching articles. You can also select the option to search the entire site from that list.

Use the version picker at the top of the page to select the version of PowerShell you want. By default, the version selector is set to the most current release version of PowerShell. The version selector controls what cmdlet reference appears in the Table of Contents under the Reference node. Some cmdlets work differently depending on the version of PowerShell you are using. Be sure you are viewing the documentation for the correct version of PowerShell.

The version selector does not filter conceptual documentation. The conceptual documents appear above the Reference node in the Table of Contents. The same documents appear for any version selected. If there are version-specific differences, the documentation makes note of those differences.

Using the version picker

You can verify the version of PowerShell you are using by inspecting the $PSversionTable.PSVersion value. The following example shows the output for Windows PowerShell 5.1.

$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
5      1      19041  1237

If you are new to PowerShell and need help understanding the command syntax, see about_Command_Syntax.

Finding articles for previous versions

Documentation for older versions of PowerShell has been archived in our Previous Versions site.

This site contains documentation for the following topics:

  • PowerShell 3.0
  • PowerShell 4.0
  • PowerShell 5.0
  • PowerShell 6
  • PowerShell 7.0
  • PowerShell 7.1
  • PowerShell Workflows
  • PowerShell Web Access