Get-Help tutorial: read syntax and examples

Get-Help is the built-in documentation reader, and the fastest way out of being stuck. Called with a command name it prints a summary, the syntax, and a description of what the command does.

Lesson 3 min read Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7

Documentation: Microsoft Learn

Written and tested by Dhrub Bharali · Updated 02 October 2026

Overview

The switches are what make it useful. -Examples prints just the worked examples, which is usually what you actually wanted. -Full prints everything including per-parameter detail. -Parameter followed by a parameter name explains one parameter without printing the other forty. -Online opens the current Microsoft Learn page in a browser, which is the most reliable option because it cannot be out of date.

On Windows PowerShell 5.1 the help files are not installed by default, so Get-Help shows only a stub until you run Update-Help once as administrator. PowerShell 7 falls back to online content instead, which is less of a trap.

Get-Help also reads conceptual topics as well as commands. Get-Help about_Pipelines and the other about_ topics are the closest thing PowerShell has to a built-in manual.

Inspect this example’s structure

Read the command and its supplied arguments. This example requires real PowerShell or its module; this diagram does not execute it.

Get-Help Get-ChildItem -Examples

Stage 1Get-Help-Examples

What happens

This asks for the examples section of the Get-ChildItem help topic and nothing else. You get a handful of real commands with a line of explanation each. When you are learning a new command, this is almost always the right place to start, because the examples show the parameter combinations people actually use.

Worth remembering

Get-Help <name> -Examples is the highest-value form.
-Online opens the current page and cannot be stale.
Run Update-Help once on Windows PowerShell 5.1.
about_ topics cover concepts as well as commands.

Check your understanding

There is no runnable lab on this page — these run in your own terminal, so predict the answer first, then verify.

Q1. You run Get-Help Get-Service -Examples. Do you get the full help text or just the examples?

Answer: Just the EXAMPLES section — that is the point of the switch. The full text needs -Full, and everything is Get-Help Get-Service with no switch.

Q2. You type Get-Help with no arguments at all. What happens?

Answer: You get the help topic for Get-Help itself. A bare cmdlet name is always a valid help query.

Q3. Get-Help Get-Service -Online opens something outside the terminal. What, and why is it useful?

Answer: The current Microsoft Learn page for Get-Service in your browser — unlike the text on your machine, it can never be stale.

Primary documentation

Get-Help reference · Get-ChildItem reference

Try it

Illustrative output · values vary by environment

1PS> Get-Help Get-ChildItem -Examples

Example reader

Inspect this page's example

Fictional browser data when supported

Run supported commands against the practice data, or inspect the example without executing it.

Get-Help Get-ChildItem -Examples

Ready to inspect.

Prints only the examples from the Get-ChildItem help topic.

Show reference output

Illustrative output · values vary by environment

NAME
    Get-ChildItem

SYNOPSIS
    Gets the items and child items in one or more specified locations.

EXAMPLE
    PS> Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Recurse

Practise this

Read command help

Read the syntax help for Get-Service.

Review the lesson

Keep going

Next: Execution Policy