What is PowerShell?
PowerShell is a shell and a scripting language built around objects. When you run a command, what comes back is not a block of text but a structured thing with named properties you can ask about — the asking is done with Get-Member, which lists every property and method on whatever comes back.
Documentation: Microsoft Learn
In plain English
There are two PowerShells in the world. Windows PowerShell 5.1 ships with Windows and stops receiving new features. PowerShell 7 is the current cross-platform version and installs alongside 5.1 rather than replacing it. Both are in wide use, so you will meet both.
You do not need to memorise commands. Command names follow a strict Verb-Noun pattern. These built-in Verb-Noun commands are called cmdlets (pronounced "command-lets") — the word you will see everywhere from here on. Two cmdlets in particular, Get-Help and Get-Command, let you find anything else. Learning those two well is worth more than learning fifty command names.
What happens
Get-Process asks Windows for the list of running processes and returns one object per process. The table you see is only a default view: PowerShell picked a few of the many properties each process object carries and formatted them into columns. The objects themselves hold far more, including CPU time, memory figures, the executable path and the process owner.
Worth remembering
- Commands return objects with properties, not lines of text.
- Command names are Verb-Noun, which makes them guessable.
- Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7 both exist and both matter.
- Get-Help and Get-Command will find anything you have forgotten.
Primary documentation
Try it
Browser simulation · fictional data; no changes to your computer.
Follow the objects
Run the command to inspect each stage.
Returns one object per running process, displayed in a default table view.
Show reference output
Sample output · fictional data, shaped like the real thing
Name ProcessName Id CPU WS WorkingSet WorkingSet64 ------- ----------- ----- ------ --------- ---------- ------------ chrome chrome 9184 842.31 486539264 486539264 486539264 notepad notepad 3200 0.4 12582912 12582912 12582912 pwsh pwsh 11268 18.27 78643200 78643200 78643200 spoolsv spoolsv 4400 1.4 33554432 33554432 33554432 MsMpEng MsMpEng 2600 950 220200960 220200960 220200960