Find running W services in reverse order in PowerShell
Documentation: Microsoft Learn
Write a pipeline, run it against the sample data, and check your result.
An example to inspect
Preview the example. Sign in for the full lesson and activities.
Get-Service -Name 'W*' | Where-Object Status -eq 'Running' | Sort-Object Name -DescendingTarget
Return running services whose Name matches W*, sorted by Name in descending order. The wildcard is the naming rule; do not use DisplayName.
Expected result
wuauserv, W32Time
Try the task
Show a worked solution
Reveal one approach
Try it in the lab
Write your pipeline below and run it against the fictional sample data, then check your result against the expected answer.
Follow the objects
Run the command to inspect each stage.
PowerShell skills
Service objects · Filtering · Sorting · Wildcard matching
Build the answer in three decisions
Read the pipeline from left to right. Each stage receives objects from the stage before it.
Collect
Get-Service -Name 'W*'
Start with 7 fictional service objects. Keep them as objects so later stages can inspect their properties.
Shape
Where-Object Status -eq 'Running'
Apply the condition or ordering required by the task. Apply the W* name query and Running status filter, then reverse the name sort.
Verify
Check order and returned names
The fixture should return wuauserv, W32Time. Order matters for this exercise.
Reason through the pipeline
The source stage returns 7 service objects. Then the pipeline applies Where-Object Status -eq 'Running', Sort-Object Name -Descending without converting the objects to display text. That keeps the Name property available for the checker and for any later pipeline stage.
Why common attempts fail
Do not hard-code the expected names; express the filter against an object property so the pipeline still makes sense when the fixture changes. Do not select the first rows before sorting when the task asks for a highest, lowest, first, or reverse-ordered result.
What the checker accepts
The evaluator runs the supported subset against the same fictional fixture. It expects wuauserv, W32Time. The returned order is part of the answer. Equivalent supported syntax is accepted.
Verify another attempt
First run Get-Service -Name 'W*' by itself and inspect the fixture. Then add one stage at a time and compare how many objects remain. This isolates the stage that changes the result and makes the final pipeline easier to explain and debug.
