You can upgrade to PowerShell 7.2 fairly easily (the more recent version from Microsoft), though the examples on this Cheat Sheet were only tested in PowerShell 5.1.
Common administrative tasks
Most system administrators have some commands that they find useful on a daily basis. Here are some you’re sure to need.
Setting up for remote management
For setting up remote management on systems, there are two commands you need to be aware of.
To start the WinRM service and create exceptions in the Windows Firewall, run the following:
winrm quickconfig
To configure the system to accept remote PowerShell commands via WS-MAN, run the following:
Enable-PSRemoting
Disabling sconfig at startup on Windows Server Core
If you’ve worked with Windows Server Core, you’re probably familiar with sconfig, the configuration utility. It’s the first screen you see after you log in to a Windows Server Core system. You may want to disable this menu from coming up after login, and you can do so by typing the following and pressing the Enter key:
Set-SConfig -AutoLaunch $false
That’s all there is to it! If you change your mind and you decide you want it to launch again after login, simply type the following and press Enter:
Set-SConfig -AutoLaunch $true
Using environmental variables
To view available environmental variables, run the following:
Set | More
To add a folder named Tools to a path variable so you can run those tools without having to be in that directory, run the following:
SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\Tools
To view your current path variable settings, type the following:
echo %PATH%
Enabling/disabling the firewall
Here’s the command to disable the firewall for all profiles:
Set-NetFirewallProfile -Profile Domain,Public,Private -Enabled False
To re-enable the firewall for all profiles, use the following:
Set-NetFirewallProfile -Profile Domain,Public,Private -Enabled True
Working with containers
Containers are the new technology trend, especially as the world shift toward microservices. Here are some helpful Docker commands:
- docker login: Logs you into a DockerHub repository.
- docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:ltsc2022: Retrieves container images. In this case, it pulls from the mcr.microsoft.com/windows repository and retrieves the nanoserver image with the tag ltsc2022.
The nanoserver container images no longer use the latest tag so you’ll have to specify which container image tag you want. You can look up available tags on the container image’s page on Docker Hub.
- docker ps: Shows all running containers. To view all containers, including those not running, simply add -a to the end of the command.
- docker build <dockerfile>: Builds a container from a Dockerfile.
- docker run: Starts a container utilizing various arguments.
- docker volume create: Creates a named volume.
- docker container prune: Removes stopped containers.
Troubleshooting with the command prompt
| Name | Command | Description |
| System File Checker | sfc /scannow | This utility checks system files to see if they match what’s expected by comparing the signature of the system file on the server with the signature of a cached copy of the same file. The cached files are stored in a compressed folder located at C:\Windows\System32\dllcache. If a corrupt system file is found, it’s replaced. |
| Check Disk | chkdsk /f /r | This utility repairs file system errors and marks bad sectors so the operating system doesn’t use them anymore. The /f tells the utility to fix any issues it finds, and the /r locates the bad sectors (areas) on the disk. This can take a while. Kick it off, and grab a cup of coffee. |
| Driverquery | driverquery | This utility queries the system for all the hardware drivers that are installed on Windows. This can be very helpful if you’re running into issues with systems that have similar hardware and you want to know if they have a driver in common. |
| BCDEdit | bcdedit | Allows you to edit the boot configuration on your Windows server. |