Pretty Powershell

PowerShell is UGLY and cumbersome by default. This Video fixes that!

[mehdiaghaei]

Hi Chris,
Terminal Icons are missing here which make your terminal so beautiful,
*Install-Module -Name Terminal-Icons -Repository PSGallery*
In the Profile:
Import-Module -Name Terminal-Icons

[ericr]

Which is more intuitive?
Test-Connection -ComputerName stationA -Count 1 -TimeToLive 30
or
ping -c 1 -t 30 stationA

Seems like the Test-Connection command is more intuitive and easier to remember. Top is PowerShell and bottom is POSIX. If by a mess you mean consistent and well-structured then I agree.

Microsoft makes their command output object oriented, which is nicer to work with too.

[JonLondrezos]

Chris, I honestly don't share your gripes on PowerShell. I love the consistency of the command conventions and usage, the power and cohesion you get by piping outputs, and the ability to use DLL functionality without a performance penalty. So for me it is my goto environment for OS automation.
And yes, if you want to play with CLI, then you can alias the hell out of it to whatever you want. For my setup I used aliases to make it work like a RHEL. So if you are comfortable with CLI then you should be comfortable with aliasing your CLI without cluttering keywords.
So again, I can't see a reason not to love it.

[logaandm]

"it's just more intuitive" says the Linux guy about the Linux terminal. There is nothing intuitive about a UNIX terminal, if it were, there wouldn't be so many complaints by new Linux users about having to use the terminal. It is just what you are familiar with.

Powershell WAS developed by Microsoft. It is now open source. Take that for what you will, but Microsoft does not own or maintain PowerShell. That is why there is a PowerShell for Linux and MacOS. Microsoft's supplied PowerShell is based on version 5 to maintain backwards compatibility with IT admins. The latest Open Source Powershell is version 7 - it is not Microsoft.

I agree PowerShell has more complex commands, but PowerShell is based on an object oriented paradigm. Basically the old UNIX shell idea of "piping" on steroids and updated to the 21st century. Like almost all OOP, it is overkill for most people or even most programming and scripting tasks. PS was developed to overcome limitations of CMD and the UNIX shell in system administration - that is why it is more complex and has stricter rules.

You don't really see any reason to switch from BASH to PS. I don't really see much reason to switch from CMD to PS. Right up till PS does something BASH or CMD cannot.

[rolling_marbles]

Aliases are great, but i’m an advocate of not abstracting the interface into another but rather use each one natively. i do use Bash and Powershell, even use Powershell launched from Bash.
I also love the pneumonics of Powershell being Verb-Noun. it’s more natural way of thinking.

[TofuBug]

I feel like you're completely missing the point of PowerShell.

What you call ugly those of us that build and maintain modules and scripts call beautiful in its consistency.

Aliases are an amazing idea its why someone like you that just wants to use PowerShell as a glorified bash shell can do just that ( same for windows cmd users) it's an easy on ramp into PowerShell

However when you get into actually writing scripts and modules Aliases are AWFUL. The power in PowerShell comes from the agnostic nature of the verb-noun pattern and the consistency that offers. I can hand off code to someone else and they universally understand that for instance Get-ChildItem gets the children of the current location be that files, registry keys, certificates, or even if utilizing a custom PowerShell provider written to use the same Get-ChildItem cmdlet to navigate wiki pages backed with a REST API.

Yes it's a learning curve to move beyond treating it like just another shell but the benefits especially the collaborative benefits make it worth the time.

Plus you add in the concepts of splatting and you can have clean elegant functions that not only keep things readable and easily updatable, but can be universally understand by anyone windows, mac, or linux that understands PowerShell.

Your reliance on aliasing isolates you from a huge part of the PowerShell Community and I personally think that's a mistake.

[Demn]

Hey Chris, Just wanted to talk on the powershell 5 and powershell 7 differences. Microsoft specifically made powershell 5 and 7 different because older versions of windows cannot accept 7. But more than that there are commands in 5 and not in 7 that are needed in older versions of windows. So 7 is its own stand alone thing.

[alanelston]

If you are new to PowerShell you may be slightly confused with the use of the word Alias in this video. Usually when you learn PowerShell you will come across Aliases as meaning the pre available shortened versions of commands and CmdLets.
The things Chris is talking about would normally be referred to as functions or custom commands (Custom CmdLets) when learning PowerShell.
But it’s all down to the same basic thing in the end: Having available a short cut or abbreviation.

Often it’s suggested when learning PowerShell to avoid using the (pre available) Aliases. If you do that you may not find PowerShell so convolute and may be not need to use your own (custom) Aliases.
There is a lot of useful stuff in this video, IMO. But you may be advised to avoid it if you are just starting to learn PowerShell, or otherwise you might get in a real muddle with your Aliases and Aliases, Lol. :)

[cantis]

I'm a little baffled by this one, PowerShell isn't bash, making it into bash is? Why not really use the updated Windows Terminal it's far superior and the customization you're doing is supported there as well. Trying to create sudo on windows? Just open an Admin Terminal if you've pinned it then it's a keyboard shortcut to open as admin. Want to edit a file? vsCode not vim, want to install software then use winget at an admin PowerShell prompt, want a new folder ni -I d <foldername> want a new file ni <filename> (ni is a stock alias for new-item) want to edit that file then code <filename>. Don't try and make PowerShell into bash - it isn't.

[alanelston]

Chris, there may be some partial reasoning to the different profile path place thing. (BTW I think you got it the wrong way around). - It is not just different versions.
PS5 is part of the traditional stuff shipped with windows, and sometimes referred to as Windows PowerShell
PS7 is a separate install from the built-in PowerShell. PS7 runs side by side with the built-in version. But PS7 is the new, cross-platform, open-source version.
So it’s not quite just different versions of the same thing.

Alan

[fredrikkacsmarck]

I don't think they forgot about the path but rather the switch from the PS 5.1 and earlier (win-only) and the core/cross platform version. Backward compatibility and all that.

[ThePowerRanger]

Powershell commands are good though, they follow a consistent naming scheme and tell exactly what they are going to do and the official documentation is also really great. I would say Powershell is better than bash. I say most people like bash is because they are familiar with it. I mean how does "touch" mean create a file whereas "new-item", now that makes more sense.

[HumanShield]

The "touch" command doesn't actually do what you say. Well, it does as a side-effect of what it actually does. When you "touch" a file, you actually update it's most-recent-edit timestamp. It also creates the file if it's not already there.

[chaminda]

When someone learned to use PowerShell to some extent, even if they love bash they will eventually understand that PowerShell is much more powerful and consistent you could do so much more with it compared to bash

People who use PowerShell know those verbose outputs and commands make much more sense

Also if you get familiar with aliases for day-to-day use it can be quick

[dusdnd]

Heh? PowerShell looks great and distinctive, on purpose and for value. the Verb-Noun pattern is fantastic because when you search on it... you will find results relevant to PowerShell, not something for Bash or otherwise. You're mostly just searching for criticisms that all have logical explanations. Also, I am a Linux guy... PowerShell is better than Bash, qualitatively. The difference in environment variables is because they literally switched from Windows PowerShell to the open-source and cross-platform PowerShell; they work side-by-side.

[alanelston]

I think perhaps what Chris is doing here might be along similar lines to what you can do in VBA to make Sub routines (other short available codings/ programs) generally available in your coding. In Excel VBA, for example, you put these Sub routines in a Personal macro workbook, then they will generally be available to Call from other Workbooks
I am not sure yet exactly how similar it is, whether for example more than one command line into what he is referring to as his Aliases.
It is interesting, he has sparked my interest to try out these things.

[danishdude]

Linux commands intuitive and smart? Good Lord 🤣🤣🤣

[Lanzetsu]

Thanks! I've been expecting this since the last week when you announced it

[SamSamTutorialMan]

"wget" already IS an alias in powershell for Invoke-WebRequest! I get what you're trying to say but that was literally the worst example you could come up with. lol

[azuroth]

Just a heads up - 'uptime' does not work correctly in Pwsh 7. the ConvertToDateTime step just returns a blank