Working with files and folders - PowerShell (2024)

Navigating through PowerShell drives and manipulating the items on them is similar to manipulatingfiles and folders on Windows disk drives. This article discusses how to deal with specific file andfolder manipulation tasks using PowerShell.

Listing all files and folders within a folder

You can get all items directly within a folder using Get-ChildItem. Add the optional Forceparameter to display hidden or system items. For example, this command displays the direct contentsof PowerShell Drive C:.

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Force

The command lists only the directly contained items, much like using the dir command in cmd.exeor ls in a UNIX shell. To show items in subfolder, you need to specify the Recurse parameter.The following command lists everything on the C: drive:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Force -Recurse

Get-ChildItem can filter items with its Path, Filter, Include, and Excludeparameters, but those are typically based only on name. You can perform complex filtering based onother properties of items using Where-Object.

The following command finds all executables within the Program Files folder that were last modifiedafter October 1, 2005 and that are neither smaller than 1 megabyte nor larger than 10 megabytes:

Get-ChildItem -Path $env:ProgramFiles -Recurse -Include *.exe | Where-Object -FilterScript { ($_.LastWriteTime -gt '2005-10-01') -and ($_.Length -ge 1mb) -and ($_.Length -le 10mb) }

Copying files and folders

Copying is done with Copy-Item. The following command backs up your PowerShell profile script:

if (Test-Path -Path $PROFILE) { Copy-Item -Path $PROFILE -Destination $($PROFILE -replace 'ps1$', 'bak')}

The Test-Path command checks whether the profile script exists.

If the destination file already exists, the copy attempt fails. To overwrite a pre-existingdestination, use the Force parameter:

if (Test-Path -Path $PROFILE) { Copy-Item -Path $PROFILE -Destination $($PROFILE -replace 'ps1$', 'bak') -Force}

This command works even when the destination is read-only.

Folder copying works the same way. This command copies the folder C:\temp\test1 to the new folderC:\temp\DeleteMe recursively:

Copy-Item C:\temp\test1 -Recurse C:\temp\DeleteMe

You can also copy a selection of items. The following command copies all .txt files containedanywhere in C:\data to C:\temp\text:

Copy-Item -Filter *.txt -Path c:\data -Recurse -Destination C:\temp\text

You can still run native commands like xcopy.exe and robocopy.exe to copy files.

Creating files and folders

Creating new items works the same on all PowerShell providers. If a PowerShell provider has morethan one type of item—for example, the FileSystem PowerShell provider distinguishes betweendirectories and files—you need to specify the item type.

This command creates a new folder C:\temp\New Folder:

New-Item -Path 'C:\temp\New Folder' -ItemType Directory

This command creates a new empty file C:\temp\New Folder\file.txt

New-Item -Path 'C:\temp\New Folder\file.txt' -ItemType File

Removing all files and folders within a folder

You can remove contained items using Remove-Item, but you will be prompted to confirm theremoval if the item contains anything else. For example, if you attempt to delete the folderC:\temp\DeleteMe that contains other items, PowerShell prompts you for confirmation beforedeleting the folder:

Remove-Item -Path C:\temp\DeleteMe

ConfirmThe item at C:\temp\DeleteMe has children and the Recurse parameter wasn'tspecified. If you continue, all children will be removed with the item. Are yousure you want to continue?[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help(default is "Y"):

If you don't want to be prompted for each contained item, specify the Recurse parameter:

Remove-Item -Path C:\temp\DeleteMe -Recurse

Mapping a local folder as a drive

You can also map a local folder, using the New-PSDrive command. The following command creates alocal drive P: rooted in the local Program Files directory, visible only from the PowerShellsession:

New-PSDrive -Name P -Root $env:ProgramFiles -PSProvider FileSystem

Just as with network drives, drives mapped within PowerShell are immediately visible to thePowerShell shell. To create a mapped drive visible from File Explorer, use the Persistparameter. However, only remote paths can be used with Persist.

Reading a text file into an array

One of the more common storage formats for text data is in a file with separate lines treated asdistinct data elements. The Get-Content cmdlet can be used to read an entire file in one step,as shown here:

Get-Content -Path $PROFILE# Load modules and change to the PowerShell-Docs repository folderImport-Module posh-gitSet-Location C:\Git\PowerShell-Docs

Get-Content treats the data read from the file as an array, with one element per line of filecontent. You can confirm this by checking the Length of the returned content:

PS> (Get-Content -Path $PROFILE).Length3

This command is most useful for getting lists of information into PowerShell. For example, you mightstore a list of computer names or IP addresses in the file C:\temp\domainMembers.txt, with onename on each line of the file. You can use Get-Content to retrieve the file contents and put themin the variable $Computers:

$Computers = Get-Content -Path C:\temp\DomainMembers.txt

$Computers is now an array containing a computer name in each element.