PowerShell has been out for years now, and in that time it has almost entirely eclipsed the old cmd.exe shell and become increasingly powerful. It's tightly integrated with many core functions of the Windows OS, and can help you script almost any function in Windows. PowerShell hasn't always been the most popular language (though many Windows admins swear by it), but in recent years it has been on a rampaging comeback, aided by a general push to improve developer tooling on Windows with the likes of the new Windows Terminal and WSL.
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But if you're new to Windows, the difference between PowerShell and the Command Line might be a bit opaque. Fundamentally, they're different tools, built for different purposes and for different generations. They're almost entirely different in how they operate, and how they're designed to be used, with PowerShell now by far the more powerful of the two.
With that in mind, let's run through some of the key differences between PowerShell and CMD, and things to be aware of when using them.
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3 Language syntax and functionality
PowerShell isn't just a prettier version of CMD
This is the big, obvious one. PowerShell and cmd.exe operate using a completely different syntax. The command prompt traditionally interprets batch (.bat or .cmd) scripts and some basic system commands. These were often clunky and difficult to write more advanced scripts for. The kind of extensible, interoperable, and dynamic PowerShell scripts we now enjoy would be difficult at best to build in batch. This is a legacy issue - batch scripting has been around in some form since MS-DOS.
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In contrast, PowerShell's syntax is built on top of .NET, which, despite not being the most 'in vogue' framework out there, is extremely powerful within a Windows environment. It's designed from the ground up for automation within Windows, and has extensive APIs and hooks into the OS. The benefit of this is that the underlying framework is separate from the interface, allowing PowerShell developers to operate on a contained API with safeguards in place, instead of trying to deal with the unwieldy WinAPI directly.
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Another key difference between the two tools is how they interact with other software. CMD outputs text (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, Bash also outputs plain text), whereas PowerShell outputs .NET Objects. This has some up and down sides, as interoperability within tools built for PowerShell is easier, and tools can more easily absorb output from other tools without needing to parse text (or handle verbosity in things like JSON). This aids automation, and is a gateway into more complex system administration on Windows (though you'll often see PowerShell tools stray pretty far from the KISS philosophy of a lot of good Unix tools). However, it can make viewing some output more difficult, and the formatting can be a bit odd.
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2 Cross-platform support
PowerShell on Linux wouldn't have sounded like a joke a decade ago
While it's not a hugely popular option, a huge difference between PowerShell and the command prompt is that PowerShell is interoperable with macOS and Linux. The underlying framework for PowerShell (.NET Core) is cross-platform by default, making it far easier for PowerShell to be developed with cross-platform support in mind. This wasn't always the case - cross platform support was only added with PowerShell Core 6, but modern versions of PowerShell should work relatively seamlessly across environments.
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CMD was only ever originally developed with Windows support in mind, and many of its features are deeply tied to Windows specific components within the operating system. The progress of PowerShell here reflects a wider architectural change between CMD and PowerShell, where PowerShell is largely built on top of .NET Core underneath, while CMD often relies directly on WinAPI.
The story behind how the PowerShell team both open-sourced PowerShell and brought cross-platform support to it is an interesting story of refactoring an older code base, and has been written about in a blog post from 2016.
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1 PowerShell is open-source (partly)
Community oriented development has made a world of difference for Microsoft
Source: Github
CMD represents a tool of the past for Microsoft, as a closed source, proprietary tool which they've controlled the development of for years. PowerShell, however, is part of a departure over the last decade from the Microsoft of the past. There is an increasing focus on building open-source, widely supported platforms to aid the community as a whole, instead of building a walled garden for Windows. This has involved everything from VS Code to F#, TypeScript, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
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PowerShell is no exception here, and its development of PowerShell Core is openly tracked on GitHub (also now owned by Microsoft, taking this effort a step further). This allows the community not only to contribute to and help steer the development of PowerShell, but also makes it a far more dependable tool to build on top of. Previous versions will always remain available, as will support from the community. This is in contrast to CMD, which never felt like a platform designed with modern developers in mind (and to be fair, it wasn't).
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The benefits of PowerShell moving to an open-source license like this include better community support, community input on development direction, a common platform for bug reports and discussion, not to mention the ability of the community to easily contribute. This model has been very successful for Microsoft over the last decade, and I hope to see them continue prioritizing open, community-oriented development, especially for tools built for developers or power users. Even the likes of PowerToys is open-source!
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PowerShell is a huge improvement over CMD, and getting better all the time
CMD was a tool of its era, and is now clearly outdated on Windows (and has been for years). Microsoft has been making huge strides to improve this, both with the introduction of the WSL which is a great addition for developers, and the ever improving capabilities of PowerShell, which is more oriented towards system administrators and automators.
PowerShell is getting better all the time, and Microsoft seems to really care about its development. You really shouldn't be using CMD in 2024 if you can avoid it, and learning PowerShell is a great way to start feeling a little more powerful when you sit down at a Windows PC.
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