> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://cajac.gitbook.io/ctf-notes/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://cajac.gitbook.io/ctf-notes/prog/powershell/get-help-on-cmdlets.md).

# Get help on cmdlets

## Get standard help

To get standard help for the `Get-Process` cmdlet you can

```powershell
Get-Process -?
help Get-Process
man Get-Process
Get-Help Get-Process
```

`Help` is a built-in function that is essentially a wrapper around the `Get-Help` cmdlet with *interactive paging*. This is the preferred way of getting help.

`man` is just an alias for `help`.

## Get examples

To get examples for the `Get-Process` cmdlet you can

```powershell
Help Get-Process -Examples
```

## Get full help

You can get full help on `Get-Process` with

```powershell
Help Get-Process -Full
```

## Get help on parameter

You can get help on a specific parameter of a specific cmdlet

```powershell
Help Get-ChildItem -Parameter Filter
```

## Get online help

To get referred to the online help for `Get-Process`

```powershell
Help get-process -Online
```

## Working with help files

To update the local help files from Microsoft online (requires an elevated session)

```powershell
Update-Help
```

To download and save the help files

```powershell
Save-Help -DestinationPath D:\Downloads\
```

The result will be a large number of `xml` and `cab` files.

You can later use/load these help files with the following command (requires an elevated session)

```powershell
Update-Help -SourcePath D:\path\to\files -Module * -Force
```

## Resources

**Get-Help** - Microsoft Learn: <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/get-help?view=powershell-5.1>

**Save-Help** - Microsoft Learn: <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/save-help?view=powershell-5.1>

**Update-Help** - Microsoft Learn: <https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/update-help?view=powershell-5.1>