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Cmd · Lesson 1 · On the house

cmd vs PowerShell

Know which shell you opened. Lesson 1 is free — on the house.

Lessons · Cmd · Lesson 1 of 10 · On the house

cmd vs PowerShell

Know which shell you opened.

Illustration for Cmd
Lesson 1 is on the house.

cmd.exe is the classic Windows command interpreter; PowerShell is object-based and newer.

Many old batch files and installers still assume cmd syntax and %VAR% expansion.

Prompt clues: C:> often cmd; PS C:> usually PowerShell.

Do not paste PowerShell-only cmdlets into cmd and expect success.

Use the right tool: cmd for legacy batch; PowerShell for modern admin automation.

vs

echo %COMSPEC%
ver
Match this when you type.

Quiz

%COMSPEC% typically points to?

Quiz

PS C:\> usually indicates?

Quiz

Legacy .bat files usually assume?

Quiz

Get-ChildItem in cmd?

Check

Match the still for: cmd vs PowerShell.

Open-book: the answers are on this page. Pass every quiz and check (5) to mark the lesson done. This visit: 0/5.