Most of you must have used the command prompt at some point in time – whether just for the sake of trying out an experiment or fixing an issue like recovering the data after getting affected by a shortcut virus. But, what about PowerShell which came into existence later? What is the difference between PowerShell and cmd?
Well, I’m sure – unless you are a power user with programming knowledge, you won’t have even bothered opening the PowerShell. But, can it be used as a replacement for the command prompt? Is it only for the programmers or is it easy to get acquainted with?
We have got everything you need to know about both of them. To keep things easy, we will not dive deep into the roots of how they are different but only the significant difference between PowerShell vs cmd will be highlighted in this article to help you choose which one to utilize.
1. Command Prompt
The command prompt is a command-line interpreter. It exists on Windows since the introduction of Windows 95. At that time, it wasn’t called the – “Command Prompt” but just “cmd.exe” which let users interact with the operating system via certain commands. And, then with Windows NT, it was dubbed as – “Command Prompt”.
Well, in theory, it was almost the same as COMMAND.COM (or popularly known as MS-DOS) with a lot of improvements on board.
While the command prompt was technically a shell but it had a lot of drawbacks. First, the shell could not help automate all facets of GUI functionality. Second, it did not support the creation of complex scripts.
To overcome the disadvantages of the command prompt, Microsoft started developing a shell called Monad, which was a lot more powerful than command prompt (could perform a variety of core administrative tasks which CMD couldn’t).
Later, in the year – 2006 – it was renamed to Microsoft PowerShell. And, recently (in 2016), the PowerShell was made open-source with cross-platform support.
The technical differences would only matter to someone who wants to manage and automate certain tasks by interacting with the OS via a command-line interface. If you have no idea what a programming language is – knowing the technical differences won’t help you.
PowerShell uses a different set of commands known as cmdlets. You can try controlling a lot of system administration tasks with it. However, you can’t access the same via command prompt. PowerShell also lets you utilize – ”Pipes” – which is just a way to easily facilitate the transfer of information from one program to another – this makes PowerShell even more powerful.
Also, as stated above, with PowerShell, you can create complex scripts but that’s not going to happen with the command prompt.
In a nutshell, PowerShell is an improved command-line environment when compared to the command prompt.
CMD vs Powershell: Commands
If you are going to utilize either of them most of the time, you should take a good look at their documentation here:
If you simply want to know the basic difference in their commands, then here’s that:
When you observe a command like cd / dir / rename (one word commands), that’s command prompt for you. That’s why it still is the easiest command-line tool.
However, with Powershell, you will get the commands to be more expressive (describing about their working), like:
Set-Location / Get-children / Rename-item
Windows PowerShell vs Command Prompt: Which One Should You Be Using?
Considering that PowerShell is a lot more advanced command-line environment, it is only suitable for Windows system administrators.
If you know about creating scripts, managing automated administration tasks in Windows, and want more extensibility doing that – then PowerShell is for you. In addition, if you know about C# programming language, that would perfectly do the job.
However, if you are not a programmer and have got no idea what system administrators do – you should stick to Command Prompt. It is not going to be obsolete. The command prompt will still be used by a lot of users (including the programmers) to carry out less-advanced but important things – like cleaning your hard drive, converting your drive from GPT to MBR, recovering from a shortcut virus and so on.
You wouldn’t want to use PowerShell if you are looking to fix minor issues or to simply check your ping details.
Now that you know about the difference between PowerShell and CMD, you can choose anyone you’d like according to the task you want to achieve. There’s nothing superior or inferior among the two, it all comes down to what a user wants.
Still, confused about how PowerShell differs from the Command Prompt? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.
Wengi wenu lazima wametumia amri ya haraka wakati fulani katika wakati <unk> kama tu kwa ajili ya kujaribu nje ya majaribio au kurekebisha suala kama kuokoa data baada ya kupata walioathiriwa na virusi shortcut. Lakini, nini kuhusu PowerShell ambayo alikuja katika kuwepo baadaye? Ni nini tofauti kati ya PowerShell na cmd? Naam, mimi nina uhakika <unk> isipokuwa wewe ni mtumiaji nguvu na ujuzi wa programu, wewe si hata kuwa na wasiwasi kufungua PowerShell. Lakini, inaweza kutumika kama mbadala wa amri ya haraka? Je, ni kwa ajili ya waandaaji wa programu tu au ni rahisi kufahamiana nayo? Tuna kila kitu unachohitaji kujua juu yao wawili. Ili kuweka mambo rahisi, hatutakuwa kuzama ndani ya mizizi ya jinsi wao ni tofauti lakini tu tofauti kubwa kati ya PowerShell vs CMD itakuwa highlighted katika makala hii kukusaidia kuchagua ambayo moja ya kutumia. 1. Uwe na mtazamo wa kweli Amri ya haraka Amri ya haraka ni tafsiri ya mstari wa amri. Ni moja ya mifumo ya Windows ambayo imewekwa kwenye Windows 95 tangu kuanzishwa kwa Windows 95. Wakati huo, haikuitwa <unk> <unk>Command Prompt<unk> lakini tu <unk>cmd.exe<unk> ambayo kuruhusu watumiaji kuingiliana na mfumo wa uendeshaji kupitia amri fulani. Na, kisha na Windows NT, ilikuwa dubbed kama <unk> <unk>Command Prompt<unk>. Kwa kweli, kwa nadharia, ilikuwa sawa na COMMAND.COM (au maarufu kama MS-DOS) na maboresho mengi ndani yake. Wakati amri ya haraka ilikuwa kiufundi shell lakini ilikuwa na mapungufu mengi. Kwanza, shell hakuweza kusaidia automatize nyanja zote za utendaji GUI. Pili, haikuunga mkono uumbaji wa maandishi magumu. Ili kushinda hasara ya amri ya haraka, Microsoft alianza kuendeleza shell aitwaye Monad, ambayo ilikuwa nguvu zaidi kuliko amri ya haraka (ingeweza kufanya aina ya kazi ya msingi ya kiutawala ambayo CMD hakuweza). Baadaye, mwaka 2006, ilibadilishwa jina kuwa Microsoft PowerShell. Kwa mfano, katika 2016, PowerShell ilitolewa kwa chanzo wazi na msaada wa msalaba wa jukwaa. Tofauti za kiufundi zitakuwa na maana tu kwa mtu ambaye anataka kusimamia na automatisering kazi fulani kwa kuingiliana na OS kupitia interface ya mstari wa amri. Kama huna wazo nini lugha ya programu ni <unk> kujua tofauti za kiufundi si kukusaidia. PowerShell inatumia seti tofauti ya amri inayojulikana kama cmdlets. Unaweza kujaribu kudhibiti mengi ya kazi ya usimamizi wa mfumo na hayo. Hata hivyo, huwezi kupata sawa kupitia amri ya haraka. PowerShell pia inaruhusu wewe kutumia <unk> <unk>Pipes<unk> <unk> ambayo ni njia tu ya urahisi kuwezesha uhamisho wa habari kutoka programu moja kwa nyingine <unk> hii inafanya PowerShell hata nguvu zaidi. Pia, kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, na PowerShell, unaweza kuunda scripts tata lakini kwamba si kwenda kutokea na amri ya haraka. Kwa ufupi, PowerShell ni kuboreshwa amri-line mazingira wakati ikilinganishwa na amri ya haraka. CMD vs Powershell: Amri Kama wewe ni kwenda kutumia yoyote ya yao zaidi ya muda, unapaswa kuchukua kuangalia nzuri katika nyaraka zao hapa: Kama wewe tu wanataka kujua tofauti ya msingi katika amri zao, basi hapa ni kwamba: Wakati wewe kuchunguza amri kama cd dir rename (neno moja amri /), kwamba ni amri ya haraka kwa ajili yenu. Hiyo ni kwa nini bado ni rahisi amri-line chombo. Hata hivyo, na Powershell, utapata amri kuwa zaidi ya kuelezea (kuelezea kuhusu kazi yao), kama vile: kuweka-mahali kupata-watoto rename- kitu Windows PowerShell dhidi ya amri ya haraka: ambayo moja unapaswa kuwa kutumia? Kwa kuzingatia kwamba PowerShell ni mengi zaidi ya juu amri-line mazingira, ni sahihi tu kwa ajili ya Windows wasimamizi wa mfumo. Kama unajua kuhusu kujenga scripts, kusimamia kazi za utawala wa moja kwa moja katika Windows, na wanataka zaidi extensibility kufanya kwamba <unk> basi PowerShell ni kwa ajili yenu. Kwa kuongezea, ikiwa unajua kuhusu lugha ya programu ya C#, hiyo ingefanya kazi kikamilifu. Hata hivyo, kama wewe si programu na got hakuna wazo nini wasimamizi wa mfumo kufanya <unk> unapaswa kushikamana na amri ya haraka. Haitakuwa ya kizamani. Amri ya haraka bado kutumika na watumiaji wengi (ikiwa ni pamoja na watengenezaji wa programu) kufanya mambo chini ya maendeleo lakini muhimu kama kusafisha diski yako ngumu, kubadilisha gari yako kutoka GPT kwa MBR, kupona kutoka shortcut virusi na kadhalika. Wewe si unataka kutumia PowerShell kama wewe ni kuangalia kurekebisha masuala madogo au tu kuangalia maelezo yako ping. Sasa kwamba unajua kuhusu tofauti kati ya PowerShell na CMD, unaweza kuchagua mtu yeyote ungependa kulingana na kazi unataka kufikia. Hakuna kitu bora au chini kati ya mbili, ni wote inakuja chini ya nini mtumiaji anataka. Bado, kuchanganyikiwa kuhusu jinsi PowerShell inatofautiana na Amri Prompt? Tuambie mawazo yako katika maoni hapa chini.