Windows PowerShell™ Scripting Guide

Introducing Cmdlets

In addition to using traditional programs and commands from the Cmd.exe command interpreter, you can also use the cmdlets that are built into Windows PowerShell. Cmdlet is a name created by the Windows PowerShell team to describe these native commands. They are like executable programs but because they take advantage of the facilities built into Windows PowerShell, they are easy to write. They are not scripts, which are uncompiled code, because they are built using the services of a special Microsoft .NET Framework namespace. Because of their different nature, the Windows PowerShell team came up with the new term cmdlet. Windows PowerShell comes with more than 120 cmdlets designed to assist network administrators and consultants ...