Powershell Vs CMD, The Things You Should Know

Powershell Vs CMD

In this digital era, you might feel that some developments seem faster than the previous period. It is due to the improvement of human’s capability in interacting and managing the computer system. For example, when someone takes a step backward via command-line interfaces (CLI). They adjust the task to get the new result as they want. One of the methods is by using Powershell, task automation and scripting language from Microsoft. While people are talking about it, usually CMD is involved inside the discussion. For further understanding, thus this article will show you about Powershell vs CMD.

Someone named Ed Wilson defined Powershell in a simple concept. He said that Powershell is an interactive object-oriented command environment by using scripting language features called cmdlets. On the other hand, CMD (Command Prompt) is an application to interpret a command line in the Windows Operating System. Based on both concepts, you probably already got the main point. To make it clearer, let’s see more about Powershell vs CMD below:

Powershell Vs CMD

1. Powershell is More Advanced


Powershell is bigger than you think. So, if you try to compare Powershell with CMD is something like facing the apple to the lychee. We are talking about the scripting environment and an application here. If you are creating complex scripts to manage the system, using Powershell is easier than CMD. Even though CMD is also able to solve several Windows issues and do some tasks, such as perform an advanced function, doing troubleshooting, and command automate tasks through scripts and batch files.

2. Different Commands

Another thing that differs Powershell with CMD is the command usage. As we mentioned above, Powershell is using cmdlets that cannot be accessed by the CMD. Powershell cmdlets are working very well in many administrative tasks, such as managing the registry to Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). While, on the other hand, you must enter the right syntax. Once it is misspelling can cause a failure or worse result. Thus, you should be more aware of the language here.

3. Operating System

People know that Powershell is strongly integrated with Microsoft. Most of its products, like Office 365 or Server 2016, can only deal with Powershell. However, CMD is also available in several Windows Operating Systems, such as Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.

4. Scoop of Environment

As we told you before, both Powershell and CMD are about the environment. Powershell uses pipes as Linux does. You are able to pass one cmdlet to another cmdlet input. Thus, you can do multiple cmdlets to work the same data. But, the CMD is an environment from Windows. It copies all DOS commands which you can find on a DOS system. That is why CMD is not wide and cannot deal with complicated scripts.

5. Time to Use

If you are comfortable using CMD, then just go with it. But as you know that CMD doesn’t fit for complicated work. While using Powershell allows you to deal with any work, because what you do with CMD can be done by Powershell too. Most of the system administrators are using Powershell so their work becomes more efficient.

Those are a glance about Powershell vs CMD you should know. Whether you choose Powershell or CMD, both of them are useful. It just depends on your working scoop and the result you want.