Get-Member is an essential command for discovering more about a PowerShell objects. Because you are at the command line, you cannot right-click an object and check its properties;
instead, what you can do is
type: Get-ObjectXYZ | Get-Member.
PowerShell is sometimes referred to as a self-describing language. Indeed, it is thanks to Get-Member that we can see the properties and methods associated with any given
object.
The reason that I use Get-Member at every opportunity is so that I can discover 'handles', which help me achieve a particular scripting task. These 'handles' or memberTypes are split into methods and properties. Suitable objects to
learn more about
Get-Member include, service, process, eventlog, or WmiObject.
Here are three examples to illustrate my research technique:
Get-Service # Results: A long list of Windows services
Get-Service | Get-Member # Result: A comprehensive list of properties
and methods
Get-Service messenger | Get-Member # Reveals more properties specific
to the messenger service
Try judicious use of 'tab' and invoke Auto-completion, for example try,
Get-p [Tab]. If you press tab
again PowerShell cycles through commands beginning with Get-p, for example Get-Process, Get-PSDrive
Employing Get-Member is a useful tactic in the bigger game of
scripting specific properties. For example, if your goal is to stop, or to start a service, then you need to investigate the
scripting properties, and possible values, for that service. A
little research with Get-Member will reveal a property called 'Status',
with values of 'Running' or 'Stopped' - perfect for our task.
Naturally, the phrase Get-Member never varies, a case of learn once and
apply to many objects. Just remember the hyphen, and also remember
that there are no spaces in verb-Noun pairs.
Troubleshooting Get-Member
Correct Syntax: Get-Member
Incorrect Syntax: get member (no hyphen), or get -Member or even Get- member (spaces)
As I mentioned earlier, when you use Get-Member in conjunction with other
commands such as Get-ObjectXYZ, remember the 'Pipe' or 'Pipeline' symbol.
This vertical line | is ASCII 124, but looks like this at the PS Prompt
¦
Correct Sequence: Get-ObjectXYZ | Get-Member
Incorrect Syntax: Get-Member | Get-ObjectXYZ (Get Member should
receive the output) Trap: Get-Member Get-ObjectXYZ (Forgot the pipe |)
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# PowerShell's Get-Member with WMI classes Get-WmiObject
Win32_processor | Get-Member
Note 1: Get-Member is even more useful with WmiObject because
its object classes vary more than objects such as Service, Process or Eventlog.
In the above example Win32_processor is the WMI class.
Try aliases, for example gwmi for Get-WmiObject. Many people use
the alias 'gm'
instead of the full cmdlet: 'Get-Member'.
Get-Process | Get-Member
Get-Eventlog system | Get-Member
Note 2: Get-Eventlog | Get-Member would be incorrect. If you don't tell PowerShell which eventlog you want, the command does not complete.
The log in the above example is 'System', you could substitute 'Security'
or 'Application'. For a full list try: Get-Eventlog -List.
Results from the simple command: Get-Member, may produce too many MemberTypes; if so, then you can filter the output with
a -Membertype argument, for example:
Appreciate that the results of the parameter -MemberType are grouped into at least four categories: AliasProperty, Method, Property and ScriptProperty. Once you have researched -MemberType, you may see
new applications for the properties that it reveals, for example
Get-Process | group company
Strictly speaking, the above command should be, 'group-Object company', however, 'group-Object' has an alias,
thus you can shorten the command to plain 'group'.
Here is a method for expanding the company information:
Get-Process | sort company | ft -group company name, description -auto
Note 3: ft is an alias for Format-Table.
Incidentally, this whole page of -Member examples gives valuable experience of when to use the hyphen - also called
a dash, and sometimes referred to as a minus sign. For example -Membertype takes the hyphen prefix, whereas property, as in -Membertype property does not need any prefix.
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With Microsoft, there are always at least
three ways of doing everything, what seems like redundancy when you are an
expert, seems like perspective when you are a beginner. One obvious
example is that you can abbreviate Format-Table to ft. As you increase
your range of PowerShell commands, keep an eye out for another
PowerShell Alias, for example gci (Get-Childitem).
For a complete list of filters
supported by the
Get-Member command, call for help thus:
# Help for PowerShell Get-Member Get-Help Get-Member -full
This may be just me, but I have the urge to call this -method instead of -Member. I mention this because you always learn more from
mistakes. The answer lies in, a) Reading the error message! b) Trying an example you know works, for example, I was trying this:
Here is a mistake that I made:
Get-WmiObject
win32_computersystem | Get-method
When I read the error message it said: 'Get-method is not recognised'. Hmmm... I thought, let me try an old friend the process object.
When I tried
Get-Process | Get-method
and this also failed, I realized that I was having a 'senior moment'.
Fortunately I woke up and read the error message slowly. 'Get-method is not recognised'. Ah ha, Get-method is what's wrong,
why don't I try Get-Member. Perfect, it worked just as I wanted. Thank you error message.
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Remember that
Get-Help and Get-Member are
complimentary. On the one hand, Get-Help will disclose information about parameters or switches that you can employ with your command, for example -recurse with Get-Childitem -path and -pattern with Select-String.
On the other hand, Get-Member will disclose the properties and methods, for example .extension .fullname both of which are useful with Get-Childitem. My point is that
Get-Help and Get-Member each provide different
information; they are complimentary rather than interchangeable. If you are complete beginner, investigate both
Get-Help and Get-Member; when you are an intermediate don't get fixated on one, and
forget all about the other.
When you need to investigate the methods and properties available to a PowerShell object, then call for Get-Member. You will soon get used
to its hyphen and associated 'Pipe' symbol (|), just remember the
correct sequence: Get-ObjectXYZ | Get-Member.
If you like this page then please share it with your friends
Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is
most useful for PowerShell scripting.
SolarWinds
have produced this
Free WMI Monitor to take the guess work out of which
WMI counters to use for applications like Microsoft Active Directory,
SQL or Exchange Server.
Try judicious use of 'tab' and invoke Auto-completion, for example try,
Get-p [Tab]. If you press tab
again PowerShell cycles through commands beginning with Get-p, for example Get-Process, Get-PSDrive
