Remember those days when systems used to boot with a floppy drive and we had to punch in few commands to get to the desktop screen? Eventually that C:\> got swapped with a decent GUI looks and now we can boot directly from the Hard Drive. That command prompt (CMD) lived on for decades and still a very useful tool for system administrators and programmers. Back in 2006, Microsoft introduced a new application (PowerShell) which looks similar to command prompt and may replace CMD. This application was introduced with Windows 7 which turned out to be a more powerful command-line shell and scripting language than the Command Prompt. PowerShell has become more prominent and the default choice in Windows 10 users. They look similar though there are a lot of differences between PowerShell and CMD. Here is a comparison between both the powerful applications.
Comparison | PowerShell | Command Prompt |
Definition | Windows PowerShell is the new Microsoft command shell that joins the functionality of the old CMD with a new scripting/cmdlet instruction. It has a built-in system administration functionality for an effective command line. PowerShell cmdlets enable administrators and users to program complex tasks with reusable scripts. System administrators can save a substantial amount of time by completing administrative tasks with PowerShell. | Windows Command Prompt, (CMD) is the base shell for MS-DOS. CMD was known as the default command shell until Microsoft discovered PowerShell as the primary option with Windows 10. CMD can be considered as the last fragments of (MS-DOS) that is replaced by Microsoft in Windows 10. |
PowerShell is designed by Microsoft for task automation and Windows framework for configuration management, based on command line shell and other associated script languages. | CMD is a command line interpreter on Windows NT, Windows CE, OS/2 and eComStation operating systems. | |
Features | PowerShell has added features and enhancements. | CMD command line was never upgraded with new features. |
Superset of CMD with added functionality. | CMD is a baseline product but is considered to be the first set of the command line. | |
Usage | PowerShell is designed to control & automate the administrative tasks of Window OS. It is also used by the administrators to manage other applications. | CMD is mainly used to execute a given command on the console and can be used to debug a problem as well. |
Complexity | PowerShell is more complicated. | CMD is easy to use. |
Function | PowerShell can pass and return objects structure data with methods, events, and properties to another command. | CMD has limitations to such functions. |
PowerShell has the power to trigger CMD or call an external program or a new program. It has direct access to all of the .NET, easy access to COM, C#, F#, and other .NET languages. | CMD produces simple text and runs short of advanced functionality. | |
PowerShell can be integrated with the .NET framework at runtime. | CMD doesn’t come with such an option. | |
PowerShell is an object-oriented shell/programming language that processes objects. | CMD is string oriented and an antiquated CLI that mainly executes console programs of your file system and processes the output they provide as text. | |
PowerShell can interpret both batch commands and PowerShell commands. | You can’t run PowerShell cmdlets in CMD. CMD can only interpret batch commands. | |
PowerShell is much more powerful and allows modern and sound scripting. | CMD is like an old school program which is limited to file management commands. | |
PowerShell is designed for program automation. | CMD is designed for file management and batch files made from the same commands. | |
PowerShell is mostly used by system administrators to perform administrative tasks. | CMD interacts with the user programs and performs tasks according to user-issued commands. | |
PowerShell can execute all kinds of program and can produce results as Object OR Text. | CMD can produce only text as an output. | |
Inventor | PowerShell is developed by James Truher. | CMD was developed by Therese Stowell. |
Example of Commands | Set-Location’ – to change the directory, ‘Get-ChildItem’ – to list out the file. | CD’ – to change the directory, ‘DIR’ to list out the files in the directory. |
Also Read: Use Command Prompt Like A Pro – All About Command Prompt
Conclusion
Now as we know, PowerShell and CMD both are very useful and powerful tools, though PowerShell is a new product of Microsoft. We have already compared and listed out differences between PowerShell and CMD which proves that PowerShell is a more powerful command line interface than as compared with CMD. CMD is an old product of Microsoft with a basic set of command line interface and a limited set of functionalities. PowerShell is a new generation product which is more efficient and productive as it consists of additional features than regular CMD. Those who use CMD regularly shall try PowerShell and explore a new set of the command line to execute new tasks.
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