Lesson 9 – File Management Tasks

Create New Folders & Files

Once can navigate file system, add file management Cmdlets

• To create a new Folder, Type:

New-Item -Path MyNewFolder -ItemType Directory

• To create a new, empty file, Type:

New-Item -Path “TestFile1.txt” -ItemType file

• To create several new files, Type:

New-Item -Path “TestFile2.txt”,”TestFile3.txt”,”TestFile4.txt” -ItemType file

• To create a new file with some content, Type:

New-Item -Path TestFileWithContent.txt -ItemType file -Value “This is my file content”

Rename, Copy, & Move Files

Rename

• To rename a file, Type:

Rename-Item -Path TestFile1.txt -NewName TestFileOne.txt

Copy

• To copy one file, Type:

Copy-Item -Path TestFile2.txt -Destination .\Copies\

• To copy many files, Type:

Copy-Item -Path .\Test-Files\* -Destination .\Copies\

Move

Move-Item -Path TestFile3.txt -Destination ~\Downloads\

Working with Nested Folders & Files

The file Cmdlets will work with ONLY the First Level of a folder

You can include all nested items, with a “Recurse” parameter

• To list the direct contents of a folder:

LS Temp

• To list the contents INCLUDING all children folders:

LS Temp -Recurse

This works with other file Cmdlets, like Copy

To Copy ALL the contents, of all subfolders – use the -Recurse parameter

• Copy the only the FIRST level, Type:

Copy-Item -Path C:\Users\lenny\Documents\Temp\ -Destination .\Copies\

• Copy ALL levels under a path, Type:

Copy-Item -Path C:\Users\lenny\Documents\Temp -Destination .\Copies\ -Recurse

Delete Files & Folders

BIG WARNING!!!!!

This Cmdlet bypasses the Recycle Bin

You won’t be able to undo these deletes

• To delete a file, Type:

Remove-Item -Path TestFile3.txt

• To Delete a Folder, AND all it contents

Remove-Item -Path Copies

Can also – add the -Recurse parameter to avoid the prompt

Use the Cmdlets – to Organize Files

Example of using file Cmdlets to organize a folder

Get list of extensions

• To get a list of file extension in a folder, Type:

LS | Select Extension | Sort -Property Extension -Unique

• To create a new Folder for Each Extension Type:

New-Item -Path "doc","ppt","txt","xls" -ItemType Directory

• To, move Files into Folders – Based on Extension Type:

LS "*doc" -File | Move-Item -Destination .\doc

LS "*ppt" -File | Move-Item -Destination .\ppt

LS "*txt" -File | Move-Item -Destination .\txt

LS "*xls" -File | Move-Item -Destination .\xls

• To confirm the files are now in the correct folders, Type:

LS . -Recurse

Note: there are other ways to do “repeatable” commands – using Loops

will explore MUCH more in Intermediate class

Quick Example using Test-Files2