Post: "help" on learning about, researching and finding commands

content/posts/help.md

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+title = "Help"
+date = "2022-04-19T10:44:28-05:00"
+author = "Xevion"
+description = "Stuck? Lost? Not sure how to find anything out? Find out here."
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+
+Information on acquiring information about Cmdlets and using the help system effectively.
+
+---
+
+To acquire information on a command or subject, use the `Get-Help [Cmdlet]` command. The `man` and `help` aliases are available, but note that
+they automatically pipe to `More` for improved viewing.
+
+You can use the `-online` flag to browse the help documentation online.
+
+> In order to view documentation on commands, you will need to update documentation for powershell.
+> This can easily be done using `Update-Help`, but you need to be running in administrator to do this.
+> I personally recommend using `-Force` to 'assist' some modules into updating.
+
+Note that there are options for updating help, take a look at `Save-Help` and `Update-Help -SourcePath` to do this.
+
+
+
+### Finding Commands
+
+In the search for a specific command, you can use _wildcards_ to make it easy. The wildcard character matches
+searches for 0 or more characters; thus if you place `*` in front of `event` and search for it: `help *event`,
+you'll find it matching anything that ends with `event` in the subject's name, regardless of what comes before it.
+
+However, `Get-Help` searches for _help topics_, _modules_ that may or may not exist for every command (while they most likely do, it's not 100%).
+Furthermore, your results could be polluted by topics you aren't interested in; if you strictly want commands, `Get-Command` is your friend.
+
+Do note though: while `Get-Command` supports wildcard, you should use the `-Noun` and `-Verb` parameters to make sure
+no external commands are returned (Only Cmdlets have _nouns_ or _verbs_). Another way is with the `-Type` parameter, (i.e. `-Type Cmdlet`).
+
+### Potential Usages
+
+```powershell
+Get-Help [Subject]
+help [Subject]
+man [Subject]
+Get-Help [Subject] | More
+help [Subject] -online  # Open the help documentation online, in the browser   
+[Cmdlet] -?
+help *event*
+help Get-Event -Full  # Include all information on the subject at once
+help Get-Service -Examples   # Look at examples for the given command
+help Get-Service -Parameter ComputerName   # Look at information on specific parameter
+help gsv -ShowWindow   # Present the help information in a small window with search, selection and scrolling
+Get-Command -Noun *event -Verb Get  # Find all Cmdlets that end with "Event" and use "Get" as their verbx
+gcm -Noun *event* -Type Cmdlet  # Find all Cmdlets that end with "Event"
+```