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I'm wanting the same functionality within PowerShell that where.exe gives me.

I've tried to find a cmdlet alternative to the standard where executable but can't find anything.

So by default, I resulted into trying to execute the where command within PowerShell but there is an Alias mapped to that command.

PS C:\> Get-Command where

CommandType     Name                                           Version    Source
-----------     ----                                           -------    ------
Alias           where -> Where-Object

Is there a way to execute where within PowerShell or is there a better way to achieve the same result?

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4
  • 1
    Get-Command notepad -CommandType Application Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 9:15
  • Get-Command doesn't work for searching Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 9:21
  • 1
    You can execute where.exe (or any executable) within powershell like so: & where.exe, e.g. & where.exe /R C:\Windows notepad.exe Commented Dec 11, 2017 at 12:03
  • @GarethLyons I do not think the & character is need in a case like this. Commented Dec 11, 2017 at 13:41

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
10

Of course, if you do not wish to remove the where alias which points to Where-Object, you can type .exe (typing . followed by the TAB key is enough), as in:

where.exe notepad

Otherwise, have you tried Get-Command (alias gcm) with the -All parameter (PowerShell 3 and later)? For example:

gcm notepad -All

on my machine, gives:

CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Application     notepad.exe                                        10.0.10... C:\Windows\system32\notepad.exe
Application     notepad.exe                                        10.0.10... C:\Windows\notepad.exe

And it will find PowerShell things as well, as in the example gcm where -All which gives:

CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Alias           where -> Where-Object
Application     where.exe                                          10.0.10... C:\Windows\system32\where.exe

If you do want to remove the "standard" alias, use Remove-Item alias:where (can by put in a profile file if you want it done at each start-up of PowerShell).

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1 Comment

:thumbsup: for noting that you can execute where by including the .exe extension
5

I would not remove the existing where alias since this would cause scripts you might use to fail. Instead you could define a new alias for it:

Set-Alias -Name "wherecli" -Value "where.exe"

And then you can use wherecli.

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3 Comments

Ah, yeah good workaround! Is it possible to just set an Alias for a given session? Thanks
The cmdlet sets the alias only for the current session ;-)
Just seen that, Doh!
2

I've found a workaround with just the Get-ChildItem and Where-Object but this seems slower than where.exe but thought I'd list it as depending what you're searching it might be useful.

PS C:\> Get-ChildItem -Path "c:\Windows\" -Recurse -File | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq "notepad.exe"}
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1 Comment

Using the Filter param should be quicker than piping to where-object: Get-ChildItem -Path "c:\Windows\" -Recurse -File -Filter 'notepad.exe' Although not sure how it compares to where.exe

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