Exploring the Power of Get-Member in PowerShell

Welcome back to Wahmans PowerShell blog! Today, we’re diving into an incredibly useful cmdlet that every PowerShell user, from beginner to pro, needs to know: Get-Member.

The official Microsoft documentation tells us that Get-Member “gets the properties and methods of objects.” But what does that really mean in practice? In PowerShell, everything is an object, and Get-Member is your magnifying glass into those objects, letting you examine what data and actions are available within them.

Understanding Get-Member

When you run a command in PowerShell, the result is not just some random text — it’s an object with structured data. Get-Member helps you unlock that structure. You can see all available properties, methods, and even object types you’re dealing with. Why is this important? Because knowing what properties you can use or what methods you can call is key to writing powerful and effective scripts.

Example 1: Beginner – Discover Properties of a File

Get-Item "C:\example.txt" | Get-Member

This will show you all the properties and methods available on the FileInfo object returned by Get-Item. You’ll see properties like Length, CreationTime, and methods such as Delete().

Example 2: Intermediate – Inspecting a Process Object

Get-Process | Get-Member

This command lists all properties and methods for each process returned by Get-Process. Extremely useful when you want to know what details (e.g., CPU usage time, ID, name) you can access about running processes.

Example 3: Advanced – Filtering Members by Type

Get-Service | Get-Member -MemberType Property

This filters the output of Get-Member to show only properties, excluding methods, aliases, etc. Combine this with -MemberType Method or NoteProperty to explore more specific details about an object.

Example 4: Power User – Exploring Custom Objects

$user = [PSCustomObject]@{
    FirstName = "Anna"
    LastName  = "Wahman"
    Age       = 30
}

$user | Get-Member

This is an example of analyzing a custom object you’ve created. This is particularly useful in scripts that generate dynamic content and you need to introspect the structure before processing it further.

Final Thoughts

Get-Member is one of the most essential tools in the PowerShell toolbox. Whenever you’re not sure what you’re working with, use Get-Member to inspect the object and figure out what’s possible. It’s key for writing clean, smart scripts.

Happy scripting, and I will see you in the next post!

Wahmans Powershell Blog

Get-Member