Windows command prompt help in PowerShell

Question

This comes more or less from idle curiosity. I've been using DOS since the ear;y 80s, and before that CP/M-86. In the past several years, I've pretty much shifted to PowerShell. However, by habit of long standing, I still use the old DOS commands. In the Windows command prompt, I've been typing:

help dir
help dir > dirhelp.txt
help > doshelp.txt

Here's the question, and the answer most probably is, "No." Is there any PowerShell command (or cmd-let) that produces help for Windows commands?

Yeah, I know it's crazy, but inquiring minds want to know. 'gal' is the closest thing I use, but I miss the terse but useful DOS help.

Answer 1

PowerShell has a really good help system that can be used in a few different ways, I tend to use a combination of them methods below:

Get all PowerShell cmdlets:
Get-Command

Find all cmdlets with help:
Get-Command "*help*

Find help with specific cmdlets:
Get-Help Get-ChildItem

Find cmdlets with Aliases:
Get-Alias

You can even do things like:
Get-Help Dir -Examples or Get-Help Dir -Online

Hope this helps!

Nice Article for some further reading:
https://www.darkoperator.com/blog/2013/1/15/powershell-basicsusing-the-help-subsystem.html

Answer 2

This should give you the output you'd expect from running help in cmd.exe even when run in PowerShell. If that's what you're asking for?

help.exe dir
help.exe dir > dirhelp.txt
help.exe > doshelp.txt

Answer 3

Short answer: No. Snarky answer: Sure - the command is

start-process "http://www.mdgx.com/secrets.htm"

In Powershell, as I am sure you're familiar, one would use the Get-Help command to get help for any command provided you have the help subsystem up-to-date.