PowerShell Commands

Out-Host

Out-Host [-InputObject <PSObject>] [-Paging] [<CommonParameters>]

The Out-Host cmdlet sends output to the Windows PowerShell host for display. The host displays the output at the command line. Because Out-Host is the default, you do not have to specify it unless you want to use its parameters to change the display.

Parameters

-InputObject <PSObject>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input ByValue

Specifies the objects that are written to the console. Enter a variable that contains the objects, or type a command or expression that gets the objects.

-Paging [<SwitchParameter>]

  • Default value is False
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Indicates that this cmdlet displays one page of output at a time, and waits for user input before it displays the remaining pages, much like the traditional more command. By default, all of the output is displayed on a single page. The page size is determined by the characteristics of the host.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable.

Inputs
System.Management.Automation.PSObject
You can pipe any object to this cmdlet.
Outputs
None
This cmdlet does not generate any output. However, the host might display the objects that Out-Host sends to it.
Examples
  1. Display system processes one page at a time:
    PS C:\> Get-Process | Out-Host -Paging
    

    This command displays the processes on the system one page at a time. It uses the Get-Process cmdlet to get the processes on the system. The pipeline operator sends the results to Out-Host , which displays them at the console. The Paging parameter displays one page of data at a time.

    The same command format is used for the Help function that is built into Windows PowerShell. That function gets data from the Get-Help cmdlet and then uses the Paging parameter of Out-Host to display the data one page at a time by using this command format: `Get-Help $Args[0] | Out-Host -Paging`.

  2. Display session history:
    PS C:\> $a = Get-History
    PS C:\>  Out-Host -InputObject $a
    

    The first command uses the Get-History cmdlet to get the session history, and then it stores the history in the $a variable.

    The second command uses Out-Host to display the content of the $a variable, and it uses the InputObject parameter to specify the variable to Out-Host .

Additional Notes
 The cmdlets that contain the Out verb (the Out cmdlets) do not format objects. They just render objects and 
 send them to the specified display destination. If you send an unformatted object to an Out * cmdlet, the 
 cmdlet sends it to a formatting cmdlet before rendering it. The Out cmdlets do not have parameters for names 
 or file paths. To send data to an Out cmdlet, use a pipeline operator (|) to send the output of a Windows 
 PowerShell command to the cmdlet. You can also store data in a variable and use the InputObject* parameter to 
 pass the data to the cmdlet. For help, see the examples.  Out-Host sends data, but it does not emit any output 
 objects. If you pipe the output of Out-Host to the Get-Member cmdlet, Get-Member * reports that no objects 
 have been specified.

 *

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. It is attributed to Microsoft Corporation and can be found here.

PowerShell Commands