Many cmdlets provide rich online help, and you can automatically open the web page for a cmdlet by using Get-Help and submitting the -Online parameter:
PS> Get-Help -Name Get-Service -Online
Each cmdlet also supports the common parameter -? which unfortunately only shows the much more limited built-in local help:
PS> Get-Service -?
NAME
Get-Service
SYNTAX
Get-Service [-ComputerName <System.String[]>] [-DependentServices] -DisplayName <System.String[]> [-Exclude
<System.String[]>] [-Include <System.String[]>] [-RequiredServices] []
...
However, with a simple trick you can tell PowerShell to also use the rich online help for the built-in parameter -?. Run this:
PS> $PSDefaultParameterValues['Get-Help:Online'] = $true
This command automatically sets a new default value for the Get-Help -Online parameter, and since -? internally uses Get-Help, you now get rich online help for most PowerShell cmdlets simply by adding -? to the command name:
PS> Get-Service -?
That’s really awesome so you may want to add the command to your auto-starting profile script. The path to this script can be found in $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts. It may not yet exist so you may have to create it.
However, there is one caveat: if the command has no online help, then you’ll now get an error message complaining that no online help was available. In an upcoming tip, we’ll address this separately.
