Write-Progress

Display a progress bar.

Syntax
      Write-Progress [-activity] string [-status] string [[-id] int]
             [-percentComplete int] [-secondsRemaining int]
                [-currentOperation string] [-parentId int]
                   [-completed] [-sourceId int] [CommonParameters]

Key
   -activity string
       A string that describes the activity about which progress is being reported.
       Will appear as the first heading above the progress bar.
        
   -status string
       A string that describes current state of the activity about which progress
       is being reported. Will appear as the second heading above the progress bar.
        
   -id int
       The activity identifier for this progress record.
        
   -percentComplete int
       The percentage of the activity that is completed.
       Use the value -1 if the percentage is unknown or not applicable.
        
   -secondsRemaining int
       The projected number of seconds remaining until the activity is completed.
       Use the value -1 if the number of seconds remaining is unknown or not applicable.
        
   -currentOperation string
       Describes the operation that is currently taking place.
        
   -parentId int
       The parent activity of the current activity. 
       Use the value -1 if the current activity has no parent activity.
        
   -completed 
       Hide the progress bar, to indicate the activity is complete.
        
   -sourceId int
       Identify the source of the record

Write-Progress displays a progress bar in a PowerShell command window that depicts the status of a running command or script.

The progress bar will automatically disappear when the script is done, it can also be hidden by using -completed, note that -activity is still a mandatory option but when completing it can be set to any non empty string even just a space:

Write-Progress -Completed -Activity ' '

Examples

Display progress of a nested for loop:

PS C:\> for($i = 1; $i -lt 101; $i++ ) {
   for($j=0;$j -lt 10000;$j++) {
      write-progress "Search in Progress" "% Complete:" -percentComplete $i;
      }
 }

Display progress while searching through the system event log messages:

PS C:\> $events = get-eventlog -logname system
PS C:\> $events | foreach-object -begin {clear-host;$i=0;$out=""} -process {
   if($_.message -like "*bios*") {$out=$out + $_.Message}; $i = $i+1; write-progress -activity "Searching Events" -status "Progress:" -percentcomplete ($i/$events.count*100)
   } -end {$out}

“I don’t like to write, but I love to have written” ~ Michael Kanin

Related PowerShell Cmdlets

Write-Debug - Write a debug message to the host display.
Write-Error - Write an object to the error pipeline.
Write-Host - Display objects through the host user interface.
Write-Information - Write to the information data stream (6).
Write-Output - Write an object to the pipeline.
Write-Verbose - Write a string to the host’s verbose display.
Write-Warning - Write a warning message.