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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-10T07:57:08+00:00

If i run the following: Measure-Command -Expression {gci -Path C:\ -Recurse -ea SilentlyContinue |

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If i run the following:

Measure-Command -Expression {gci -Path C:\ -Recurse -ea SilentlyContinue | where Extension -eq ".txt"}
Measure-Command -Expression {gci -Path C:\ -Filter *.txt -Recurse -ea SilentlyContinue}

The second expression is always faster that the first one, im guessing its because it doesnt have to use the pipeline.

I thought maybe in the Pipeline method PowerShell recursed my drive and passed a collection of objects to the where clause, that would have to iterate through the items again, but i ruled that out, because if you run the first expression you can see it return output as it is recursing. So why is the Pipeline method slower?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Using Where-Object is always slower than using the built in parameters of the left hand side command. You first bring ALL objects to your shell and only then starts filtering them (client side filtering).

    With regard to the -Filter parameter, it works faster because it performs on the provider level (server side filtering), objects are checked once accessed and you get back only the ones that match your criteria.

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