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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsPowerShell jobs let you run commands concurrently while keeping the current session available. Choose a process job for local isolation, a thread job for lower-overhead local work, a parallel pipeline for batches of input, or a remote job for work on other computers. Starting a job returns a job object—not its results—so you must wait for and receive output separately.
Choose the right kind of PowerShell job
PowerShell documents three broad job types: remote jobs, background jobs running in a separate local process, and thread jobs running in a separate thread of the current local process. These options differ in location, isolation, serialization, and shared-state risks—not just speed. See Microsoft’s about_Jobs and about_Thread_Jobs.
| Need | Starting point | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Run local work in a separate process for stronger isolation | Start-Job { ... } |
Process startup and serialization add overhead; retrieve output separately. |
| Run local work in a thread | Start-ThreadJob { ... } |
Generally lower overhead and live object references, but jobs share the parent process and require care with shared state. |
| Run an operation concurrently for pipeline input | ForEach-Object -Parallel { ... } |
Set a suitable concurrency limit; parallel child output order is not guaranteed. |
| Run commands on remote computers | Invoke-Command -ComputerName ... -AsJob |
Requires working remoting connectivity and configuration; remoting transfers and serializes data. |
Process and remote jobs provide a process or machine boundary that can isolate failures more effectively than threads. Thread jobs avoid remoting serialization and can be lighter, but a critical failure in the shared PowerShell process can affect other work. Remote execution is appropriate when the target is another computer, not simply as a faster form of local execution. Microsoft’s about_Remote_Jobs explains remote job behavior.
Start a job, wait for it, and receive its output
This process-job example retains the returned job object, waits for completion, and stores the results:
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$job = Start-Job -ScriptBlock { Get-Process }
$job | Wait-Job
$result = Receive-Job -Job $jobStart-Job returns promptly with a job object. Use Get-Job to list jobs known to the current session, Wait-Job to wait, and Receive-Job to collect output. A job can complete or fail; check its state and any errors rather than assuming the command succeeded. After collecting output and when you no longer need the job record, remove it with Remove-Job.
The same lifecycle can be written as a pipeline with a thread job:
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Start-ThreadJob -ScriptBlock { Get-Process } |
Wait-Job |
Receive-JobPowerShell 7’s ForEach-Object -Parallel runs script blocks concurrently for pipeline items. With -AsJob, it returns a task job that can be handled by the job cmdlets:
$job = 1..5 | ForEach-Object -Parallel { Write-Output $_ } -AsJob
$job | Wait-Job
$results = Receive-Job -Job $jobParallel child jobs may finish in a different order from their input, so do not use output position as a reliable way to identify an input item. Include an identifier in each result when you need to associate outputs with inputs.
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Pass data safely and limit concurrency
In a ForEach-Object -Parallel script block, $_ refers to the current pipeline item. Use $Using: to reference a value from the outer scope. Thread-job examples can also pass data using pipeline input or ArgumentList.
Threads share the process, so take particular care with mutable reference-type objects. Microsoft’s thread-job guidance warns against assigning to, or invoking methods or properties on, a non-thread-safe shared object while concurrent jobs are using it. If workers must mutate shared state, use a thread-safe collection whose behavior suits the task; Microsoft’s example uses ConcurrentDictionary.
Parallel work is not automatically faster. It can help when tasks are independent and spend substantial time computing or waiting, but setup costs and resource contention can outweigh the benefit. Use a concurrency limit when the command supports one; excess work waits rather than running all at once. Microsoft’s parallel execution performance guidance documents a default runspace pool size of five for ForEach-Object -Parallel beginning with PowerShell 7.1. This is a software default, not a recommended value for every workload. Start-Job has no ThrottleLimit parameter, so manage the number of process jobs yourself.
Understand job lifetime and cleanup
Ordinary jobs depend on the parent session: if that session terminates, its running child jobs are terminated too. They are therefore not a way to detach a long-running task from the session. For work that must outlive an interactive session, Microsoft’s job guidance points to disconnected remoting sessions or a separate process launched with Start-Process; these have different lifecycle behavior from ordinary jobs.
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When a job is no longer useful, Stop-Job requests that it stop. Once you have handled its output and no longer need its record, use Remove-Job. For a job that fails, inspect its state and error information before deciding whether to retry or change the command.
Commands at a glance
Start-Job: run a script block as a local process job.Start-ThreadJob: run work in a thread of the current local process.Invoke-Command -ComputerName ... -AsJob: run commands remotely as a job.ForEach-Object -Parallel: process pipeline items concurrently;-AsJobreturns a task job.Get-Job,Wait-Job, andReceive-Job: inspect, wait for, and collect job output.Stop-JobandRemove-Job: stop work and remove job records.
The linked Microsoft Learn pages are versioned for PowerShell 7.5; command behavior and documented defaults can change across releases. Check the documentation for the PowerShell version you actually use.
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