7/11/24, 1:59 AM Migrating from Windows PowerShell 5.

1 to PowerShell 7 - PowerShell | Microsoft Learn

Migrating from Windows PowerShell 5.1

to PowerShell 7
Article • 04/03/2024

Designed for cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments, PowerShell 7 is packed with
enhancements and new features.

Installs and runs side-by-side with Windows PowerShell

Improved compatibility with existing Windows PowerShell modules
New language features, like ternary operators and ForEach-Object -Parallel
Improved performance
SSH-based remoting
Cross-platform interoperability
Support for Docker containers

PowerShell 7 works side-by-side with Windows PowerShell letting you easily test and compare
between editions before deployment. Migration is simple, quick, and safe.

PowerShell 7 is supported on the following Windows operating systems:

Windows 10, and 11

Windows Server 2016, 2019, and 2022

PowerShell 7 also runs on macOS and several Linux distributions. For a list of supported
operating systems and information about the support lifecycle, see the PowerShell Support
Lifecycle.

Installing PowerShell 7
For flexibility and to support the needs of IT, DevOps engineers, and developers, there are
several options available to install PowerShell 7. In most cases, the installation options can be
reduced to the following methods:

Deploy PowerShell using the MSI package

Deploy PowerShell using the ZIP package

７ Note

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The MSI package can be deployed and updated with management products such as
Microsoft Configuration Manager. Download the packages from GitHub Release
page .

Deploying the MSI package requires Administrator permission. The ZIP package can be
deployed by any user. The ZIP package is the easiest way to install PowerShell 7 for testing,
before committing to a full installation.

You may also install PowerShell 7 via the Windows Store or winget . For more information
about both of these methods, see the detailed instructions in Installing PowerShell on
Windows.

Using PowerShell 7 side-by-side with Windows

PowerShell 5.1
PowerShell 7 is designed to coexist with Windows PowerShell 5.1. The following features
ensure that your investment in PowerShell is protected and your migration to PowerShell 7 is
simple.

Separate installation path and executable name

Separate PSModulePath
Separate profiles for each version
Improved module compatibility
New remoting endpoints
Group policy support
Separate Event logs

Differences in .NET versions

PowerShell 7.2 is built on .NET 6.0. Windows PowerShell 5.1 is built on .NET Framework 4.x. The
differences between the .NET versions might affect the behavior of your scripts, especially if
you are calling .NET method directly. For more information, Differences between Windows
PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7.x.

Separate installation path and executable name

PowerShell 7 installs to a new directory, enabling side-by-side execution with Windows
PowerShell 5.1.

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Install locations by version:

Windows PowerShell 5.1: $env:WINDIR\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0

PowerShell 6.x: $env:ProgramFiles\PowerShell\6
PowerShell 7: $env:ProgramFiles\PowerShell\7

The new location is added to your PATH allowing you to run both Windows PowerShell 5.1 and
PowerShell 7. If you're migrating from PowerShell 6.x to PowerShell 7, PowerShell 6 is removed
and the PATH replaced.

In Windows PowerShell, the PowerShell executable is named powershell.exe . In version 6 and

above, the executable is named pwsh.exe . The new name makes it easy to support side-by-
side execution of both versions.

Separate PSModulePath
By default, Windows PowerShell and PowerShell 7 store modules in different locations.
PowerShell 7 combines those locations in the $Env:PSModulePath environment variable. When
importing a module by name, PowerShell checks the location specified by $Env:PSModulePath .
This allows PowerShell 7 to load both Core and Desktop modules.

ﾉ Expand table

Install Windows PowerShell 5.1 PowerShell 7.0

Scope

PowerShell $env:WINDIR\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules $env:ProgramFiles\PowerShell\7\Modules

modules

User $env:ProgramFiles\WindowsPowerShell\Modules $env:ProgramFiles\PowerShell\Modules

installed
AllUsers
scope

User $HOME\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules $HOME\Documents\PowerShell\Modules

installed
CurrentUser
scope

The following examples show the default values of $Env:PSModulePath for each version.

For Windows PowerShell 5.1:

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PowerShell

$Env:PSModulePath -split (';')

Output

C:\Users\<user>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

For PowerShell 7:

PowerShell

$Env:PSModulePath -split (';')

Output

C:\Users\<user>\Documents\PowerShell\Modules
C:\Program Files\PowerShell\Modules
C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\Modules
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

Notice that PowerShell 7 includes the Windows PowerShell paths and the PowerShell 7 paths
to provide autoloading of modules.

７ Note

Additional paths may exist if you have changed the PSModulePath environment variable
or installed custom modules or applications.

For more information, see about_PSModulePath.

For more information about Modules, see about_Modules.

Separate profiles
A PowerShell profile is a script that executes when PowerShell starts. This script customizes
your environment by adding commands, aliases, functions, variables, modules, and PowerShell

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drives. The profile script makes these customizations available in every session without having
to manually recreate them.

The path to the location of the profile has changed in PowerShell 7.

In Windows PowerShell 5.1, the location of the profile is

$HOME\Documents\WindowsPowerShell .

In PowerShell 7, the location of the profile is $HOME\Documents\PowerShell .

The profile filenames have also changed:

PowerShell

$PROFILE | Select-Object *Host* | Format-List

Output

AllUsersAllHosts : C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\profile.ps1

AllUsersCurrentHost : C:\Program
Files\PowerShell\7\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
CurrentUserAllHosts : C:\Users\<user>\Documents\PowerShell\profile.ps1
CurrentUserCurrentHost : C:\Users\
<user>\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

For more information about_Profiles.

PowerShell 7 compatibility with Windows PowerShell 5.1

modules
Most of the modules you use in Windows PowerShell 5.1 already work with PowerShell 7,
including Azure PowerShell and Active Directory. We're continuing to work with other teams to
add native PowerShell 7 support for more modules including Microsoft Graph, Office 365, and
others. For the current list of supported modules, see PowerShell 7 module compatibility.

７ Note

On Windows, we've also added a UseWindowsPowerShell switch to Import-Module to

ease the transition to PowerShell 7 for those using incompatible modules. For more
information on this functionality, see about_Windows_PowerShell_Compatibility.

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PowerShell Remoting
PowerShell remoting lets you run any PowerShell command on one or more remote
computers. You can establish persistent connections, start interactive sessions, and run scripts
on remote computers.

WS-Management remoting
Windows PowerShell 5.1 and below use the WS-Management (WSMAN) protocol for
connection negotiation and data transport. Windows Remote Management (WinRM) uses the
WSMAN protocol. If WinRM has been enabled, PowerShell 7 uses the existing Windows
PowerShell 5.1 endpoint named Microsoft.PowerShell for remoting connections. To update
PowerShell 7 to include its own endpoint, run the Enable-PSRemoting cmdlet. For information
about connecting to specific endpoints, see WS-Management Remoting in PowerShell

To use Windows PowerShell remoting, the remote computer must be configured for remote
management. For more information, including instructions, see About Remote Requirements.

For more information about working with remoting, see About Remote

SSH-based remoting
SSH-based remoting was added in PowerShell 6.x to support other operating systems that
can't use Windows native components like WinRM. SSH remoting creates a PowerShell host
process on the target computer as an SSH subsystem. For details and examples on setting up
SSH-based remoting on Windows or Linux, see: PowerShell remoting over SSH.

７ Note

The PowerShell Gallery (PSGallery) contains a module and cmdlet that automatically
configures SSH-based remoting. Install the Microsoft.PowerShell.RemotingTools module
from the PSGallery and run the Enable-SSH cmdlet.

The New-PSSession , Enter-PSSession , and Invoke-Command cmdlets have new parameter sets to
support SSH connections.

PowerShell

[-HostName <string>] [-UserName <string>] [-KeyFilePath <string>]

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To create a remote session, specify the target computer with the HostName parameter and
provide the user name with UserName. When running the cmdlets interactively, you're
prompted for a password.

PowerShell

Enter-PSSession -HostName <Computer> -UserName <Username>

Alternatively, when using the HostName parameter, provide the username information
followed by the at sign ( @ ), followed by the computer name.

PowerShell

Enter-PSSession -HostName <Username>@<Computer>

You may set up SSH key authentication using a private key file with the KeyFilePath parameter.
For more information, see OpenSSH Key Management.

Group Policy supported

PowerShell includes Group Policy settings to help you define consistent option values for
servers in an enterprise environment. These settings include:

Console session configuration: Sets a configuration endpoint in which PowerShell is run.

Turn on Module Logging: Sets the LogPipelineExecutionDetails property of modules.
Turn on PowerShell Script Block Logging: Enables detailed logging of all PowerShell
scripts.
Turn on Script Execution: Sets the PowerShell execution policy.
Turn on PowerShell Transcription: enables capturing of input and output of PowerShell
commands into text-based transcripts.
Set the default source path for Update-Help: Sets the source for Updatable Help to a
directory, not the Internet.

For more information, see about_Group_Policy_Settings.

PowerShell 7 includes Group Policy templates and an installation script in $PSHOME .

Group Policy tools use administrative template files ( .admx , .adml ) to populate policy settings
in the user interface. This allows administrators to manage registry-based policy settings. The
InstallPSCorePolicyDefinitions.ps1 script installs PowerShell Administrative Templates on the

local machine.
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PowerShell

Get-ChildItem -Path $PSHOME -Filter *Core*Policy*

Output

Directory: C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 2/27/2020 12:38 AM 15861
InstallPSCorePolicyDefinitions.ps1
-a--- 2/27/2020 12:28 AM 9675
PowerShellCoreExecutionPolicy.adml
-a--- 2/27/2020 12:28 AM 6201
PowerShellCoreExecutionPolicy.admx

Separate Event Logs

Windows PowerShell and PowerShell 7 log events to separate event logs. Use the following
command to get a list of the PowerShell logs.

PowerShell

Get-WinEvent -ListLog *PowerShell*

For more information, see about_Logging_Windows.

Improved editing experience with Visual Studio

Code
Visual Studio Code (VSCode) with the PowerShell Extension is the supported scripting
environment for PowerShell 7. The Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE)
only supports Windows PowerShell.

The updated PowerShell extension includes:

New ISE compatibility mode

PSReadLine in the Integrated Console, including syntax highlighting, multi-line editing,
and back search
Stability and performance improvements
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New CodeLens integration

Improved path autocompletion

To make the transition to Visual Studio Code easier, use the Enable ISE Mode function
available in the Command Palette. This function switches VSCode into an ISE-style layout. The
ISE-style layout gives you all the new features and capabilities of PowerShell in a familiar user
experience.

To switch to the new ISE layout, press Ctrl + Shift + P to open the Command Palette, type
PowerShell and select PowerShell: Enable ISE Mode.

To set the layout to the original layout, open the Command Palette, select PowerShell: Disable
ISE Mode (restore to defaults).

For details about customizing the VSCode layout to ISE, see How to Replicate the ISE
Experience in Visual Studio Code

７ Note

There are no plans to update the ISE with new features. In the latest versions of Windows
10 or Windows Server 2019 and higher, the ISE is now a user-uninstallable feature. There
are no plans to permanently remove the ISE. The PowerShell Team and its partners are
focused on improving the scripting experience in the PowerShell extension for Visual
Studio Code.

Next Steps
Armed with the knowledge to effectively migrate, install PowerShell 7 now!

６ Collaborate with us on
GitHub PowerShell feedback
PowerShell is an open source project.
The source for this content can
Select a link to provide feedback:
be found on GitHub, where you
can also create and review issues
 Open a documentation issue
and pull requests. For more
information, see our contributor
 Provide product feedback
guide.

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