Windows 10 – Replace Powershell with Powershell 6.0.0

powershellwindowswindows 10

The question is simple, even though the answer might not be, but how can I replace Windows 10 default powershell (major 5) with the one on GitHub (Major 6)?

If installed normally it'll be installed in %programfiles%\PowerShell with executable named pwsh.exe. Is there a way of updating PS 'locally' so that it gets automatically replaced by the newest one? Am I missing something?

Best Answer

PowerShell Core intentionally does not replace the built-in PowerShell:

Does PowerShell Core affect my Windows PowerShell installation?

Nope! PowerShell Core is completely side-by-side with Windows PowerShell. In fact, an awesome feature of PowerShell Core is that you can test new versions without affecting existing workloads. Whether it’s installed via an MSI or installed portably from the ZIP package, your Windows PowerShell installation is not affected by PowerShell Core.

Since PS Core does have backwards-compatibility-breaking changes, this is probably not a good idea just yet. You'll find some administrative modules will not work in PowerShell Core.

Microsoft is still working on a roadmap for bundling PowerShell Core into Windows by default. It is entirely possible that the older PowerShell 5.1 is still included for backwards compatibility - in much the same way IE is still included despite Edge being the default.

If your goal is just that launching powershell.exe will launch Core, you can place the PS Core folder earlier in the PATH so it is discovered first. Note that this could break scripts that need anything PS Core does not support.

Minimum system requirement

I don't know, I am using PowerShell 7.2 preview 2 x64 on Windows 10 20H2, I have tested the script and confirmed it is working, and found a minor bug and fixed it; But I have tested my code on PowerShell 5.1.19041.610 and confirmed my code won't work on it, so maybe you need at least PowerShell Core 6? I don't really know, but it is advised to use the latest version of PowerShell.

I solved it via:

Save as pintotaskbar.ps1:

param(
  [parameter(mandatory=$true)] [validatenotnullorempty()]$execs
)

if (!(test-path $home\pinnedshortcuts)) {new-item $home\pinnedshortcuts -type "directory" > $null}
$execs  = $execs -split "\|"

foreach ($exec in $execs) {
  $path = ($exec -split "::")[0]
  $name = ($exec -split "::")[1]

  if ($path -notmatch "[C-Zc-z]:(\\[^(<>:`"\/\\|?*\x00-\x1f\x7f)]+)+") {$path=where.exe $path}

  $shortcutpath         = "$home\desktop\$name.lnk"
  $wshshell             = new-object -comobject wscript.shell
  $shortcut             = $wshshell.createshortcut($shortcutpath)
  $shortcut.targetpath  = $path
  $shortcut.save()

  $bytes                = [system.io.file]::readallbytes($shortcutpath)
  $bytes[0x15]          = $bytes[0x15] -bor 0x20
  [system.io.file]::writeallbytes($shortcutpath,$bytes)

  copy-item -path $shortcutpath -destination $home\pinnedshortcuts
}

$template         = get-content "$psscriptroot\template.xml"
$pinnedshortcuts  = (get-childitem -path $home\pinnedshortcuts -filter "*.lnk").fullname | %{"`t`t<taskbar:DesktopApp DesktopApplicationLinkPath=`"{0}`" />" -f $_}
$template         = $template | % {$_;if ($_ -match "<taskbar:taskbarpinlist>") {$pinnedshortcuts}}

$template | out-file  -path "$home\pinnedshortcuts\pinnedshortcuts.xml"
import-startlayout    -layoutpath $home\pinnedshortcuts\pinnedshortcuts.xml -mountpath c:\
get-process           -name "explorer" | stop-process & explorer.exe

Save template.xml in the same directory as pintotaskbar.ps1:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LayoutModificationTemplate
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/LayoutModification"
    xmlns:defaultlayout="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/FullDefaultLayout"
    xmlns:start="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/StartLayout"
    xmlns:taskbar="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Start/2014/TaskbarLayout"
    Version="1">
  <CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection>
    <defaultlayout:TaskbarLayout>
      <taskbar:TaskbarPinList>
      </taskbar:TaskbarPinList>
    </defaultlayout:TaskbarLayout>
  </CustomTaskbarLayoutCollection>
</LayoutModificationTemplate>

# Accepts a string like:
  # cmd::Command Prompt|pwsh::PowerShell 7|python::Python

.\pintotaskbar.ps1 "cmd::Command Prompt|pwsh::PowerShell 7|python::Python"

I have found a strange issue, using the above example will generate a working shortcut named "Command Prompt pwsh" that points to %comspec%, I got rid of this by deleting [string] type specifier of $execs and it magically went away, I still have no idea how it happened...

Best Answer

Does PowerShell Core affect my Windows PowerShell installation?

Related Solutions

PowerShell – How to Pin .lnk Files to Taskbar in Windows 10

Minimum system requirement

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