Powershell Update

Question

My powershell version is:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      5.1.19041.1682
PSEdition                      Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion                   10.0.19041.1682
CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion              3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1

I have the following command that will update to the latest version:
iex "& { $(irm https://aka.ms/install-powershell.ps1) } -UseMSI"

Can I use the above command to update my Powershel or is there another way to do this?

If I update the powershel, will the scripts I already have work normally?

Answer 1

PowerShell 5.x ist part of the OS installation.

iex "& { $(irm https://aka.ms/install-powershell.ps1) } -UseMSI" will install the current PowerShell Core 7.x as a seperate product, which is not fully compatible.

Answer 2

As the other comments and answers say, you can't replace PS 5.1 with PS Core, but you can have them both installed. PS Core is the one that MS wants you to use and the current version that gets updated frequently.

If you want to install/update your PS Core Version, another way is to use winget

On Windows 11 and some Versions of Windows 10 it's already installed by default otherwise you can download it here

to search for packages:

winget search powershell

to install packages:

winget install PowerShell

and the beauty of it is, when there is an upgrade available you can simply do:

winget upgrade PowerShell

Here's an example output from my upgrade that i just did:

PS C:\Users> winget upgrade powershell
Found PowerShell [Microsoft.PowerShell] version 7.2.4.0
This application is licensed to you by its owner.
Microsoft is not responsible for and does not license third-party packages.
Downloading https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.2.4/PowerShell-7.2.4-win-x64.msi
  ██████████████████████████████ 101 MB / 101 MB
The installer hash was successfully verified
Package installation is started...

PS C:\Users>