PowerShell tutorial – How to know the current version of PowerShell on my system

Hi All,

Greetings for the day.

Today small but important sharing

In this small article we will discuss about – knowing PowerShell version installed on my system

Background – Why I want to know the PowerShell version

• As PowerShell administrator or I am writing PowerShell scripts I must know the version of PowerShell
• As an Administrator, some time we need to install PowerShell on any platform – Linux / Mac
• As PowerShell Administrator / Developer to know the features available in given version
• This is also important to maintain SECURITY – latest version of PowerShell often includes security patches , bug fixes, vulnerability fixes
• To maintain performance, newer version may includes performance enhancements, which maintains the efficiency of our scripts

Details:

• Open the PowerShell ISE
• Use Search bar to find correct “Windows PowerShell ISE” app as shown in below fig

• As you opens the “Windows PowerShell ISE” it look like

Using $PSVersionTable variable

• To know the current PowerShell version, we will use – $PSVersionTable as in below snippet.
• This is the most reliable method to know the version of PowerShell

$PSVersionTable

Output:

Name                           Value                                                                                                        
----                           -----                                                                                                        
PSVersion                      5.1.22621.2506                                                                                               
PSEdition                      Desktop                                                                                                      
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}                                                                                      
BuildVersion                   10.0.22621.2506                                                                                              
CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000                                                                                              
WSManStackVersion              3.0                                                                                                          
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3                                                                                                          
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1

Using get-host variable

• We could also use CMDLET – get-host to know the details of current PowerShell version as

get-host

Output:

Name             : Windows PowerShell ISE Host
Version          : 5.1.22621.2506
InstanceId       : 2e2c52f7-904a-4c53-8248-393c9dcaa3ec
UI               : System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostUserInterface
CurrentCulture   : en-US
CurrentUICulture : en-US
PrivateData      : Microsoft.PowerShell.Host.ISE.ISEOptions
DebuggerEnabled  : True
IsRunspacePushed : False
Runspace         : System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.LocalRunspace

Using $host variable

• We have an also option using – $host as – returns the same result as get-host

$host

Output:

Name             : Windows PowerShell ISE Host
Version          : 5.1.22621.2506
InstanceId       : 2e2c52f7-904a-4c53-8248-393c9dcaa3ec
UI               : System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostUserInterface
CurrentCulture   : en-US
CurrentUICulture : en-US
PrivateData      : Microsoft.PowerShell.Host.ISE.ISEOptions
DebuggerEnabled  : True
IsRunspacePushed : False
Runspace         : System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.LocalRunspace

From Command Prompt

• Open the command prompt
• Type “cmd” in Windows Run box (Win + R)
• Command prompt will be opened as in below snap
• We will use “Powershell.exe” to execute PowerShell CMDLETs

From Registry

• The registry location “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\3\PowerShellEngine” stores the PowerShell version in the string “PowerShellVersion” on 64-bit Windows as shown in below snap

OR we could also use PowerShell CMDLET – Get-ItemPropertyValue as

Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\3\PowerShellEngine -Name PowerShellVersion

Thanks for reading ! Stay tuned for more articles on PowerShell !

HAPPY LEARNING AHEAD 🙂 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL 🙂