Best IDE for Powershell?

Question

What are the different IDE's for PowerShell? Which is the best?

Answer 1

I've used PowerGUI (powergui.org) and it's pretty slick. I think there's another IDE out there.

Answer 2

If you don't mind using a commercial tool, PowerShellPlus Professional(http://www.idera.com/Products/PowerShell/) is probably the best you can get right now. It features an interactive console, an advanced script editor with debugger and a fantastic learning center. The learning center itself is a good enough reason to use PowerShellPlus Professional.

Answer 3

Free options:

• PowerGUI
• PowerShell Analyzer

Answer 4

SAPIEN's PrimalScript has a lot to offer not only for PowerShell but other languages as well. It has snippets, sample scripts, a debugger, a script packager (that supports PoweShell), a database browser and a lot more. You'll need at least the Professional edition to get Powershell support. You can download a 45 day eval copy at primalscript.com.

Answer 5

• Powershell Plus - Commercial "ISE" (integrated script environment) with emphasis on the conosle, rather than the editor. My current favorite.
• PowerGUI - Freeware MMC-like host for PowerShell code which also has the best free Posh editor alongside.
  • The PowerGUI editor component has recently been made available as a Visual Studio Extension as well.
• SAPIEN PrimalScript - Very capable commercial multi-lang editor which has some great powershell features
• PowerShell Analyzer - One of the first PowerShell IDEs. Now free.
• Admin Script Editor - An visual IDE in every sense of the word. Has a visual studio-like forms editor. commercial.
• PowerWF Studio - Commercial PowerShell editor, compiler, & orchestration (via Windows Workflow)

Answer 6

For what it's worth, I do most of my powershell work in gvim.

Answer 7

The PowerShell V2 CTP (free, from Microsoft) comes with the "PowerShell ISE," which is probably the only place in the world you'll get proper syntax highlighting. It also supports stepwise debugging and breakpoints.

In the end, I just use a text editor. If I'm building a new script, I usually just hack it out in the console, then save my history by typing:

Get-History -count 1000 | % { $_.CommandLine } | Out-Clipboard

Paste this into the text editor and delete the errors, rework into functions, and so on. It's a good way to get started, anyway.

Answer 8

I use notepad today. The other tools I've used have been too annoying & too slow to be worth the benefit. I plan to use Graphical PowerShell when v2 is released.

Answer 9

You should also check out our product PowerWF Studio. It's windows workflow & powershell combined, which allows you to orchestrate powershell. The product includes a complete ISE-type debugger and editor. Plus ability to create applications, cmdlets, scheduling agent, and system center management pack.