Determine What Version of PowerShell is Installed?

Question

Hi,

How can I determine what version of PowerShell is installed on a computer, and indeed if it is installed at all?

Thanks, MagicAndi

Answer 1

To determine if PowerShell is installed, you can check the registry, as detailed in the following post :

• http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/yli628/archive/2007/08/16/check-if-powershell-installed-and-version.aspx

To determine the version of PowerShell that is installed, you can check the follow registry key:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\PowerShellEngine

To determine the version of PowerShell that is installed from a .ps1 script, you can use the following one-liner, as detailed on PowerShell.com

$isV2 = test-path variable:\psversiontable

The same site also gives a function to return the version:

function Get-PSVersion { 
    if (test-path variable:psversiontable) {$psversiontable.psversion} else {[version]"1.0.0.0"} 
}

Answer 2

To check if PowerShell is installed use:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1 Install ( = 1 )

To check if RC2 or RTM is installed use:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1 PID (=89393-100-0001260-00301) -- For RC2

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1 PID (=89393-100-0001260-04309) -- For RTM

Source: this website

Kindness,

Dan

Answer 3

The variable $Host has a version property that can be used to access the version of PowerShell that is running. Host is a built in PowerShell variable so it's available to you once you start a PowerShell session. If you want to see all the variables avaliable to you type:

PS H:\> Set-Location variable:
PS H:\> Get-ChildItem

This will list them all showing the name of the variable and its value.

PowerShell 1.0

PS H:\> $Host.Version

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
1      0      0      0

PowerShell 2.0(Windows 7)

PS H:\> $Host.Version
Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
2      0      -1      -1

Calling the version property will return a System.Version object.

As for determining if PowerShell is installed I'm not sure how you wish to do this obviously you can't do this from a PowerShell script, chicken and the egg :-) but if you want to do it manually just click start and run then type 'powershell' if PowerShell has been installed you'll be presented with the PowerShell console.

If you want to programmatically check if PowerShell has been installed check out this post, you could combine it with the other answers on accessing the registry to create a command line application in C# or VB.

Answer 4

You can look at the built in variable, $psversiontable. If it doesn't exist, you have V1. If it does exist, it will give you all the info you need.

1 >  $psversiontable

Name                           Value                                           
----                           -----                                           
CLRVersion                     2.0.50727.4927                                  
BuildVersion                   6.1.7600.16385                                  
PSVersion                      2.0                                             
WSManStackVersion              2.0                                             
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0}                                      
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1                                         
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.1

Answer 5

I would use either Get-Host or $PSVersionTable. As Andy Schneider points out, $PSVersionTable only works with version 2.

get-host

Name             : ConsoleHost
Version          : 2.0
InstanceId       : d730016e-2875-4b57-9cd6-d32c8b71e18a
UI               : System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostUserInterface
CurrentCulture   : en-GB
CurrentUICulture : en-US
PrivateData      : Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost+ConsoleColorProxy
IsRunspacePushed : False
Runspace         : System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.LocalRunspace

$PSVersionTable

Name                           Value
----                           -----
CLRVersion                     2.0.50727.4200
BuildVersion                   6.0.6002.18111
PSVersion                      2.0
WSManStackVersion              2.0
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0}
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.1