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powershellwindows-consolepowershell-5.0psreadline

Why does PowerShell 5 from Windows 7 not have the same features as Windows 10?


I upgraded my PowerShell from 4.0 to 5.0 (Feb. 2016 release) on my Windows 7 SP1 machine.

The $PSVersionTable shows PowerShell 5.0, but the shell does not have the same features as PowerShell 5.0 in Windows 10.

Differences:

  • Keyword highlighting
  • Text selection with Shift+Arrow keys
  • Copy/paste with Ctrl+C/V

Why is there a difference?

How to get/enable these missing features?


Solution

  • Some features come from the PSReadLine-module that is preinstalled in Win10. You can install this manually from github or by running:

    Install-Module PSReadLine
    

    Some features come from Windows 10-enhancements to the console host conhost.exe that is used by default for powershell and cmd. conhost.exeis a part of windows itself and not Windows Management Framework which Powershell is a part of.