Although it can sound trivial, knowing the PowerShell version can help you determine the features to include in your scripts. You can also use the enumerated PowerShell versions to scope your scripts to specific versions. When scripting, it is always important to try and cover all environments
Let's dive in.
Method 1 - Using $PSVersionTable cmdlet
PowerShell provides us with the $PSVersionTable command which allows you to get the version of your PowerShell instance. The commands returns the resulting information in tabular format.
Example:
$PSVersionTable
The command should return information such as the PowerShell version, PowerShell Edition, Operating system, etc. An example output:
Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 7.2.6
PSEdition Core
GitCommitId 7.2.6
OS Microsoft Windows 10.0.25206
Platform Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion 3.0
If you are only interested in the PowerShell version, you can access the PSVersion attribute using the dot notation.
$PSVersionTable.PSVersion
The command above should show the detailed information about the PowerShell version, such as major version, minor, etc.
Major Minor Patch PreReleaseLabel BuildLabel
----- ----- ----- --------------- ----------
7 2 6
Method 2 - Using Get-Host Cmdlet
Another common method of fetching the PowerShell version is using the Get-Host cmdlet. This command returns an object holding info about the host system.
Get-Host
Resulting output:
Name : ConsoleHost
Version : 7.2.6
InstanceId : 2907d9e1-153e-4a8d-90ec-2f14a911cdfc
UI : System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostUserInterface
CurrentCulture : en-US
CurrentUICulture : en-US
PrivateData : Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost+ConsoleColorProxy
DebuggerEnabled : True
IsRunspacePushed : False
To get the details of the PowerShell build, access the Version attribute as shown:
(Get-Host).Version
Output:
Major Minor Build Revision
----- ----- ----- --------
7 2 6 -1
Method 3 - Using $Host Command
If for some reason you do not have access to the above commands, you can use the $Host command to show the PowerShell version from the host system.
Example:
$Host
Results:
Name : ConsoleHost
Version : 7.2.6
InstanceId : 2907d9e1-153e-4a8d-90ec-2f14a911cdfc
UI : System.Management.Automation.Internal.Host.InternalHostUserInterface
CurrentCulture : en-US
CurrentUICulture : en-US
PrivateData : Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost+ConsoleColorProxy
DebuggerEnabled : True
IsRunspacePushed : False
Runspace : System.Management.Automation.Runspaces.LocalRunspace
To fetch the powershell version, run the command:
$Host.version
The resulting output:
Major Minor Build Revision
----- ----- ----- --------
7 2 6 -1
Keep in mind that the above command shows the version of the host and not the actual PowerShell instance.
Final
In this post, we learned how to determine the PowerShell version using various commands and cmdlets.
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