Windows PowerShell ISE: Develop Your Scripts

Windows PowerShell ISE (Integrated Scripting Environment) is a bundled script editor  for PowerShell. Here is why you should use it.

Beyond the PowerShell Prompt

PowerShell is a command line tool at its core. It can be used to its fullest extent from an interactive shell prompt. But beyond ad-hoc work, cmdlet exploration and command one-liners, you should be using a script editor for building more complex PowerShell scripts. Luckily, beginning with PowerShell v2 the Windows PowerShell ISE has been included as a companion PowerShell script development environment. The rest of this post is specifically referencing Windows PowerShell ISE v5 (Windows 10), but a lot of these features are included in earlier versions too.

Advantages of Windows PowerShell ISE

Windows PowerShell ISE is more than just a graphical editor for writing and running scripts (though that is an advantage itself!). Here are some of the ISE features that will make your PowerShell work much more pleasant:

• Syntax highlighting. Makes code MUCH more readable!
• Intellisense (Auto-completion). Provides suggestions to complete cmdlet names, assist with available parameter options for a cmdlet, or show available variables or object properties. This works in both the editor pane as well as the console pane.
  
• Tabbed interface. Have multiple script files open at one time within the same window. I usually have one tab containing my master script, another tab for writing and testing a particular section of the script, and potentially another scratch tab for just trying stuff out.
• Selective execution. Taking a page from SQL Management Studio, you can highlight a selection of continuous lines and execute them independently from the rest of the script. This is useful if you just want to test one line of code, or re-load a variable with a different value.
• Debugging. Coupled with the cmdlet Set-PSBreakpoint, walk through your script for in-depth troubleshooting and analysis.
• Code folding. Collapse functions, comment sections, and regions to make a script easier to read.

Extend Functionality with Add-Ons

In addition to a great set of core features, Windows PowerShell ISE is extendable via Add-Ons. An Add-On can be created with Visual Studio, and there is a growing ecosystem of community created Add-Ons. A good place to start is with three Microsoft authored Add-Ons that are easily findable in the ISE under the menu item Add-Ons:

• Script Browser – search for over 9000 script samples in the TechNet Script Center.
• Script Analyzer – checks the quality of Windows PowerShell code by running a set of rules based on PowerShell best practices identified by PowerShell Team and the community.
• Module Browser -find, install, and publish modules through the PowerShell Gallery.  Built on top of PowerShellGet.

What’s Next for Windows PowerShell ISE

The ISE has always received an update in tandem with a new version of PowerShell and Windows Management Framework, but that may be changing. A recent announcement of a Windows PowerShell ISE preview edition promising to add features and functionality at a faster pace may change how ISE is delivered.

Next Steps

1. Find Windows PowerShell ISE in your start menu and pin it to Start, pin it to your taskbar, put a shortcut on your desktop, whatever works for you.
2. Get coding!