Determine installed PowerShell version

Question

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

Answer 1

Use $PSVersionTable.PSVersion to determine the engine version. If the variable does not exist, it is safe to assume the engine is version 1.0.

Note that $Host.Version and (Get-Host).Version are not reliable - they reflect the version of the host only, not the engine. PowerGUI, PowerShellPLUS, etc. are all hosting applications, and they will set the host's version to reflect their product version — which is entirely correct, but not what you're looking for.

PS C:\> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
4      0      -1     -1

Answer 2

Use:

$psVersion = $PSVersionTable.PSVersion
If ($psVersion)
{
    #PowerShell Version Mapping
    $psVersionMappings = @()
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.1.14393.0';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5.1 Preview';ApplicableOS='Windows 10 Anniversary Update'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.1.14300.1000';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5.1 Preview';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.0.10586.494';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5 RTM';ApplicableOS='Windows 10 1511 + KB3172985 1607'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.0.10586.122';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5 RTM';ApplicableOS='Windows 10 1511 + KB3140743 1603'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.0.10586.117';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5 RTM 1602';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 SP1'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.0.10586.63';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5 RTM';ApplicableOS='Windows 10 1511 + KB3135173 1602'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.0.10586.51';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5 RTM 1512';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 SP1'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.0.10514.6';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5 Production Preview 1508';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2012 R2'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.0.10018.0';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5 Preview 1502';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2012 R2'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='5.0.9883.0';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 5 Preview November 2014';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='4.0';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 4 RTM';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 SP1'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='3.0';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 3 RTM';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8, and Windows 7 SP1'}
    $psVersionMappings += New-Object PSObject -Property @{Name='2.0';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 2 RTM';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7'}
    foreach ($psVersionMapping in $psVersionMappings)
    {
        If ($psVersion -ge $psVersionMapping.Name) {
            @{CurrentVersion=$psVersion;FriendlyName=$psVersionMapping.FriendlyName;ApplicableOS=$psVersionMapping.ApplicableOS}
            Break
        }
    }
}
Else{
    @{CurrentVersion='1.0';FriendlyName='Windows PowerShell 1 RTM';ApplicableOS='Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP'}
}

You can download the detailed script from How to determine installed PowerShell version.

Answer 3

Use the Get-Host command. The second line of the result is the version.

Answer 4

Just want to add my 2 cents here.

You can directly check the version with one line only by invoking powershell externally, such as from Command Prompt

powershell -Command "$PSVersionTable.PSVersion"

EDIT:

According to @psaul you can actually have one command that is agnostic from where it came (CMD, Powershell or Pwsh), thank you for that.

powershell -command "(Get-Variable PSVersionTable -ValueOnly).PSVersion" 

I've tested and it worked flawlessly on both CMD and Powershell

Answer 5

Try it with following command:

Get-Host

Seen here

Answer 6

The easiest way to forget this page and never return to it is to learn the Get-Variable:

Get-Variable | where {$_.Name -Like '*version*'} | %{$_[0].Value}

There is no need to remember every variable. Just Get-Variable is enough (and "There should be something about version").