PowerShell Version Profiles

One of the best things about PowerShell 3.0, for me anyway, is the ability to run PowerShell 2.0 side by side. I often need to test commands and scripts in both versions not only for my writing projects but also when helping people out. Like many of you I have a PowerShell profile script that configures my console. And because I primarily use PowerShell 3.0 I tend to have a number of version specific commands in my profile. The problem is that when I launch a PowerShell 2.0 session it uses the same profile, resulting in error messages for things it can't do. So this is how I handle having a single profile that can be used by two different versions of PowerShell.

Basically, my profile script checks the version first, before doing anything. You can use the $psversiontable variable.

PS C:\> $PSVersionTable

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      3.0
WSManStackVersion              3.0
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.18033
BuildVersion                   6.2.9200.16434
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.2

The PSVersion property is what I'm looking for. With this information, I can wrap my PowerShell profile script in simple IF statement.

#requires -version 2.0

<#
Use code like this in your PowerShell profile if it will
be shared between PowerShell 2 and PowerShell 3 sessions
on the same computer
#>

if ($psversiontable.psversion -eq '3.0') {
 Write-Host "You are running PowerShell 3.0" -ForegroundColor Green
 #insert 3.0 specific commands
 $PSDefaultParameterValues.Add("Format-Table:Autosize",$True)
}
else {
  Write-Host "You are running PowerShell 2.0" -ForegroundColor Yellow
  #insert 2.0 specific commands
}

#insert commands that apply to both versions

I think the comments in the code sample are pretty clear and there's really not much else to add. The Write-Host lines are merely for testing. You don't really need them.

Now I can get properly configured PowerShell sessions regardless of version and without errors.

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