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To check the version of PowerShell you are using on Windows 10, open a PowerShell window and enter "$PSVersionTable" into the prompt. The current PowerShell version will be displayed next to "PSVersion."
Finding your PowerShell version helps you know what PowerShell features you have access to. A PowerShell command lets you reveal the version number, and we'll show you how to do this.
Find Your PowerShell Version
You'll use the PowerShell utility itself to find the version number.
To start, open the "Start" menu, search for "Windows PowerShell," and click it in the search results.
In the PowerShell window that opens, type the following command and then press Enter:
$PSVersionTable
PowerShell displays various numbers. Here, the first value that says "PSVersion" is your PowerShell version.
You can now close the PowerShell window.
How to Get PowerShell 7 Version
To check your PowerShell 7 version on Windows 10, just open up PowerShell 7 and look at the very first line in the window. It prints the PowerShell version every time you open a new instance.
If for some reason that doesn't work, you can always use the PowerShell version command we discussed previously to get your version information. Enter the following command into PowerShell:
$PSVersionTable
Get PowerShell Version with the get-host Command
Only use this if you're checking your local PowerShell version.
To use the get-host command to check your PowerShell version, open up any version of PowerShell, then enter:
get-host
Find PowerShell Version Using the $Host variable
The $host variable is automatically set when you open PowerShell, all we need to do is query the version. Once again, open up PowerShell, then enter:
$host.version
You'll see your version number displayed in a neat little table.
You can also just run $host
if that is more to your liking, but it contains additional information that you may not care about, much like the get-host
command.
Check Your PowerShell Version in the Windows Registry
You can also check your PowerShell version from the Windows registry. First, open up the Start Menu, then search for and launch "Regedit."
Then navigate to the following location, or paste it into the Registry Editor's address bar.
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft
Scroll down through the list until you see the PowerShell listings. As you might expect, PowerShell 5 and PowerShell 7 are in slightly different locations. It is also possible that future iterations will be stored in slightly different locations. If our specific paths don't work, just look around through the PowerShell keys until you find entries that talk about versions. They'll be very similar to the examples we attached below.
PowerShell 5 is located in:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\3\PowerShellEngine
Then check the "PowerShellVersion" entry to get your exact version number.
PowerShell 7 is directly below in our case (and likely will be for you too). The version information can be found in:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShellCore\InstalledVersions\31ab5147-9a97-4452-8443-d9709f0516e1
Your PowerShell 7 version is displayed next to the "SemanticVersion" entry.
Update PowerShell in Windows 10
Windows 10 updates the built-in PowerShell tool when you install system updates. This means that you should keep your PC up to date to ensure that you're always running the latest version of PowerShell.
Also, know that PowerShell 7 is different from the version that's usually installed on Windows 10 PCs. To install this version of PowerShell, either download the installer file or run a command from PowerShell on your PC.