How can I run PowerShell with the NET 4 runtime

Question

I am updating a PowerShell script that manages some  NET assemblies  The script was written for assemblies built against  NET 2  the same version of the framework that PowerShell runs with   but now needs to work with  NET 4 assemblies as well as  NET 2 assemblies   Since  NET 4 supports running applications built against older versions of the framework  it seems like the simplest solution is to launch PowerShell with the  NET 4 runtime when I need to run it against  NET 4 assemblies   How can I run PowerShell with the  NET 4 runtime

User · Answer

Please be VERY careful with using the registry key approach. These are machine-wide keys and forcibily migrate ALL applications to .NET 4.0.

Many products do not work if forcibily migrated and this is a testing aid and not a production quality mechanism. Visual Studio 2008 and 2010, MSBuild, turbotax, and a host of websites, SharePoint and so on should not be automigrated.

If you need to use PowerShell with 4.0, this should be done on a per-application basis with a configuration file, you should check with the PowerShell team on the precise recommendation. This is likely to break some existing PowerShell commands.

User · Answer

If you don t want to modify the registry or app config files  an alternate way is to create a simple  NET 4 console app that mimicks what PowerShell exe does and hosts the PowerShell ConsoleShell   See Option 2     Hosting Windows PowerShell yourself  First  add a reference to the System Management Automation and Microsoft PowerShell ConsoleHost assemblies which can be found under  programfiles  Reference Assemblies Microsoft WindowsPowerShell v1 0  Then use the following code   using System  using System Management Automation Runspaces  using Microsoft PowerShell   namespace PSHostCLRv4       class Program               static int Main string   args                        var config   RunspaceConfiguration Create                    return ConsoleShell Start                  config                   Windows PowerShell - Hosted on CLR v4 nCopyright  C  2010 Microsoft Corporation  All rights reserved                                        args

User · Answer

Just run powershell exe with COMPLUS version environment variable set to v4 0 30319  For example  from cmd exe or  bat-file   set COMPLUS version v4 0 30319 powershell -file c  scripts test ps1

User · Answer

If you only need to execute a single command  script block  or script file in  NET 4  try using Activation Configuration Files from  NET 4 to start only a single instance of PowerShell using version 4 of the CLR   Full details   http   blog codeassassin com 2011 03 23 executing-individual-powershell-commands-using-net-4   An example PowerShell module   https   gist github com 882528

User · Answer

Just as another option  the latest PoshConsole release includes binaries targeted to  NET 4 RC  which work fine against the RTM release  without any configuration

User · Answer

Actually  you can get PowerShell to run using  NET 4 without affecting other  NET applications  I needed to do so to use the new HttpWebRequest  Host  property  however changing the  OnlyUseLatestCLR  broke Fiddler as that could not be used under  NET 4    The developers of PowerShell obviously foresaw this happening  and they added a registry key to specify what version of the Framework it should use  One slight issue is that you need to take ownership of the registry key before changing it  as even administrators do not have access    HKLM  Software Microsoft Powershell 1 PowerShellEngine RuntimeVersion  64 bit and 32 bit  HKLM  Software Wow6432Node Microsoft Powershell 1 PowerShellEngine RuntimeVersion  32 bit on 64 bit machine    Change the value of that key to the required version  Keep in mind though that some snapins may no longer load unless they are  NET 4 compatible  WASP is the only one I have had trouble with  but I don t really use it anyway   VMWare  SQL Server 2008  PSCX  Active Directory  Microsoft and Quest Software  and SCOM all work fine

User · Answer

If you re still stuck on PowerShell v1 0 or v2 0  here is my variation on Jason Stangroome s excellent answer   Create a powershell4 cmd somewhere on your path with the following contents    echo off    http   stackoverflow com questions 7308586 using-batch-echo-with-special-characters if exist   dp0powershell exe activation config goto  run echo   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8     gt                   gt    dp0powershell exe activation config echo   lt configuration  gt                                          gt  gt    dp0powershell exe activation config echo     lt startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy  true   gt    gt  gt    dp0powershell exe activation config echo       lt supportedRuntime version  v4 0    gt                   gt  gt    dp0powershell exe activation config echo     lt  startup  gt                                             gt  gt    dp0powershell exe activation config echo   lt  configuration  gt                                         gt  gt    dp0powershell exe activation config  run    point COMPLUS ApplicationMigrationRuntimeActivationConfigPath to the directory that this cmd file lives in    and the directory contains a powershell exe activation config file which matches the executable name powershell exe set COMPLUS ApplicationMigrationRuntimeActivationConfigPath   dp0  SystemRoot  System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe    set COMPLUS ApplicationMigrationRuntimeActivationConfigPath    This will allow you to launch an instance of the powershell console running under  NET 4 0   You can see the difference on my system where I have PowerShell 2 0 by examining the output of the following two commands run from cmd   C   gt powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -Command  PSVersionTable  Name                           Value ----                           ----- CLRVersion                     2 0 50727 5485 BuildVersion                   6 1 7601 17514 PSVersion                      2 0 WSManStackVersion              2 0 PSCompatibleVersions            1 0  2 0  SerializationVersion           1 1 0 1 PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2 1   C   gt powershell4 cmd -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -Command  PSVersionTable  Name                           Value ----                           ----- PSVersion                      2 0 PSCompatibleVersions            1 0  2 0  BuildVersion                   6 1 7601 17514 CLRVersion                     4 0 30319 18408 WSManStackVersion              2 0 PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2 1 SerializationVersion           1 1 0 1

User · Answer

The best solution I have found is in the blog post Using Newer Version s  of  NET with PowerShell  This allows powershell exe to run with  NET 4 assemblies   Simply modify  or create   pshome powershell exe config so that it contains the following    lt  xml version  1 0   gt    lt configuration gt        lt startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy  true  gt            lt supportedRuntime version  v4 0 30319   gt            lt supportedRuntime version  v2 0 50727   gt        lt  startup gt    lt  configuration gt     Additional  quick setup notes     Locations and files are somewhat platform dependent  however will give you an inline gist of how to make the solution work for you    You can find PowerShell s location on your computer by executing cd  pshome in the Powershell window  doesn t work from DOS prompt     Path will be something like  example  C  Windows System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0    The filename to put configuration in is  powershell exe config if your PowerShell exe is being executed  create the config file if need be     If PowerShellISE Exe is running then you need to create its companion config file as PowerShellISE Exe config

User · Answer

Here is the contents of the configuration file I used to support both  NET 2 0 and  NET 4 assemblies    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8    gt   lt configuration gt     lt  -- http   msdn microsoft com en-us library w4atty68 aspx -- gt     lt startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy  true  gt       lt supportedRuntime version  v4 0    gt       lt supportedRuntime version  v2 0 50727    gt     lt  startup gt   lt  configuration gt    Also  here   s a simplified version of the PowerShell 1 0 compatible code I used to execute our scripts from the passed in command line arguments   class Program     static void Main  string   args         Console WriteLine    NET     Environment Version         string script     amp      string Join       args        Console WriteLine  script        Console WriteLine             Simple host that sends output to System Console     PSHost host   new ConsoleHost  this        Runspace runspace   RunspaceFactory CreateRunspace  host         Pipeline pipeline   runspace CreatePipeline         pipeline Commands AddScript  script         try         runspace Open           IEnumerable lt PSObject gt  output   pipeline Invoke           runspace Close                             catch  RuntimeException ex           string psLine   ex ErrorRecord InvocationInfo PositionMessage        Console WriteLine   error    0    1  2    ex GetType     ex Message  psLine          ExitCode   -1                In addition to the basic error handling shown above  we also inject a trap statement into the script to display additional diagnostic information  similar to Jeffrey Snover s Resolve-Error function

User · Answer

The other answers are from before 2012  and they focus on  hacking  PowerShell 1 0 or PowerShell 2 0 into targeting newer versions of the  NET Framework and Common Language Runtime  CLR    However  as has been written in many comments  since 2012  when PowerShell 3 0 came  a much better solution is to install the newest version of PowerShell  It will automatically target CLR v4 0 30319  This means  NET 4 0  4 5  4 5 1  4 5 2  or 4 6  expected in 2015  since all of these versions are in-place replacements of each other  Use  PSVersionTable or see the Determine installed PowerShell version thread if you are unsure of your PowerShell version   At the time of writing  the newest version of PowerShell is 4 0  and it can be downloaded with the Windows Management Framework  Google search link

User · Answer

PowerShell  the engine  runs fine under  NET 4 0  PowerShell  the console host and the ISE  do not  simply because they were compiled against older versions of  NET   There s a registry setting that will change the  NET framework loaded systemwide  which will in turn allow PowerShell to use  NET 4 0 classes   reg add hklm software microsoft  netframework  v OnlyUseLatestCLR  t REG DWORD  d 1 reg add hklm software wow6432node microsoft  netframework  v OnlyUseLatestCLR  t REG DWORD  d 1   To update just the ISE to use  NET 4 0  you can change the configuration   psHome powershell ise exe config  file to have a chunk like this    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt configuration gt       lt startup gt         lt supportedRuntime version  v4 0 30319    gt       lt  startup gt   lt  configuration gt    You can build  NET 4 0 applications that call PowerShell using the PowerShell API  System Management Automation PowerShell  just fine  but these steps will help get the in-the-box PowerShell hosts to work under  NET 4 0     Remove the registry keys when you don t need them any more  These are machine-wide keys and forcibly migrate ALL applications to  NET 4 0  even applications using  net 2 and  net 3 5

[.net] How can I run PowerShell with the .NET 4 runtime?

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