How to create permanent PowerShell Aliases

Question

I want to create an alias of a cmdlet that doesn t expire after I close the current session of Powershell  let s say I have this alias    C  Users Aymen gt  New-Alias Goto Set-Location   This perfectly creates the Goto alias  but I want to use it even after I close the current session  how can I achieve that   Note   The PowerShell Help system suggests that I can export the aliases I create  and import them next time I open a new session  actually that s not really what I m looking  for  is there a direct clear way to keep having a alias after I create it through different sessions

User · Answer

Open a Windows PowerShell window and type:

notepad $profile

Then create a function, such as:

function goSomewhereThenOpenGoogleThenDeleteSomething {
    cd C:\Users\
    Start-Process -FilePath "http://www.google.com"
    rm fileName.txt
}

Then type this under the function name:

Set-Alias google goSomewhereThenOpenGoogleThenDeleteSomething

Now you can type the word "google" into Windows PowerShell and have it execute the code within your function!

User · Answer

It s not a good idea to add this kind of thing directly to your  env WINDIR powershell folders  The recommended way is to add it to your personal profile   cd  env USERPROFILE Documents md WindowsPowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue cd WindowsPowerShell New-Item Microsoft PowerShell profile ps1 -ItemType  file  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue powershell ise exe   Microsoft PowerShell profile ps1   Now add your alias to the Microsoft PowerShell profile ps1 file that is now opened   function Do-ActualThing         do actual thing    Set-Alias MyAlias Do-ActualThing   Then save it  and refresh the current session with       profile   Note  Just in case  if you get permission issue like      CategoryInfo   SecurityError          PSSecurityException     FullyQualifiedErrorId   UnauthorizedAccess   Try the below command and refresh the session again   Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

User · Answer

Just to add to this list of possible locations     This didn t work for me   Users  ME  Documents WindowsPowerShell Microsoft PowerShell profile ps1  However this did   Users  ME  OneDrive Documents WindowsPowerShell Microsoft PowerShell profile ps1  If you don t have a profile or you re looking to set one up  run the following command  it will create the folder files necessary and even tell you where it lives    New-Item -path  profile -type file -force

User · Answer

to create the profile1 psl file  type in the following command   new-item  PROFILE CurrentUserAllHosts -ItemType file -Force  to access the file  type in the next command   ise  PROFILE CurrentUserAllHosts  note if you haven t done this before  you will see that you will not be  able to run the script because of your execution policy  which you need to change to Unrestricted from Restricted  default    to do that close the script and then type this command   Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser  then   RemoteSigned  then this command again   ise  PROFILE CurrentUserAllHosts  then finally type your aliases in the script  save it  and they should run every time you run powershell  even after restarting your computer

User · Answer

This is a little bit fancy    but it works   Step 1  Create a Powershell Profile   FILE  install profile ps1   THIS SCRIPT BLOWS AWAY YOUR DEFAULT POWERSHELL PROFILE SCRIPT     AND INSTALLS A POINTER TO A GLOBAL POWERSHELL PROFILE   ErrorActionPreference    Stop   function print   string  msg        Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green  msg    print       User s Powershell Profile  psdir      env USERPROFILE Documents WindowsPowerShell   psfile    psdir     Microsoft PowerShell profile ps1   print  Creating Directory   psdir  md  psdir -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue   out-null    this is your auto-generated powershell profile to be installed  content                       Documents tools profile ps1             print  Creating File   psfile   System IO File   WriteAllLines  psfile   content   print       Make sure Powershell profile is readable Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser Unrestricted   Step 2  then in tools   Documents tools profile ps1   function Do-ActualThing         do actual thing    Set-Alias MyAlias Do-ActualThing   Step 3     Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser Unrestricted       install profile ps1

User · Answer

UPDATED - January 2021 It s possible to store in a profile ps1 file any PowerShell code to be executed each time PowerShell starts  There are at least 6 different paths where to store the code depending on which user has to execute it  We will consider only 2 of them  the  quot all users quot  and the  quot only your user quot  paths  follow the previous link for further options   To answer your question  you only have to create a profile ps1 file containing the code you want to be executed  that is  New-Alias Goto Set-Location  and save it in the proper path    quot  Home Documents quot   usually C  Users lt yourname gt  Documents   Only your user will execute the code  This is the reccomanded place  You can quickly find your profile location by running echo  profile in PowerShell  PsHome  C  Windows System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0   Every user will execute the code   IMPORTANT  Remember you need to restart your PowerShell instances to apply the changes  TIPS  If both paths contain a profile ps1 file  the all-users one is executed first  then the user-specific one  This means the user-specific commands will overwrite variables in case of duplicates or conflicts   Always put the code in the user-specific profile if there is no need to extend its execution to every user  This is safer because you don t pollute other users  space  usually  you don t want to do that   Another advantage is that you don t need administrator rights to add the file to your user-space  you do for anything in C  Windows System32    If you really need to execute the profile code for every user  mind that the  PsHome path is different for 32bit and 64bit instances of PowerShell  You should consider both environments if you want to always execute the profile code  The paths are   C  Windows System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 for the 64bit environment C  Windows SysWow64 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 for the 32bit one  Yeah I know  the folder naming is counterintuitive  but it s correct

User · Answer

I found that I can run this command  notepad    Split-Path  profile -Parent     quot  profile ps1 quot    and it opens my default powershell profile  at least when using Terminal for Windows   I found that here  Then add an alias   For example  here is my alias of jn for jupyter notebook  I hate typing out the cumbersome jupyter notebook every time   Set-Alias -Name jn -Value C  Users words Anaconda3 Scripts jupyter-notebook exe

User · Answer

2018  Windows 10  You can link to any file or directory with the help of a simple PowerShell script    Writing a file shortcut script  Open Windows PowerShell ISE   In the script pane write   New-Alias   shortcutName    fullFileLocation    Then head to the command-line pane  Find your PowerShell user profile address with echo  profile  Save the script in this address       The script in PowerShell s profile address will run each time you open powershell  The shortcut should work with every new PowerShell window    Writing a directory shortcut script  It requires another line in our script    function   nameOfFunction   set-location   directory location   New-Alias   shortcut    nameOfFunction     The rest is exactly the same      Enable PowerShell Scripts  By default PowerShell scripts are blocked  To enable them  open settings -  Update  amp  Security -  For developers  Select Developer Mode  might require restart        Scroll down to the PowerShell section  tick the  Change execution policy      option  and apply

[powershell] How to create permanent PowerShell Aliases

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