How to create a PowerShell profile on Windows 10
PowerShell, like many command lines, lets you create a profile. The profile allows you to customize the environment that you get when you open it. Out of the box, PowerShell does not have a profile file on Windows 10. This is because the file is basically a script that runs when you open PowerShell and by default, scripts are disabled as a security measure. Here’s how you can create a PowerShell profile on Windows 10.
You will need admin rights to create a PowerShell profile.
Create PowerShell profile
Open PowerShell with admin rights. If you want, you can check if you might have created a profile for PowerShell before and simply forgotten about it. To check, run the following command;
Test-path $profile
If the command returns ‘True’, you already have a profile. You can access it by running the command below;
notepad $profile
If the command returns ‘False’, then you do not have a PowerShell profile. You can create it with the command below.
New-item –type file –force $profile
When you run this command a new Notepad file will open. This is your PowerShell profile file and you can start editing it. You do have one more thing to do; change the execution policy in PowerShell. This will allow the file to be loaded when you open PowerShell.
Run the command below and close PowerShell
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
By default, the profile file will be created in the following location.
C:\Users\YourUserName\OneDrive\Documents\WindowsPowerShell
This profile is for the current user only. If you have another user configured on the same system, they will not have access to it and running the test command when signed in with the other user account will return a ‘False’.
Editing PowerShell profile
Any time you want to edit the profile file, you can use the following command to open it. As for what edits to make, those are entirely up to you. The profile isn’t needed to use PowerShell but setting one up might make daily tasks easier for you, if you use PowerShell a lot.
notepad $profile
There are a few useful things you can add to the profile, e.g., display the current time and date when you open PowerShell, or give the PowerShell window a specific title, among other things. You can also add scripts to the profile. This will allow you to run them more easily when you’re working in PowerShell. The profile can also be used to modify the look of the PowerShell window extensively.
In the event that you enter something incorrect in the file, it simply won’t load. It is unlikely that a profile file will cause problems in PowerShell.
